up vote 7 down vote favorite
5
share [g+] share [fb]

Possible Duplicates:
Which is the best application to Sync two folders?
Keeping folders synced between several machines

What is a good tool to automatically sync two folders when changes are made to either one of them. I want to sync a folder in the Mozilla Tree (My Greasemonkey Scripts) with a folder on my desktop.

Any suggestions?

Forgot to mention: This is Windows XP

link|improve this question
1  
No, I'm asking for automatic. – Chacha102 Aug 2 '09 at 3:19
OK, I missed that bit. – pgs Aug 2 '09 at 3:25
2  
Lol how many ways are there to synchronize a folder and post a question about it on SU? ;-) – Ivo Flipse♦ Aug 2 '09 at 10:24
See also: superuser.com/questions/349/… – Rowland Shaw Dec 7 '09 at 10:35
feedback

closed as exact duplicate by fretje, alex, Ivo Flipse♦ Jan 22 '10 at 7:19

This question covers exactly the same ground as earlier questions on this topic; its answers may be merged with another identical question. See the FAQ for guidance on how to improve it.

9 Answers

up vote 6 down vote accepted

I am assuming that your sync'ing is within the same machine.
If its across machine, please say so.

File Synchronization and Data Backup with Microsoft SyncToys

SyncToy (ST) is free file synchronization software designed by Microsoft to aid the user to synchronize, copy, backup and maintain folders of files on computers. Unlike most other methods, ST acts very fast in synchronizing the files in folders by copying, renaming and deleting files. ST is much simpler to configure and user-friendly.

Also read the Automating Sync Toy section in this article.

link|improve this answer
Is there a way to make this automatic/scheduled? – Chacha102 Aug 2 '09 at 3:20
Windows has a task scheduler, see superuser.com/questions/6490/windows-equivalent-to-cron and superuser.com/questions/8443/… – pgs Aug 2 '09 at 3:25
Comments describing the negative vote will be appreciated. – nik Aug 2 '09 at 3:25
That will work. Thanks. – Chacha102 Aug 2 '09 at 3:25
2  
Tried it, but ran into problems: superuser.com/questions/13493/… – Will M Sep 5 '09 at 15:16
show 2 more comments
feedback
up vote 3 down vote

If you want the contents of the two folders to be exactly the same, why not just create an NTFS junction point on the folder? This will effectively make the same folder available in both places. Any change you make from one location will instantly happen in the other location, because both locations are actually the same folder.

The NTFS Link shell extensions will let you easily create and manage these junction points (and hard links also) from the Explorer context menu.

link|improve this answer
feedback
up vote 3 down vote

For a simple commercial utility, you can try SecondCopy by Centered Systems, or for a more powerful (but more difficult) utility, you can try the free version of SyncBack.

Sorry -- haven't been a user long enough to post the direct links to both...

link|improve this answer
1  
+1 for Syncback – Ivo Flipse♦ Aug 2 '09 at 10:23
feedback
up vote 2 down vote

I use Allway Sync. Works for me. http://www.allwaysync.com/

link|improve this answer
feedback
up vote 1 down vote

The easiest way to do this is to write a script that copies the file based on the archive bit. he archive bit indicates every file that has been changed. The archive bit exists for the precise purpose of knowing when a file is in need of a backup.

The manual command to do this is below... 

xcopy c:\fileroot\myfile.txt c:\filecopy\ /A
link|improve this answer
feedback
up vote 1 down vote

Try RichCopy. A free utility from someone at Microsoft. Apart from doing what you ask, it is also optimized for the copy process and is faster than most tools I've used to copy multiple files.

link|improve this answer
feedback
up vote 1 down vote

I really like Dropbox

* Sync files of any size or type
* Share large files and photos easily
* Automatic online backup
* Access your files anywhere
* Sync between operating systems
* Track and undo changes to files
link|improve this answer
feedback
up vote 1 down vote

Similar to Dropbox is SpiderOak, which lets you sync arbitrary folders, I think they write their UI in Java though, so it's a bit slugish.

link|improve this answer
If you're on OSX or Linux (I know the OP isn't, but someone else may find this helpful), you can run the tool via the command-line with a --headless option to cut down on GUI slowness. – Telemachus Sep 27 '09 at 13:30
feedback
up vote 0 down vote

mesh.com is a great solution. Microsoft Live Mesh syncs folders among macs, pcs and the online desktop. I've been using it for months to sync userjs scripts, college documents and anything, really.

link|improve this answer
feedback

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.