Software for syncing files between hard disks

zilog_jones

I recently got a Maxtor 300GB external hard disk, but was quite disappointed with the backup software that came with it (Retrospect Express HD). It seems to put the backups into its own crazy format that can only be restored by the program itself. And I'm not interested in having restore points and all that jazz.

I'm looking for something that can synchronise folders or entire partitions between my (Win2k) PCs and the external disk on a file system level, i.e. files are copied directly and I'll be able to access the files on the external disk by normal means. I'm not expecting to be able to do this with the OS (I'll just back the partitions up with Ghost or something every now and then), but I'd like to be able to have documents/work sync'ed between the disks.

Does anything like that exist, even within Windows itself? Or is there such a feature in XP?

Alun

I use this http://www.2brightsparks.com/downloads.html#freeware

There's a version you can buy too, but I find the Freeware version more than adequate for my needs.

TommyGun

I use Norton Ghost 10, it does the job for me.

Orion

Robocopy from Microsoft. Just set up a batch job to robocopy the folders over. You can use switches to just copy updated files and/or to purge deleted files from the destination. Works a treat.

irlrobins

Unison. Might not be for a novie user though. Freeware

zilog_jones

Oh, I'm no novice! I use Linux too so Unison sounds very interesting ineed. Thanks for the quick replies, people!

irlrobins

zilog_jones wrote:

Oh, I'm no novice!

Cool. No offense meant.

Capt'n Midnight

have a look at rsync too

Gosh

SyncToy from MS if you're on XP

zilog_jones

I got lazy and just tried SyncToy - despite saying it's for XP only, 1.2 installed and worked fine on 2000. Which was nice. Seems to be exactly what I'm looking for... so far.