Is there an easy way to sync a laptop to a desktop?

[J T]

I haven't upgraded my desktop PC since the year 2000. It's crossed my mind to buy a new one, but I do so much on my laptop, that I don't see myself using a PC, unless there is an easy way to sync folders folders from the laptop to the PC so that I can easily update documents, pictures, etc; although, I don't necessarily want to have the same games on both machines.

[RyaNtheSlayA]

There are a few ways to do this but I haven't toyed with it.

First off, if you use Google Chrome and gmail, it's a snap. Just input your log-in info on whatever PC you want your bookmarks and history to be on and it'll be synced.

I have a friend who swears by SyncBack. I've never used it.

There's always Briefcase which is built into Windows, but it probably isn't what you're looking for.

[MrPopo]

If you're just looking to keep things like pictures and word docs and excel sheets synced between two computers then you can probably use an online cloud solution like SkyDrive.

[ZenErik]

Does Skydrive sync photos, docs, etc as well as iCloud? If so, I say yes. Most definitely use it.

[Ivo]

I don't like having all my personal stuff on the cloud, so I suggest a combination of cloud based stuff plus a free Windows software provided by Microsoft called Synctoy. With this and an external drive, it is very easy to sync basically any folders from a given hard drive to the external drive and then to a final hard drive. It keeps track of what changed and so on so it isn't just copying everything each time, and tracks changed both ways if you want it to.

For the cloud I would easily recommend Dropbox because it is very user friendly (or one of its more recent clones), haven't tried Skydrive much since its recent days but back in the day when it was starting it wasn't nearly as user friendly. It must have evolved a lot though, and probably gives you more space.

If you actually want to clone your whole hard drive into an "image" there is also software for that, but I'm not so used to that. I tried Macrium Reflect but I'm not sure if that is easy to transfer to a different hard drive (I think it is more meant to recover to the same hard drive).

Ivo.

[tintinmayo]

I use Dropbox. It just runs in the taskbar (it's not much of a resource hog, I use it on a single core atom netbook with 1GB of ram) and monitors changes to any folder that you ask it to monitor and syncs it in real time. You can leave it running and just forget it, you'll be working like you normally would.

Additionally, it stops functioning if your clocks are not set correctly, in order to avoid conflicts between workstations due to the time. In the rare cases where there's actually conflicts it just saves a copy of the old conflicted file and notifies you so that you can decide which one is correct (also, there's an option open a file's previous state).

The only downside I can think of is the security issue, many people don't feel that their data is safe on the cloud. But personally, I feel as safe with dropbox as I would with Gmail or facebook. Provided that I don't do anything stupid (like give away passwords, store bank information on the cloud, do stuff online without anti malware/virus/spyware, click every single ad banner, etc), the chances of me suffering from a hacking attempt are slim, and if it does occur, I trust that dropbox has backups and can at least rollback to a more recent version of my files so that I don't lose everything.

Another trick I used to do is use Virtualbox to create a 10 GB virtual disk containing a WinXP system with everything I need (photoshop, ms office, antivirus, a browser, and all my work documents), then I save it on portable drive with an installer of Vbox. If I need to move to a different pc, I just install vbox, mount the virtual image, and run the virtual machine. That way, everything from bookmarks, to folder arrangement, to even desktop wallpaper will remain consistent no matter which PC I use. This method requires more hardware muscle, though. I tried it on the aforementioned atom netbook and things were just too slow to be comfortable.

[sonic2041]

I use SkyDrive, I think you get 7GB for free now (you used to get 25GB). It works well, it basically adds a SkyDrive directory to your system where all the files will be stored, which are then uploaded to the cloud storage and syncs with all the computers you have it on. I'm not sure how well it works on older OSs, I've used it without issue on Windows 7 and 8.

Some cool features are that you can edit office documents that are stored in your SkyDrive through the web browser on any computer.

Another cool feature is that if your home computer is on, and you want to access a file that isn't currently synced to your SkyDrive, you can just log on to the website and access your complete system directory including network attached drives and download whatever file you need.

Edit: Briefcase is a pain in the ass to use.

[Hatta]

Just use 'rsync'. 'rsync -avc data/ remotehost:data/' Will transfer every file and directory under 'data/' to the same location on the remote host, preserving permissions, time stamps, etc, verifying each chunk with a checksum, and it's smart enough not to retransfer anything that already exists on remotehost. If there are files you don't want transferred, you can apply a set of filter rules to include/exclude anything you like.

[CRTGAMER]

If you're just looking to keep things like pictures and word docs and excel sheets synced between two computers then you can probably use an online cloud solution like SkyDrive.

I don't like having all my personal stuff on the cloud, so I suggest a combination of cloud based stuff plus a free Windows software provided by Microsoft called Synctoy.

For the cloud I would easily recommend Dropbox because it is very user friendly (or one of its more recent clones), haven't tried Skydrive much since its recent days but back in the day when it was starting it wasn't nearly as user friendly. It must have evolved a lot though, and probably gives you more space.

Knowing JT's issues with Steam temporarily locking out his games, I doubt online storage, even for temporary storage to transfer between PCs would be viable. I wouldn't want my personal data hooked online like that either.

Additionally, it stops functioning if your clocks are not set correctly, in order to avoid conflicts between workstations due to the time. In the rare cases where there's actually conflicts it just saves a copy of the old conflicted file and notifies you so that you can decide which one is correct (also, there's an option open a file's previous state).

The only downside I can think of is the security issue, many people don't feel that their data is safe on the cloud. But personally, I feel as safe with dropbox as I would with Gmail or Facebook.

[sonic2041]

Knowing JT's issues with Steam temporarily locking out his games, I doubt online storage, even for temporary storage to transfer between PCs would be viable. I wouldn't want my personal data hooked online like that either.

Except with SkyDrive all your files are stored locally on every machine it syncs with as well as the cloud. It also works great as an automated back up solution, so if all your computers get stolen or destroyed there is an off site back up.

I don't get why people are so paranoid about this stuff. I would rather do this than constantly burn DVDs and mail them to my friends to keep a backup.