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

[Ziggy]

If you're just interested in being able to access pictures, word docs, ect on both computers, then maybe don't even worry about syncing them. Here's what I do, for example:

My desktop is my main PC. I also have a laptop that I don't use very often. When I'm on my laptop, I just remote into my desktop and have full access to my main PC. This way, I don't have to worry about syncing or anything. I basically just have one computer, and can access it with my laptop when I want to.

Just keep in mind that while any version of Windows can remote OUT to another computer, the computer that you're connecting to needs to have Professional or greater.

[CRTGAMER]

Not really syncing, but maybe the bluetooth route for just a quick transfer of files? This works well for me when I just want to do a quick dump from my older iMac to the wife's PC or back again. Luckily, data files such as Docs, PDFs or JPGs are pretty much universal unlike older computers of the past. With the Bluetooth, I can access the other computer's hard drive, but just for file transfers.

[tintinmayo]

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.

IIRC, JT's problem wasn't Steam having the ability to delete his account or his games from their servers, but rather their ability to completely lock him out of his games on a whim, since he can't even keep backup copies that will run without Steam's permission (it's essentially your email provider not even allowing you to keep copies of your email that can be read without their permission.)

Dropbox and Skydrive won't lock you out of your files, since the files are stored locally. They still have the ability to delete data on their servers (which online provider doesn't, anyway?) or lock you out of your account, but the original copies of the files are stored locally, so if they lock you out of the service, you just move to another provider.

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.

I admit that Facebook was a bad example. But my point was that similar to Facebook, Gmail, or any other big name providers on the net, many of the security concerns are addressed by not being a complete dunderhead online. For all the flack Facebook is getting, many of the people having problems with its privacy settings are people who would be having problems even if the service is completely free of exploitable security holes, like the ones who badmouth employers in their wall, or people who fell victim to social engineering (which is not a software nor a hardware issue).

I feel cloud based storage is much safer in the long term than doing backups and syncs locally for documents that don't really have a bulls eye on them (if we're talking bank account statements, credit card numbers, or blueprints for a home made bomb, I won't feel safe putting them in the cloud either). If you lose your local back up, in a *knock on the wood* fire or through theft - you'd have no way of regaining the files. Cloud service providers have paid staff who watch over the hardware, and tend to do offsite backups so the worst you'll feel is downtime and/or a rollback to a much earlier version.

Personally, I feel opening a port in your PC for remote access leaves you much more at risk of getting hacked than just using cloud based storage. They can get compromised much in the same way, but unlike your PC, the cloud provider's server farms have people who get paid to monitor access and patch security holes as they are discovered.

[Hatta]

Personally, I feel opening a port in your PC for remote access leaves you much more at risk of getting hacked than just using cloud based storage. They can get compromised much in the same way, but unlike your PC, the cloud provider's server farms have people who get paid to monitor access and patch security holes as they are discovered.

You only assume they have a crack security team. In reality, they have a one off server application that relies more on obscurity than any sort of real security. Why would Dropbox care any more about security than Sony? Use something like OpenSSH, which is constantly security audited by cryptographers, put it on a random port, and enable only certificate authentication, and you're practically bulletproof.

BTW, rsync works over SSH by default.