# Computer sync suggestions



## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

I've been synching some computer directories between different computers in our house - this is part of file backup system.

I was using Microsoft Live Sync, which worked very well. Unfortunately, it was discontinued and I had to switch to Microsoft Live Mesh.

Mesh appeared to be pretty much the same product, but it really slows down the internet for our computers.

Does anyone have any suggestions for something like this?

I'm thinking of trying Sugar Sync.


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## hypo (Aug 11, 2010)

Microsoft Synctoy


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## brad (May 22, 2009)

hypo said:


> Microsoft Synctoy


I thought that Sync Toy evolved into Windows Live Sync, which is what Microsoft just discontinued and replaced with Windows Live Mesh?

I'll be interested to hear of any good alternatives as well, since I used Live Sync as well; it was quite good although occasionally went haywire (I ended up with 30 duplicates of most of my Internet Explorer bookmarks, for example).

Another option would be to keep your original documents and other files on SkyDrive and access them from your various computers instead of trying to sync content across your computers, but this doesn't work well for synchronizing things like bookmarks, contacts, etc.

My current approach is to use SyncBack SE to back up/synchronize with a USB key, which I then sync to my other computer using SyncBack SE on that machine. It's not as "automatic" as synchronizing online, but if you don't need to sync very often it's a pretty workable solution. SyncBack SE is great software and one license allows you to install it on several computers in your home.


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## hypo (Aug 11, 2010)

brad said:


> I thought that Sync Toy evolved into Windows Live Sync, which is what Microsoft just discontinued and replaced with Windows Live Mesh?


Oops didn't know that lol. I'm still on XP


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## Four Pillars (Apr 5, 2009)

Thanks for the comments.

I do want something fairly automated. I'll have to look into the SkyDrive or other cloud solution.

I'm not worried about bookmarks. It's mainly photos (we always download them on one pc) and some other files (ie files for my business).

I have 2 computers I use for my business, so I like my work files to be in sync at all times.

I like to have the photos on more than one computer in case of computer failure. We do have an online backup (Mozy) and I occasionally back everything up to a hard drive.

For now, I'm going to keep using Mesh and only turn it on when I want to get things in sync. If nothing else, it does the sync operation very quickly.

Any other suggestions are welcome.


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