How to Synchronize Two Computers

Let us assume a scenario. It is not some unusual scenario nowadays. You are working on a project and you are working round the clock to get the job done. You complete some of the work at your office and do the remaining at your home. What's important in such cases is that you have an updated version or backup of the data and you have the files and folders in your desktop computer and laptop computer synchronized. Thus, you are faced with the question, how to synchronize two computers?

The easiest method for synchronizing two computers is perhaps by connecting the two computers using a wireless network or a Local Area Network (LAN) cable and copying the files directly. But here there are chances of human error. There are chances that you may just unintentionally drag and drop an old version of a particular folder. Thus, this is an error prone answer to the question, how to synchronize two computers? Hence, we need an automated way of performing the same task. Let us take a look at the various options available.

XCOPY Command

This is one of the Windows command line commands, which you can use with a lot of ease in Windows XP and Windows 2000. This command can be used to copy files which are newer than the current version of the files and folders in the destination folder. It is considered as one of the most powerful and versatile ways of creating backup in Windows XP. Here, you can use a USB flash drive for carrying the copy, from one computer to another. The syntax of the command is XCOPY [source] [destination]. You need to mention the source and destination path of the folders you want to synchronize. There are lots of switches associated with this command, that allow a lot of features. I cannot explain all these switches in details out here, but you can search for the switches and understand their use with a lot of ease. Now, to avoid typing in the command every time you want to synchronize files and folders, you can also try creating a batch file. To do so, simply type in the following two lines in notepad and save the file with the name 'SYNC.CMD' in your Windows folder.
XCOPY "%1" "%2" /D /I %3
XCOPY "%2" "%1" /D /I %3
Now you can plug in your USB device and type the command 'SYNC "source folder" "destination folder" /S' at the command prompt. Here, the source folder and the destination folder are the positions where you need to mention the complete path, to the source and destination folders that you need to synchronize. The /S option is one of the switches of this command, that can be used to specify that you want the sub-folders to be synchronized too. Using this command, you can synchronize the hard disks of two different computers too.

There is another way to use the same command by using shortcuts. Right click on any empty space on your desktop and click 'Create Shortcut'. On the first dialog box that appears on the first window, after selecting create shortcut, type xcopy "source folder path to be synchronized" [destination drive or removal drive] /d/y/s. Name this shortcut export and complete the shortcut setup. Now, create the same shortcut again, with one little change. Simply name the shortcut import and in the path type xcopy [removal media] "folder that needs to be recognized" /d /y /s. Create the same two shortcuts in the other computer too. Now, whenever you need to synchronize files, you can simply click on the export of the first computer, with the USB flash drive (removable media) connected, and then connect it to the other computer and click on import.

Software Approach

There are various software which can help in synchronizing two computers. SyncToy 2.0 is one such software. This software allows you to copy, delete, move and rename folders and files between two computers. This software not only allow you with the synchronization and backup features, but various other features too. For Example, a software Second Copy can be used for creating the backups of your files at regular intervals, to any other location in the network. The other location can of course be your laptop computer too. It not only allows the backup feature but also security features, like encryption.

However, before you try of any of the approaches mentioned above, please ensure, that you are not trying it on any important data. Hope my attempt to help you with the queries, how to synchronize folders between two computers and how to synchronize files between two computers, is of some use to you.