Heretical - want to keep on using a PC

[katiea]

I know the answer this is going to be: Don't! but I can't really afford not to.

I've just moved to a new job with a nice new OSX machine on my desktop but my home machine is still a PC and I can't afford a new one - so I need to keep using it. It has Windows XP if that makes a difference.

I can only currently transfer my files from home to work and vice versa using a disk of some variety - I've got a USB drive which fits 128MB on so I can easily transfer a week's worth of changed files and back up home files at work and vice versa.

When I just had two windows machines I used Winzip to transfer the files by keeping the directory structure and just unzipping any new files into the right directory. This prevents silly old me from wondering where my changes to a document are because I've copied the new version to the wrong folder. Winzip does this automatically and doesn't overwrite newer files in Windows - the equivalent zip programs I've found in Mac a) overwrite newer files and b) won't zip files while preserving their directory structure unless you zip the WHOLE folder too, which can be a little large for my disk.

Long and boring I know. I suspect most people in the same situation just take files individually and try to remember which folder they came from - our computer manager hasn't really got a good solution. Has anyone tried and found a really good solution?

Katie

 

[MisterMe]

Re: Heretical - want to keep on using a PC

Originally posted by katiea
I know the answer this is going to be: Don't! but I can't really afford not to.

I've just moved to a new job with a nice new OSX machine on my desktop but my home machine is still a PC and I can't afford a new one - so I need to keep using it. It has Windows XP if that makes a difference.

I can only currently transfer my files from home to work and vice versa using a disk of some variety - I've got a USB drive which fits 128MB on so I can easily transfer a week's worth of changed files and back up home files at work and vice versa.

When I just had two windows machines I used Winzip to transfer the files by keeping the directory structure and just unzipping any new files into the right directory. This prevents silly old me from wondering where my changes to a document are because I've copied the new version to the wrong folder. Winzip does this automatically and doesn't overwrite newer files in Windows - the equivalent zip programs I've found in Mac a) overwrite newer files and b) won't zip files while preserving their directory structure unless you zip the WHOLE folder too, which can be a little large for my disk.

Long and boring I know. I suspect most people in the same situation just take files individually and try to remember which folder they came from - our computer manager hasn't really got a good solution. Has anyone tried and found a really good solution?

Katie

Any excuse, I suppose. However, I use Synchronize! Pro X to maintain directory structure between my home and work computers. It is available for download at Qdea's web site. Synchronize! Pro X does not compress files, but then I don't use floppies anymore.

 

[cubist]

That's good, use Synchronize Pro to synchronize to your usb drive (it's a flash drive, I suppose?); then look on sourceforge for a sync program for Windows.

You might be able to use psync in Windows & OS X. I haven't tried it, because I have my own sync program (I've ported it to both PC and Mac, but I am working on a Java version).

I will strongly suggest that you make sure both machines are both in the same timezone. USB flashdrives use FAT16, which has no timezone information on file times.

I didn't know that Winzip would do anything like that, but that's not a standard feature for a file archiver, and I'm surprised it worked reliably.

Should've titled the thread "I need to keep using a PC" rather than "want". We all recognize issues of fiscal responsibility here.

 

[katiea]

Thanks for the replies. The card I'm using is one of these, . Helpful also to know that trick about the time zone - especially as I'm just about to take a (Mac) laptop to another time zone and I'll want to sync my files on return!

Yes - it was extremely helpful of Winzip to include that facility, and I thought it was universal to compression programs. I didn't really need the compression even when I was using two PCs because then I used zip drives, but occasionally if I had a really large file I could use the compression. It was pretty much reliable, and unless I have lost a file I didn't know about, I've never lost a file!

I hadn't thought about synchronising the Mac with the USB drive and then the PC with the USB drive. I'd still have to keep a note of which folders or files I'd synchronised, as I can't fit my whole filespace on the USB drive, unless these synchronisation programs work one-way only i.e. they will take the files off the USB drive and make sure the desktop files are up to date, without insisting on copying ALL the files to the USB drive? I suppose if I pretend it's a backup?

I'll try a demo version of some sync programs and see what happens.

thanks!

Katie