LivSimpl

How to easily sync files between computers - for free

Sure, you could carry around a USB drive on your key chain to move frequently used files back and forth between frequently used computers but 1. they cost money, 2. they bulk up your key chain (a nit-picky thing, I know, but it bugs me) and 3. if you lose your keys or the drive your files are gone. Forever. Not to mention I hate leaning over the back of my computer to put the USB drive in.

While there is certainly a place for USB drives (I have more than one myself), for file synchronization between computers, and off-site backup, Dropbox is pretty much the be-all-end-all solution.

Dropbox is a free application and service and functions like Apple’s MobileMe iDisk should. Install the program and a folder will appear on your desktop called Dropbox. Put any file in there and it will automatically be backed up online, and accessible from any browser. You can install it on a second computer as well and have the files in your Dropbox folder sync immediately between the two when a change is made.

For example, I have three computers I use regularly: my desktop at home, my laptop, and my desktop at work. I have Dropbox installed on all three and any time I want to make sure a file is available I simply drag it into the Dropbox and, ta-da, it (almost) instantly shows up on the other two computers.

This is an ideal situation for me as I often run across things I find interesting on the Internet, but don’t have time to check them out right away. I’ll drag the URL to the desktop (creating an HTML file) and drag that to my “To Read” folder in Dropbox. The file is waiting for me when I get home.

As I mentioned earlier, all your files are also available online by logging in through their homepage, so if you need access to a file on a computer that you don’t have the program installed on, the file is still accessible. You can even upload files through the browser and they’ll automatically sync back down to your computers.

All your files are available offline and there’s no limit to file size or type (yes, you can back up your music and other DRM’d files). There are quite a few other features including the ability to make folders and files public (a great alternative to FTP), revert to previously saved versions of your files, and more.

It’s a very simple, free way to sync, share and backup files. Dropbox just left beta and is now available at getdropbox.com. You get 2 GB of storage for free or 50 GB for $9.99/month. Give it a try.

Has anybody else been using Dropbox? What are your impressions of it? Leave word in the comments.

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Monday, September 15th, 2008 at 8:00 am and is filed under Tech, Work. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.