Fix Your Desktop

Recently I found that I have too many storage options at my disposal. iPod, USB drive, work PC, and home PC. This presents an interesting problem, of keeping my data synchronized. I’ve seen various methods of keeping data up to date. Many of them require too much user intervention, and others are just to difficult for the average user. In comes Microsoft “SyncToy” (for Windows Vista; Windows XP.) I’m not one to jump out and use a Microsoft tool just because it’s out there (the way I do with Google), so at first I was skeptical.

But after a couple of days of use, I think this is going to be an essential tool in my software “toolbox”. The program is simple, powerful, intuitive, and it works. It took me literally 3 minutes to set up a synchronization of my iPod, USB Drive, and work PC.

Start by downloading SyncToy from the Microsoft web site, and run the installer. The set up is pretty straight forward and you can just choose all the defaults. Once installed you run SyncToy and the first think you’ll notice is how clean and simple the interface is:

Click the “Create New Folder Pair” (or synchronization between 2 folders) button to begin selecting folders to synchronize.

Next, click the “Browse” button to select the left folder - I chose a folder on my desktop called “Documents (sync)” and clicked “Next”. This way I would know that any documents I placed in this folder would by synchronized with my USB drive.

Then, click the “Browse” button to select the Right folder - I chose a folder on my USB drive called “Documents” and clicked “Next”. This way the files from my desktop would be automatically synchronized with my USB “Documents” folder.Now on page 3 of 4 is where it gets a bit tricky. There are 5 different methods of “synchronizing” your files. They are pretty straight forward and can be useful depending on your situation:

1. Synchronize

• New and updated files are copied both ways. Renames and deletes on either side are copied on the other.

2. Echo

• New and updated files are copied left to right. Renames and deletes on the left are repeated on the right.

3. Subscribe

• Updated files on the right are copied to the left.

4. Contribute

• New and updated files are copied left to right. Renames on the left are repeated on the right. No deletions.

5. Combine

• New and updated files are copied both ways. Nothing happens to renamed and deleted files.

Because I want keep my desktop and USB drive current with the latest document I’m working on I chose “Synchronize“. This way I can work on my documents at work, and keep them saved to the “Documents (sync)” folder and I know they’ll be copied to my USB drive. Then when I get home, they’ll be copied from my USB drive to my home desktop. This allows me to have an up to date copy of my documents whether I have my USB drive with me or not.

After you pick your synchronization method, click next and you will be asked to name your “Folder Pair”. I named mine “DesktopToUSB” so I can tell at a glance what is being synchronized and to where.

Click “Finish” and your almost done. You’ll be taken to the “Folder Pair” page where you can go over the settings you just selected.

If you click the “Preview” button you will be taken to a page where you can see just what will be deleted, overwritten, renamed, crated (files), and created (folders). If you are OK with the results you can choose to actually “Run” the job and it will quickly sync your files.

Once the process is complete you will get a “Results” page explaining what occurred with the synchronization.

Click “Close” and you can go back to the SyncToy Folder Pairs page. Where you can, create, edit, preview, run, or delete Folder Pairs. Here I also created a synchronization between my desktop and my iPod just to make sure I had all my bases covered. Once these were done, I used Microsoft Scheduler to schedule a task to run these synchronizations automatically.I created two schedules. The first is set to run whenever my computer is idle for more than 2 minutes. The second runs, every time I log in to my machine. This way, my documents are always synchronized and my PC isn’t bogged down while I’m working on it making copies of documents.

If you need help setting up a Microsoft Scheduled task, the SyncToy tutorials are very detailed.

• One way to migrate an iTunes collection to another drive
• Sync tool for PCs and Macs that actually works
• When closing Outlook, i sometimes get the message:?
• Computer Updates???Computer may crash!!!? Plzz save a computer?
• Whats a cc drive on a computer and whats it mean when its full?