Looking for Directory Comparison/Synchronization software... Any suggestions?

[Drew2k]

I'm looking for software - preferably freeware - that lets me compare directories and easily synchronize them. It would be great if I could also find a tool that synced automatically via a batch process I could launch nightly.

(Should run on Windows XP.)

I tried Microsoft's SyncToy, but it's not perfect.

I just grabbed WinMerge (http://winmerge.org/) and will be trying this out, but don't think there's a batch process I can automate.

Any ideas?

[mortimer]

This is what I use:

http://www.freecommander.com/

Dunno if it has batch capabilities.

[mausland]

This is the best I've found. Free version...

http://www.2brightsparks.com/

[Doug Brott]

mausland, I've used SyncBack Freeware (http://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/freeware-hub.html) for backup up data for a number of folks here .. even remote .. It's not the end-all program, but it does the job very well.

You can add this as a scheduled task in windows ..

[mausland]

Another benefit is that it supports FTP. If you have a bunch of space online it is a great way to protect your files. I put all my photos online.

[Drew2k]

I'm currently running WinMerge to compare 570,000 files (69GB) on a USB drive against a backup, and it's in it's 3rd hour just building the list of files ...

This won't work if I need to do this daily, so I'll be checking out the three links from above. Thanks guys ...

If anyone has any other ideas, I'm all ears! :)

[Doug Brott]

Drew, No problem .. If it's backup that you are doing, SyncBack will do a one-time copy-all than then incremental copies after that of stuff that has changed. I don't remember the first time taking that long, but "that long" and 3 hours could be the same thing :lol:

Once I had the first copy done when I was doing it I actually had a new copy created in the background once every 6 hours .. I never even noticed it doing anything.

[phat78boy]

Have you tried robocopy? Its very robust and has all the options it looks like you need. It is command line driven, but there are several robocopy gui's out there also.

[tgr131]

Beyond Compare: http://www.scootersoftware.com/

We use it at my state agency to synch between our development, test, and production servers. Works great, but not free -- $30. Free trial though.

David

[dmspen]

Are you running XP Home or Pro? If you are running Pro, you can set a batch file (or any program) to run at logon or logoff. On my old Pro machine, I created a batch file with XXCOPY commands in it to copy the newest files in My Documents on to a flash drive that I left plugged in to a USB port.
Worked fine.

[Drew2k]

I'm running XP Home but also have another PC with Vista Premium. I ran the WinMerge on the Vista, and it actually was very simple to synchronize after it ran the several hours building the list of files, but I'll keep looking ...

[AlbertZeroK]

stupid question, but how about a couple dos commands?

xcopy /m /s /v /c /y c:\images e:\images

simple, easy and reliable. The first time you do this, it will take forever, however, every time after, this will only copy files with the archive attribute set. The archive attribute is set whenever you open or change the file.

Although, I wrote a piece of software that will compare all files in a directory by computing a long hash value with all the bytes in the file with a list of the last known hash and will upload to an FTP server what has changed. If of course also uses the date and size of the file to see if anything has changed as well.

Before I saw this thread, I was planning on writting a piece of software to do the same to backup my expanding video collection and plan using size, date and the hash value of the first and last X Megs of the file. I couldn't imagine trying to compare 2 TB of video files. Now I'll just check out your suggestions, but may still write something.

[Drew2k]

xcopy could work, but I like "visuals". :D

[fmcomputer]

Visa Vera Pro is the greatest. Not Free