5

I've been looking for some time for a program that backups your data to the cloud and is also able to sync 2 or more computers. By syncing I mean, if I change something on one computer that it should also apply the same change on another computer. I've tried two solutions so far which looked good initially but ultimately failed because they were buggy or simply don't work, or both. Syncplicity has messed up my file structure several times and they don't fix fix bugs that are literally over a year old. I then switched to SpiderOak which looked promising but ultimately had the same problems. Messed up my file structure several times, sometimes sync simply doesn't work, it's extremely inefficient and they keep pushing out releases were they say they fixed the sync bugs I reported but they did't.

Does anyone of you know of an online sync solution that actually works?

Update: I've been happily using Dropbox for a year now. It's perfect for my needs.

  • While DropBox seems excellent, I am trying SugarSync right now because it can do everything DropBox can and more and doesn't have limitations like one single root folder that can't even be renamed. –  Apr 18 '10 at 20:28
  • SugarSync didn't work either. Unbelievable how buggy these programs are. So far I've used Syncplicity, SpiderOak and SugarSync for several weeks and none of them was reliable enough to be used. My only hope is DropBox now. –  May 08 '10 at 12:59

5 Answers5

5

DropBox.com ftw. Love it.

PS - Be sure to get the optional Packrat feature turned on. Saves every version of every file FOREVER.

user40876
  • 116
  • 1
  • 3
  • 1
    I don't like that they have a designated folder were you have to drop your data you want to backed up/synced into. It does look good though otherwise. I'll check it out. Thanks! –  Apr 18 '10 at 10:06
  • 2
    I've done a few sync tests with DropBox and so far it has done everything right were all the other sync tools I had tried failed. My initial impression was that it was designed for a 4 year old, but after using it I am very impressed with it's feature set and easy of use. –  Apr 18 '10 at 11:46
  • I'm not sure how I ever got along without Dropbox... – GregD Apr 18 '10 at 15:12
  • @Hermann - I'd like to think that 'designed for a 4 year old' was at the top of the priority list when Dropbox was initially built. It is an amazing piece of software that solves the backup/sync problem with 0 effort. My parents use dropbox for backup and sync - but they dont know this, because there is nothing they need to know. I changed their 'My Documents' folder location so it sits inside the dropbox. No change to normal windows usage for them. It just makes things easier for me when I get panicked phone calls about deleted files, overwritten word files, HDD failure etc. +1 Dropbox – Alex Apr 14 '11 at 17:34
1

Maybe have a look at TeamDrive. I am using it to keep around 150GB of files in sync on 4 systems (Win, Mac and Linux) and it works fine, although it is still under heavy development and lacks some polishing and configurability here and there. The best thing, which was an absolute must for me, is that you can use your own server or about any WebDAV space to actually store the data (but I think that requires the commercial version, which is quite affordable).

Sven
  • 97,248
  • 13
  • 177
  • 225
0

Check out Microsoft Live Mesh Beta. It's been in beta for a long time but I've been using it for a year and it works very well. It is also free which is nice.

You start with a source folder or folders on one machine and share them with your mesh which can include a cloud copy and a copy to any other computer you join to your mesh. When you make changes to the files on any computer in the mesh, they are instantly synchronized to all other computers in the mesh.

You can also Remote Desktop to any computer in your mesh which can be handy sometimes. You can add folders from any computer in the mesh and control which other computers in the mesh get synced. I personally like it even better than DropBox (which is also good).

icky3000
  • 4,718
  • 1
  • 20
  • 15
  • It said that it's limited to 5GB only on Wikipedia but their website didn't mention anything. Is it really limited to 5GB? –  Apr 18 '10 at 11:47
  • I have used it, but I find it to be buggy. It tends to simply sometimes "forget" to sync files - which is obviously a showstopper. – Kjensen Apr 18 '10 at 13:47
  • @Hermann: yep, it is limited to 5GB – icky3000 Apr 18 '10 at 19:25
  • 5GB is way too little. That might have been enough for the 20th century, but not the 21st. –  Apr 18 '10 at 20:29
  • @Hermann: Um, the century doesn't have much to do with it, it depends on what you are syncing. Your question didn't include any discussion about the size of the data so we're stuck guessing what you need. Live Mesh's free 5GB is more than twice DropBox's free 2GB. The nice thing about DropBox though is you can upgrade to a Pro account and get more storage but you pay $10/month for 50GB and $20/month for 100GB. If you have more specific requirements, you should put them in the question rather than leaving obtuse comments that fail to further define your needs. – icky3000 Apr 19 '10 at 07:43
0

beware of syncplicity evil tos

http://sethwisely.wordpress.com/2009/12/20/syncplicity-has-zero-confidence-in-its-own-services/

offsite storage of RAID rotation is the best bet

online storage is the new vaporware

0

Jungle Disk is excellent for backup. I've used it less extensively for sync but that has worked well for me, too.

Greg Hendershott
  • 786
  • 1
  • 7
  • 12