Good Sync program?

[imposter]

Hello all,
Im looking for a good sync program. I want to sync two folders btwn two computers. I was looking for a program that will be able too sync any files that have been added/changed/deleted btwn both computers. I would prefer this to be a free app. Online access isnt necessary as i plan on having them get synced over LAN. I guess having the transfer encrypted would be nice, but not exactly necessary.

Computer 1 will be a laptop second computer will be my desktop. both run windows 7 pro. Laptop runs 32bit, desktop runs 64bit.

i tried dropbox and doesn't do exactly what i want it. I Dont want the files to be available online and it didnt look like i could pick individual folders... I tried sync center that comes with win7 but either im missing something simple, it doesnt seem to be that straight forward.

i saw windows live sync which seems like something i would like, but for some reason, doubting it, can anyone vouch for it?

Thanks in advance
-imposter

 

[redduc900]

How about SyncToy 2.1, which is compatible w/ Win7...

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...36-98E0-4EE9-A7C5-98D0592D8C52&displaylang=en

 

[Coreyoliseffect]

How about SyncToy 2.1, which is compatible w/ Win7...

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...36-98E0-4EE9-A7C5-98D0592D8C52&displaylang=en

I have heard good things about this program. I have never personally used it but from what I remember it was featured on G4 on one of the tech shows.

 

[MIAHALLEN]

Awesome freeware called "Cobian Backup".....but it's not a sync program.

http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm

Not sure if it'll fit your needs cause it won't delete files in the destination directory (to protect the backup from being lost due to malicious code at the source)....but I've been using it for years for local automated backup and it is excellent

 

[imposter]

How about SyncToy 2.1, which is compatible w/ Win7...

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...36-98E0-4EE9-A7C5-98D0592D8C52&displaylang=en

Nice! Thanks! works pretty simple to use as well!. Would be nice if the program scheduled the sync for you but help files say Microsoft's system tool could do it as well...

Thanks!

i wonder if this could sync library's in win7... i dont think so though, ill try that out when i get home.

Awesome freeware called "Cobian Backup".....but it's not a sync program.

http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm

Not sure if it'll fit your needs cause it won't delete files in the destination directory (to protect the backup from being lost due to malicious code at the source)....but I've been using it for years for local automated backup and it is excellent

That seems nice i might have a further use for this in the future ! thanks as well

 

[splat]

i use synctoy at work, works very well.

 

[Pinky]

It's been a while but when I've used rsync in the past it always did a top notch job.

http://www.samba.org/rsync/

It's relatively easy to use as a scheduled task in windows and the documentation is sufficient. Free helps too!

 

[imposter]

Awesome freeware called "Cobian Backup".....but it's not a sync program.

http://www.educ.umu.se/~cobian/cobianbackup.htm

Not sure if it'll fit your needs cause it won't delete files in the destination directory (to protect the backup from being lost due to malicious code at the source)....but I've been using it for years for local automated backup and it is excellent

As mentioned before i would need this in the future. Now is that time

I want to use a spare 80GB drive as my fathers internal backup drive. I only want the back up program to have access to it. (But in the event of a need for recovery, obviously have access to it) . Point being i don't want the OS or any search results go crazy with duplicate copies of everything nor would i want the user to get confused which one he opened. What do you suggest i do to prevent this.

Thanks imposter

 

[MIAHALLEN]

I think it would work fine like that. Cobian backup will allow you to run it using different credentials. So you would just need to give access rights to the drive for the one user account, and not to your Dad's user account.

 

[imposter]

Great got that part working, quick question, if a file is no longer avilable at the source how do i get the program to delete it in the backup? tried incremental and differential didnt work , trying full backup see if that does it.
edit found it!

