Thread: Computer question for the tech savvy

I have 2 computers for my business, A desktop in my office and a laptop that I use when meeting with clients off-site.

I have a few CAD programs that I use for drawings and presentations and I also have Quickbooks for estimates and invoices and also pictures and other various files. I also have a smart phone that can link with Outlook to keep my appointments, notes etc that I need to keep track of in my business.

What I need is a good, reliable way to synchronize the files between these computers. I have a hard time transferring things back and forth by flash drives and would like to know if there is a program that works with XP to do this.

Any suggestions?

Thanks

You could get an external hard drive.
Most had USB connections and have more than enough storage space.
I have a 300Gb one that I use quite often.
An alternative would be to set up a network in your office, which would allow you to share certain folders on either computer across the network.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb456988.aspx

"NodakPaul" wrote:

You could get an external hard drive.
Most had USB connections and have more than enough storage space.
I have a 300Gb one that I use quite often.
An alternative would be to set up a network in your office, which would allow you to share certain folders on either computer across the network.
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb456988.aspx

also consider setting up network drives, that way as long as your connected to your network, you will be able to access them, it won't be restricted to one computer and you won't have to carry a drive around with you.
I'm not sure the size or type your business is, so without any further info it would be tough to recommend one thing over another.

It is a small business. I have a hard drive but that only does manual file transfer and data storage if i have a crash, which has happened.

In fact I have had a few crashes so I have 2 HD's on the laptop with one used as a data storage for backup purposes only and the desktop has a 500g primary drive and a 500g hd set up in a RAID configuration. My understanding is that the primary drive on the desktop writes a "carbon copy" of all data to the secondary drive which can be used to repair data on the primary drive or to back up the complete volume if necessary. I also use Carbonite, which is a program that automatically backs up my files in real time and stores them on a remote server. Data loss really sucks so I think this covers me pretty well in that respect.


But the issue that i have is that I run a few primary programs such as Quickbooks for accounting, KCDw for cabinet design along with e-cabinets, I have outlook for my email, appointments, installation schedules, etc along with photo and video files.

I use zip drives right now to transfer files back and forth but occasionally I
end up forgetting to transfer something over from my desktop to my laptop when going to see a client or vice versa.

On my smart phone there is a program called Microsoft Active Sync that allows me to synchronize my outlook files plus the files for office, notes etc from my phone to my computer and I got to thinking there must be a program that could synchronize programs between 2 computers the same way. If not, one of you guys should make one and I will buy the first copy from you and you will get to be a rich man because with multiple computer households this would be a very valuable tool to have.

Thanks.

"UffDaVikes" wrote:

It is a small business. I have a hard drive but that only does manual file transfer and data storage if i have a crash, which has happened.

In fact I have had a few crashes so I have 2 HD's on the laptop with one used as a data storage for backup purposes only and the desktop has a 500g primary drive and a 500g hd set up in a RAID configuration. My understanding is that the primary drive on the desktop writes a "carbon copy" of all data to the secondary drive which can be used to repair data on the primary drive or to back up the complete volume if necessary. I also use Carbonite, which is a program that automatically backs up my files in real time and stores them on a remote server. Data loss really sucks so I think this covers me pretty well in that respect.


But the issue that i have is that I run a few primary programs such as Quickbooks for accounting, KCDw for cabinet design along with e-cabinets, I have outlook for my email, appointments, installation schedules, etc along with photo and video files.

I use zip drives right now to transfer files back and forth but occasionally I
end up forgetting to transfer something over from my desktop to my laptop when going to see a client or vice versa.

On my smart phone there is a program called Microsoft Active Sync that allows me to synchronize my outlook files plus the files for office, notes etc from my phone to my computer and I got to thinking there must be a program that could synchronize programs between 2 computers the same way. If not, one of you guys should make one and I will buy the first copy from you and you will get to be a rich man because with multiple computer households this would be a very valuable tool to have.

Thanks.

Microsoft has a free tool called "Sync Toy"

http://forums.microsoft.com/sync/ShowForum.aspx?ForumID=2026&SiteID=75

Check it out see if it will do what you want which is basic replication between the 2 units.

Thanks for the link. I downloaded it and that may be just the ticket for what I need. But then again since it came from Microsoft it probably has some glitch that will keep it from working.

You can also check out this one:

[size=13pt]BeInSync[/size]

"UffDaVikes" wrote:

Thanks for the link. I downloaded it and that may be just the ticket for what I need. But then again since it came from Microsoft it probably has some glitch that will keep it from working.

ahhh... good ol' microsoft.