Thinkpads Forum

This is probably really simple, but how do I keep common user profiles between my desktop and new T60?

I have a home network, so the two are connected. I'd like to set it up so that both have the same user accounts and keep the respective My Documents folders synchronized.

Is roaming profiles the only option? Would I then have to setup my desktop computer as the server? Would that add a lot of overhead? (The desktop is also my gaming system.)

Nausher
T500, T60

What are you trying to sync? If it is just files you can leave both machines in the same workgroup, have the same user name and PW and use a tool such as filesync to synch the files. It will also sync deltas so that you do not have to copy the entire directory.

Roaming profiles would require a Domain and a server to host the profile (could be the same server). Your Domain user accunt would then point to a location for the roaming profile. the romaing profile would give you all your settings as far as desktop, mapped drives, my documents etc... This is over kill if you just want to sync data.

But instead of all this you could easily sync the my docs folder.

the only thing you could not sync is the ntuser.dat file which is locked by the OS if you are logged on with the corresponding account. That file contains all your profile related settings.

You can use the Microsoft SyncToy utility (free download from the PowerToys download site at Microsoft) to synchronize your My Document folders across the network, or any folders for that matter. Be sure you do a good backup before you try it, as there are a few little gotchas, and read the (short) documentation carefully. SyncToy was designed primarily to synchronize media files, and it shows. It is very fast and slick and easy to use. SyncToy also works to synchronize your Favorites folders, etc.

For stuff where I don't trust SyncToy, I have had very good results with a program called SyncBackSE which is inexpensive and available as trialware before you have to buy. It can even synchronize or backup your Outlook PST file while Outlook is running, or synchronize through a FTP site, etc.

I would not recommend trying to synchronize profiles completely, unless it is, as mentioned above, through a Windows domain and a Microsoft server--there are too many things that are machine specific.

I tried SyncToy and didn't like. I've been using GoodSync for about two weeks and am a big fan. It's free to individuals. Check it out.

Chris

Thanks for the advice, i'll try out some of the synching software. I am interested in the contents of the My Docs folder only, not the whole profile...

Nausher

I used to have a desktop and laptop that I needed to synch daily, but now I've just got two laptops that I keep in synch so that I don't have any downtime.

We looked at lots of options for synching two computers together and never found one that gave us the flexiblity of comparing folders and files, seeing the differences in files containing source code (we're developers), and the ability to exclude certains files from our comparison.

We finally stumbled onto a program called Beyond Compare and have been using it ever since. It is not only good to use on a daily basis to synch files and folders, but it is a great way to setup a new computer. Keep in mind that you still have to install apps... it's not a drive imager. And you may have to make some folders shareable so that you can synch them properly, but it is a great program to use to synch data.