 

[habbajabba]

I use FreeFileSync atm which is really nice but I only use it to sync to a flash drive.
http://freefilesync.sourceforge.net/

Also:
Capivara which is java
http://capivara.sourceforge.net/

Create Synchronicity is Ok but is a little difficult to configure, or was.
http://synchronicity.sourceforge.net/

DeltaCopy which uses rsync
http://www.aboutmyip.com/AboutMyXApp/DeltaCopy.jsp

DirSyncPro is Ok but is java also
http://www.dirsyncpro.org/

Grsync also uses rsync is very nice
http://www.opbyte.it/grsync/

RichCopy is a gui for ms's free robocopy and is also an update to the robocopy gui but by a different author.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2009.04.utilityspotlight.aspx?pr=blog

Unison is one I found recently but have not really used it.
http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/

As you can tell I am very much into backups. All I have listed are free or opensource and portable, though richcopy wanted to be installed I bet it doesn't need to be. Grsync, deltacopy, and unison support ssh if necessary. I also add hstart.exe to the aps that need it to remove the dos windows creating a bat file to actually run them. Dropbox is a joke imho and cobian is just not my style though it does support encryption which is nice.

 

[imposter]

habbajabba,
I might fire up a vmware to try out all your links and pick what i like, thank you for this post!. Yes dropbox is a joke though i did get cobain fully working to how i wanted it. It was still a little messy set up.
Thank you
Imposter

 

[habbajabba]

FreeFileSync is very fast with a single folder pair using a large file set of over 8gigs and thousands of files in subfolders depending on how much has changed. For some reason when I go to add multiple pair sets in freefilesync it behaved strangely so I had to look at something else. I tried create synchronicity but you have to choose and run each pair manually and nothing else worked with multiple pair sets till I found this below.

A new favorite is Dsynchronize about half way down this page
http://dimio.altervista.org/eng/
It is rather slow with the exact same large folder pair I use freefilesync for, but for multiple misc. folder pairs it's awesome. It is like a list of pair sets you can choose from and is super easy to use with per pair filtering, real time sync, and even scheduling. Just remember in the main gui to check "do not delete any file" for pairs that use the same source & where the sync is located in multiple folder locations (with varying content). It's totally portable too and tiny at less than 200kb.

 

[olegsomphane]

Unison (manual): http://www.cis.upenn.edu/~bcpierce/unison/

Spoon (autosync): http://spoon.net/home.aspx

Live Mesh (autosync): http://explore.live.com/windows-live-mesh

 

[David]

How about SyncToy 2.1, which is compatible w/ Win7...

http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/...36-98E0-4EE9-A7C5-98D0592D8C52&displaylang=en

i use synctoy at work, works very well.

Thirded.

 

[Randyman...]

Old thread bump.

I've been using botkind's "Allway Sync" (paid version / x64 version) - and it is fantastic - endlessly flexible with filters out the whazoo, and generally perfect. However, some of my sync jobs are insanely huge (over 500,000 files and well over 5TB of files to analyze) - and I seem to run into issues with Allway Sync's memory utilization on jobs that big (syncing my main desktop's entire RAID-6 to my dual redundant NAS's).

I can get around this by splitting up into smaller jobs, but I'd like to continue using a single job to back up my entire primary RAID-6.

Does anyone know of another sync app that won't choke on insanely huge jobs such as mine? I tried SyncToy 2.0 in the past (years ago), and it missed tons of files in these big jobs (seemed OK for smaller more realistic jobs ). FWIW - I don't mind paying for this stuff (not expecting miracles from free software!).

Thanks!

 

[Pinky]

If you're willing to pay, Acronis does a good job with synchronizing large amounts of data (much better than ghost or backup exec!).

 

[Randyman...]

Isn't Acronis an imaging application? I had no idea it handled "Sychronization Jobs"??? You also mentioned Ghost - isn't that a image backup/restore type application, too? (That's all I use ghost for - OS Images to dedicated backup HD's for "disaster recovery").

I'm just looking to synchronize close to 600,000 files / 5TB. Allway Sync can handle it "all in one go" sometimes, but other times it chokes - then I use 3-4 smaller sync jobs to get the same work done (just takes a few more steps).

