Synchronise Files/Folder between Laptop & Desktop

needtechelp

Hiya

Not very techie minded - so please be gentle.

I use a laptop and desktop for work.

I have the same folders on both sets of hardware.

What I would liek to be able to do is synchronise the 2 so if I update files on laptop it will update PC and vice versa.

Is this possible?

If so, is it possible to do in an easy way?

I have them both on a network and have copied files across between the two, but if it could automatically synch it woulkd be easier.

Both run Windows 7 Home Premium

Thanks for any help.

chateauneufdupape

Microsoft has a free programme called Synctoy that will do the job. Available here.

needtechelp

Thanks for that

I'll check it out now.

Does it need to be installed on both machines? I guess so.

debitcardmayhem

needtechelp wrote: »

Thanks for that

I'll check it out now.

Does it need to be installed on both machines? I guess so.

Err no, I run it against my NAS drive too, but you do need both machines on line.

needtechelp

Thanks guys

It seems to have worked.

Some failed and it says access denied - not sure why that would be (maybe read/write option??) Although they are both all shared files already.

santer_2

Have they got account passwords?

esuhl

I've had problems with SyncToy - it doesn't always copy every file that it should. The open source alternative FreeFileSync is much more reliable, in my opinion.

However, both SyncToy and FreeFileSync rely on you manually synchronising the two folders. You might want to consider a service like Dropbox, which will ensure that a particular folder is synchronised automatically when the PC is connected to the Internet.

You can get a free account with a 2GB limit, but you (and anyone else) can use the following referral link and we both get an extra 256MB storage each: http://db.tt/6d0BLWq.

Hope this helps!

chateauneufdupape

Glad you got it sorted. I have found that Synctoy does not like very long file names and paths. There must be some limit on the number of characters.