Madshrimps Forum Madness - SyncToy v2.0: Free tool from Microsoft to keep data in sync

This soft removes the need to buy any other tool; I was previously using DirSync which I paid for, it has more advanced tracking and logging features as well as error reporting, but basic functionality is the same, keep two directories in SYNC including subfolders/files.

One things Sync Toy 2.0 does not do is allow you to automatically schedule it to run, you'll have to create your own schedulde task to make the soft run:

Quote:

Schedule SyncToy Sync Task in Windows Vista

1. Click on the Start menu, then select All Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Task Scheduler.
2. Click on Create Basic Task in the “Actions” pane on the right.
3. In the “Create Basic Task Wizard”, type in a Name and Description. For example, SyncToy Synchronization.
4. Click on Next button.
5. Choose the frequency of when do you want the task to start. If you always make changes to the files, Daily is a good choice.
6. Click on Next button.
7. Choose date and times (if applicable) to trigger and run the task.
8. Click on Next button.
9. In the “Action” step, select Start a Program as the option for the task to perform.
10. Click on Next button.
11. Under “Program/Script”, click on Browse button and locate the SyncToyCmd.exe. Normally it’s located in “C:\Program Files\SyncToy 2.0 Beta\SyncToyCmd.exe” for SyncToy 2.0 Beta.
12. In the “Add Arguments” textbox, type -R. –R will run all folder pairs that are active for run all. If you want to run just a single folder pair, add –R”folder pair name” to the end of the command line.

Note: there is a space before the hyphen but not one after the R. If the folder pair name contains a space, surround it with quotation marks, as the example above shows. For another example, assume that SyncToy is in the folder named C:\Program Files\SyncToy 2.0\ and that you want to run a folder pair named “My folder pair.” Enter the command line as follows, including the quotation marks: “C:\Program Files\SyncToy 2.0\SyncToyCmd.exe” -R”My folder pair.” Note that there are two sets of quotation marks in this case: one is around the path to the SyncToy program file and the other surrounds the folder pair name.

Schedule a SyncToy Task in Windows XP

1. Go to the Start menu, select All Programs - Accessories - System Tools - Scheduled Tasks.
2. Select Add scheduled task to start the Scheduled Task Wizard. You will see a list of possible programs to run.
3. SyncToy may appear as an option in the list. If SyncToy does not appear in the list, click Browse and locate the SyncToy executable. Normally it’s installed in Program Files directory.
4. The wizard will next prompt you to enter how often you want to run the scheduled SyncToy (for example, daily, weekly, et cetera). Select a frequency.
5. The next page asks when to start the task. Select a start time.
6. The next page asks for the user name and password to run the program under. Enter your user name and password. However, in SynToy 2.0, it’s not necessary for the defined user to log in to the computer. Different user or no one logged on is possible to have the task running too.
7. The final page contains an option to open the properties dialog when the wizard ends. Select this checkbox.
8. Modify the Run textbox to include the –R command line option. –R all by itself will run all folder pairs that are active for run all. If you want to run just a single folder pair, add –R“My Pair” to the end of the command line.

Note: there is a space before the hyphen but not one after the R. If the folder pair name contains a space, surround it with quotation marks, as the example above shows. For another example, assume that SyncToy is in the folder named C:\My Folder and that you want to run a folder pair named “My folder pair.” Enter the command line as follows, including the quotation marks: “C:\Program Files\SyncToy 2.0\SyncToyCmd.exe” -R”My folder pair.” Note that there are two sets of quotation marks in this case: one is around the path to the SyncToy program file and the other surrounds the folder pair name.

src: http://www.mydigitallife.info/2008/0...-repetitively/

If you value your data, or even want to be able to restore deleted files; set up a sync pair between two HDDs with a folder where you drop your most important files in; it beats RAID as you can actually go back in time if you set the pairing to not delete files on the target :)