 

[imposter]

So our office ordered synology nas, and we were hoping to use this as a back up solution, but I haven't found a free program that meets our need. Sure synology comes with one, but that uses windows file protocol to transfer the data remotely. That is no good as windows file protocol/apple file protocol has absolutely no security. (edit i think it has some encryption, but it doesnt have brute force protection.

Been working on the past few days to locate a good program to fit our needs. At the moment the only solution i have figured out was to mount enable sftp and webdav. unfortunately there isn't a free solution save to a secure ftp drive or a webdav via sync program. The only way i see this to be done is to use netdrive to act as a middle man to send our data through the server. However, its 20 dollars a user for commercial use. More over i refuse to pay to fix Microsofts mistakes in not supporting a secure ftp/webdav when mac does this so easily... note they support mounting of only unsecure ftp/webdav communications. REALLY microsoft !?
/end rant.

Someone out there can shed some light to find a solution. I have existentially till end of today to figure something out and set up 10+ users with this....

Anywho.
Any help would be appreciated.

Edit 1: I was trying to set up cobain to this for us, but I would be really nice if it was a sync program rather than a backup program. Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems like if you want to keep everything in one directory without having to keep copying the files over from the source you need a sync program not cobain backup...
Edit 2: seems there are some programs, like goodsync that fits my needs, but i am trying to avoid us paying .
Edit 3: I looked at all the solutions posted here. (Thanks guys!)

Edit 4: Considering just using windows network protocol, thoughts on that?

 

[Pinky]

So our office ordered synology nas, and we were hoping to use this as a back up solution, but I haven't found a free program that meets our need. Sure synology comes with one, but that uses windows file protocol to transfer the data remotely. That is no good as windows file protocol/apple file protocol has absolutely no security. (edit i think it has some encryption, but it doesnt have brute force protection.

Been working on the past few days to locate a good program to fit our needs. At the moment the only solution i have figured out was to mount enable sftp and webdav. unfortunately there isn't a free solution save to a secure ftp drive or a webdav via sync program. The only way i see this to be done is to use netdrive to act as a middle man to send our data through the server. However, its 20 dollars a user for commercial use. More over i refuse to pay to fix Microsofts mistakes in not supporting a secure ftp/webdav when mac does this so easily... note they support mounting of only unsecure ftp/webdav communications. REALLY microsoft !?
/end rant.

Someone out there can shed some light to find a solution. I have existentially till end of today to figure something out and set up 10+ users with this....

Anywho.
Any help would be appreciated.

Edit 1: I was trying to set up cobain to this for us, but I would be really nice if it was a sync program rather than a backup program. Correct me if I am wrong, but it seems like if you want to keep everything in one directory without having to keep copying the files over from the source you need a sync program not cobain backup...
Edit 2: seems there are some programs, like goodsync that fits my needs, but i am trying to avoid us paying .
Edit 3: I looked at all the solutions posted here. (Thanks guys!)

Edit 4: Considering just using windows network protocol, thoughts on that?

Xcopy and robocopy are commonly used free windows apps for doing basic syncs/file transfers. If you want to pay a nominal amount for a quality app with a gui, check the link to allway sync on sale in my next reply.

Old thread bump.

I've been using botkind's "Allway Sync" (paid version / x64 version) - and it is fantastic...

I'm also a recent allway sync convert, even bought three licenses (heavily discounted). I sync my 32GB work thumbdrive between 3 machines. After a month using the free version it stopped even doing syncs at all (not even able to continue through the nag screens). It's been doing so well I decided to give them some money. We bought extra licenses for some syncs we're going to do for clients over a VPN. Solid software.

Isn't Acronis an imaging application? I had no idea it handled "Sychronization Jobs"??? You also mentioned Ghost - isn't that a image backup/restore type application, too? (That's all I use ghost for - OS Images to dedicated backup HD's for "disaster recovery").

I'm just looking to synchronize close to 600,000 files / 5TB.

You are correct, these are strictly full backup platforms.