For about 2-3 years, I kept all of my portable applications on my 1GB (later upgraded to a 2GB) USB thumb drive. My 1GB drive eventually died from excessive use and I’d say the 2GB drive doesn’t have long to live either.
Once Syncplicity, an online backup and synchronization service, came along, I set up a folder by the name of "Standalone" to reside in the "C:\Program Files" directory and then set Syncplicity to synchronize this folder on my work PC, work laptop and home PC. The process doesn’t work as perfectly as the flash drive scenario mostly because the program has difficulties synchronizing files that are open at the same time on more than one computer.
I also tend to use this folder as a quick way to transfer files from my work PC to my home PC. Once I’m finished with a file or if I want to quickly transfer a picture or video file, I just drop it in the "Standalone" folder and Syncplicity instantly uploads it. At that point, it’s available in my online account at my.syncplicity.com as well as ready to be downloaded/synchronized to any other PC I have that’s running the Syncplicity service.
In addition, it’s remarkably easy to preview many of the documents you backup/synchronize (by utilizing Syncplicity’s integration with Google Docs, Zoho Docs, Scribd, and Picnik) as well as restore previous versions of your documents. Plus, if you accidentally delete a file from a folder that Syncplicity is keeping track of that you later want to recover, you can quickly browse the online Recyle Bin and recover the file itself or the entire folder.
Overall, the ease with which I can securely backup & synchronize virtually all of my important files – 40GB worth of files – more than makes up for the $9.99/mo fee that will come once Syncplicity leaves beta. (That beta exit was originally scheduled for the end of June but was cancelled at the last minute and has yet to be rescheduled.)
I’ve personally reviewed other PC-to-PC synchronization utilities before (namely Microsoft’s FolderShare) but Syncplicity is definitely my favorite. Plus, incidentally, Steven Hazel, FolderShare’s original author, currently sits on Syncplicity’s Advisory Board.
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Thanks for the great post! If and when you get a chance, I’d love to hear from you about the problems you encountered syncing files that were open on more than one computer at the same time.
Thanks again!
Ondrej from Syncplicity