Synchronization Software

Windows, including Vista, fails to offer any kind of useful file transfer or synchronization features.  With that said, in order to take advantage of this feature, you'll need some third-party software that is primarily designed for such use.  After much research, I found one in particular that will certainly offer this kind of capability, while providing a number of other features that can be of high use.

ViceVersa, provided by TGRMN Software, is by far the most feature-rich and user-friendly application available for all your data sync and transfer needs.  While it does offer other features such as backup, replication and file comparison, its synchronization capabilities are truly impressive and is what I'll be focusing on in this guide.

Upon first launch, you will be prompted for both the source and target directories.  You can even define multiple sources/targets as well.  Over a network, you can either browse through it and pick the directory you want, or manually type in the UNC path if you'd like.  The software will read UNC paths and will connect to them with ease.

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If your network as been configured properly, once you hit the "Compare" button, it will quickly check both the source and target directories for differences.  I would like to emphasize on the word "quickly".  On my network, this took only about 8 seconds to compare over 4,000 files.

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After both are compared, ViceVersa will show you a clear and detailed summary of what it found.  It will show what files/folders are missing in either source and can even give you a percentage based on these findings.  Clicking the OK button on this summary window will not make any changes to your files just yet.

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Although it has plenty of features, its interface is very user-friendly.  It will clearly display source and target side by side, similar to what you find on FTP clients.  Before you hit that Execute button though, you'll want to configure ViceVersa to synchronize your files instead of other supported methods. 

Select Synchronization as the execution method.  This will enable tracking via a database and is required for this method in order to perform well.  The software will optionally allow you to log all runs as well if you'd like to keep tabs on what has been transferred to and from your computers.

Note:  From the above menu, I strongly suggest you do not disable confirmation messages until you are clear how the software functions and what error/failed messages will display based on what it finds.  Only after you have properly configured security on all computers and have an understanding of common sync errors, you can then choose to enable this so that transfers will not only be faster, but not require user interaction at any point during synchronization.

What's nice about this software is that it will provide a high level of control over both your files and network performance.  You can add subfolder filters, ignore empty folders and exclude files based on attributes.  If your home network is being used by more than person at a time, you may not want to use up all your available bandwidth during synchronization.  No problem.  ViceVersa will allow you pre-define its priority, which will use bandwidth accordingly.  However, for best performance, you'll definitely want to tweak most of the settings available here. 

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Before you choose to execute, you will be provided with a very clear summary of exactly what files it will add or remove from both your PC and HTPC. 

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During the synchronization process, you have a clear look at its progress and will know exactly how many MB's will be transferred to and from its source.  You even have a bandwidth meter and can even make adjustments from here in real-time if needed.

Sync Performance

So how well does ViceVersa perform?  Pretty damn good actually!  In one of the tests that consisted of synchronizing my entire music collection to my HTPC, it only took just over 7 minutes to compare over 4,200 files and sync a total of 52 192Kbp/s MP3's totaling 182MB's.  The exact time was 7:11 via the software and 7:32 by my watch.  With my network equipment, wireless transfer speeds average in at a very high 434KB/s and peaked at speeds as high as 718KB/s. 

Next: Final Tips & Conclusions