digg

I really need to sit down and do this. Used to be I'd backup to usb flash drives but now I save there directly, so gotta start synchronizing.

This is really useful for collaborating with clients over the web.

Great for businesses, workers, and students! Excellent!

How about a thumb drive and xcopy? Not as cute, but it gets the job done.

rsync over SSH.

too bad dropbox didn't make the list since its in beta. I will never use anything else.

PowerFolder is great. Its just like FolderShare, but it works on linux, lets you sync with friends, and is open source.

getdropbox.com
Except it's only free because it's in beta, and might not be thereafter...

I can't imagine the length of time it would take me to sychnronize dozens of files 3GB in size each...

I've been using this for a few years and it IS very useful... but super-annoying when it's down and unavailable. Which happens too frequently for it to be something you rely on for anything of importance.

Seriously good timing. I just finished setting up 20 servers and was about to hack some ***** robocopy script to sync the site folder. (load balanced setup)

FolderShare saves a lot of time because you don't have to manually upload anything.

Synctoy works great. The one thing I don't like is it leaves those SyncToyDirectoryId.txt files all over, but it works fine for most jobs.

rsync plzkthx

Perhaps it's just me, but I've always believed that it is better to keep work and home files separate from each other, or else you may start to develop a sloppy unprofessional attitude as a result.

Instead of finishing up work when you are at work, you start to constantly come up with reasons why you can put off whatever project you are working on, and finish up when you get home. You can even go so far as to try to procrastinate on your work by constantly syncing your home/work computers. When you do leave work, you either forget about your work or come up with additional excuses why you can put it off, until it's 3am and you realize that you don't even have enough time to figure out where you left off, let alone get any real work done before catching a few hours of sleep and preforming poorly the next day as a result.

On top of all of that, you then also have to watch out for blurring the line further by taking up far too much time on things you should be working on at home while you are at work. Again, this is just my opinion on the matter, maybe other people are a lot more motivated than me to get their work done but for me at least, I know that if the temptation is there, it will probably be too strong to resist.

Free aps? FFS, this option is free buildt into Windows XP/Vista. Why the hell would you bother to mess around with an extra application??

dotdotdotxpoint :)

SyncBack Freeware works very well and has lots of options.

Free ways? Do people actually pay for the ability to sync directories?

I set up Remote Desktop through our corporate firewall so I can work from home just like I'm at the office. No need for synchronization, no need to either buy two software licenses or install a software twice. I set up the other department heads with this and they love it, saves them a few hours a week.

Wouldn't laptops be easier? Unless your workplace prohibits laptops?
What about crazy firewalls that companies have blocking more than they allow?

It didn't mention anything about security or encryption.

The article mentions rsync but doesn't mention the god of Linux synchronizing, Unison. Imagine rsync but with a really easy to use and really powerful GUI. http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/

When I still had a PC I used a little batch file to sync two home-folders. It went something like this:
xcopy /H /E /I /D /Y c:/myfolder/ e:/mybackup/
This overwrites only older files and folders, but it doesn't remove deleted files from the backup.

Foldershare + Picasa works awesome for syncing pictures across computers

Sounds interesting, I currently use tresante filesync (http://www.tresante.com), which works great for me to automatically sync locally on my network or with thumb drives, but the ability to do it over the network would be nice. Thanks for the link!

MS Groove?

why is foldershare free? oh its microsoft. ill really trust that then. well can you?

Nice information to know, even though I don't need it at the moment. I can ssh or run Remote Desktop from home to access my work computers, and I can access my home computers from work using ssh or VNC.

OpenSSH ftw.

I'm waiting for dropbox... :-/

easy mode
copy C:source*.* C:destination*.*
copy C:destination*.* C:source*.*

this is awsome and you dont need a hotmail account! whooo!

funny how all the "nerds" try to post a hard core alternative....why not use robo-copy, or make a batch file, or a use a flash drive.

Take a chill pill guys!

Just keep all the files on a NAS

I just started using S3 from Amazon. It's not free, but so far I like what I see from it. I can sync many computers to one folder. etc...

I use GoodSync to synchronize folders with my webDAV folder. that way i don't need both my desktop and laptop running at the same time to sync them over (as in FolderShare). whenever a computer logs in, it checks my webDAV directory, and syncs.. ! I needed to sync my roboform passcards and identities between my desktop and laptop, and this was great in achieving that.

You forgot syncback SE.

@Sawta: I can relate to your post. I don't sync my home and work folders, but I have access to my home computers from work, and vice versa. I spend time at work doing things that I should do at home instead, or things that I shouldn't do so much at all (like reading Digg). When I don't get anything done, I tell myself I'll do it at home. Then I go home and eat dinner, watch TV, exercise, or browse the web, and I forget to do my work until 3am, but then I decide to go to bed instead.

I use foldershare alot. For a m$ product that is currently free i love it. I sync over 6 PCs including my MacBook Pro, it works beautifully.

Very useful. Thanks for posting.

Or, you could just use the folder synchronizer built into Windows. But that would be too easy.

MrBabyMan deserves a cookie is what he deserves. Without him, some of the best articles would never even be submitted. He's like an honorary digg team member by now.