Ask Lifehacker: Syncing directories? – Lifehacker

Dear Lifehacker, I’m looking for a decent utility that could track the changes between two directory structures and allow me copy new updates to either location depending on which is newer (or larger). Take for a example a drive of music that I would want to mirror to a certain location on another drive, yet I wanted it to be complete and up to date. I’m using XP as of now. Can you help?

Thanks, Syncless

FREE: SyncBack vs FREE: MS SyncToy – Syncronizing Large File Sets

Looking for an alternative to FRS (File Replication Services) for large file sets?  We don’t often do comparisons here and this one is not scientific by any means… (link to article)

3D Sync, Active File Compare, ADCS, Adrian Carter’s File Compare Utility, AllnSync, Asynchrophobia, Backer, Backup2001, Synchronizer, Baobab Manager, BASK, Beyond Compare, Binary File Compare, BinComp, BKS, Briefcase, Briefcase Plus, CCS Dir/File Compare Utility, CDR Checker, CmdSync, CMP, Comparator, Compare, Compare and Merge, Compare Copy, Compare It!, Compare Suite, CompFold, CompLite, ComponentSoftware Diff, CompTig, CopyTo, Cute Mirror, CTF, DateWise File Compare, Delta, Different File Compare Program(DFC), Dir Prudence, DIRCMP, DirComp, Directory Compare for Windows, Directory Compare, Directory Compare and Synchroniz, Directory Replicator, Directory Toolkit, Disk Accord, Disk Status, DLSupC32, Double, Easy2Sync, ExData, ExamDiff, FastLynx, FastMove, FastSync, FC, FC32, FCWin, FCU – File Compare Utility, File-N-Sync, FileBack PC, FileCompare, File Merge Express, File System Monitor, File SyncForce, FileSync (by FileWare), FileSync (by Warren Machanik), FileSyncPro, FileTiger, Fintrsct, Folder Synchronize, FolderMatch, FolderClone, Folder Synchronization, Guiffy, HTML Compare, Idem, Instant Folders, HTML Match, InSync, Japos Compare File, JCase, jpDirComp, jpFolderComparison, jpFolderSynchronization, KFileMerge, LACOS File Synchronizer, LapLink, LaserCompare, Link Maven, MatchFolders, Merge, MergeRight, Mirror, MisMatch 98, myEasySync, Network/Unplugged, Network File Monitor, nnCopy, NTDMatch, NWCopy, OmniSync, pcAnywhere, PCSync, PeerSync, PMDiff, PopCMP, PowerSync, ProUpdater, PTCompare, qFileSync, QComp, QuickMirror, QuickSpot, RDS, Reconcile, Replication Manager ’95, Second Copy, Shadow, SidebySide, SmartBackup, SmartSync, Snapper, SureSync, Swoosie Back, Sync, Sync Kit, Sync Savvy, SyncDir, SynchroFolder, Syncer!, SyncFile, Synchromagic, Synchronix, SynchronX, Synchronize It!, SynchronizeDir, Synchronizer (by CrashCourse Software), Synchronizer (by Juul &Stejle Multimedia A/S), Synchronizer International, SyncMan, SysSync, TFC, TreeComp, TreeDiff, TwinFolders, UwiSoft FileCompare 32, UniCompare, Unison, Version Compare, ViceVersa, Visual Batch File, Visual Diff, Visual Diff and Merge forWindows 95, wBrowse, WDIFF, WinCmp, WinDiff (Meurrens), WinDiff (Microsoft), WingDir, WinLink2000, WinMerge, WinSin, WinUpD8R, WMatch32, WordDocDiff, XComp (iglyph), XComp (Inabyte), XDIFF, XFiles, XSynch, ZSync, Zip-n-Go.

I’ve posted the full list here hoping that people looking for information on any of the above sync software might find other entries in this blog useful in their research.

You would think that finding software to automate this task would be easy, but it turns out to have been incredibly hard. The problems is that there are tons of programs that claim they can do this but all of them suck. In the end, I settled for ViceVersa Pro. read more…