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I want to synch ~15 GB of data between multiple computers and I don't want to pay $10 per month for DropBox. What are my options? (self.software)

submitted ago by shniken

I've been using a USB drive, but there must be a better solution.

I also have access to a ftp server I've tried using FileZilla to synch the files but it takes too long (there are ~15,000 files that it has to parse)

I'm thinking about google docs, it is only $5 per year for 20GB.

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[–]notvayan 15 points16 points ago

Google docs with https://www.insynchq.com/ perfect :)

[–]shniken[S] 6 points7 points ago

Looks great. Cheers mate.

[–]tornato7 0 points1 point ago

I use google docs for this, also look into cloudsync for office. Gdocs is hella cheap, too. It's great.

[–]azureous 18 points19 points ago

Are you trying to have this sync between just your computers, or have the data store on the internet as well? If you're just doing it locally, you could try Windows Live Mesh (Download here). If you install Mesh on each of your computers, you can tell it to sync unlimited number of files (check the Wikipedia link for limitations) between each of your computers. You only get to sync 5 gigs to the cloud though.

[–]shniken[S] 4 points5 points ago

I.looked into this a while ago and you couldn't upload folders. Is this still the case?

[–]smeeg126 8 points9 points ago

Nope, you can sync folders now. I use it to sync game save file folders (Skyrim) so I can play on my desktop or laptop whenever! It works really good too.

[–]VulturE 2 points3 points ago

You can pretty much sync anything except open visio/access files and PSTs. My actual documents get synced to the 5GB cloud and the rest syncs between my desktop, netbook, and laptop. I havent had any issues with it, other than it slowing down the initial startup of the systems a little.

[–]havesometea1 1 point2 points ago

Gotta check this out again

[–]ergotron 1 point2 points ago

Yes, I use this to keep multiple directories (Desktop, Documents, Music) synced between a desktop and 2 laptops. It's kind of awesome.

[–]snowpup 0 points1 point ago

A question about Windows Live Mesh. Several sources say there is a limit of 200 synced folders. But it is unclear to me if this means root folder or includes all subfolders. For example, to use it to sync my Music folder would not work as I have more than 200 albums if all subfolders count. But if they don't it would only be 1 folder.

[–]azureous 1 point2 points ago

According to this I think the 200 is if you choose 200 folders individually to sync. I think if you chose the root folder then it'd count as 1.

[–]snowpup 0 points1 point ago

I just found out this doesn't work with Windows XP....BOOO....

[–]darkempath 0 points1 point ago

XP? Jesus, dude, XP is almost a decade old and has been made obsolete twice, almost three times already.

Get with the times. You may as well complain Win98 isn't supported.

Where's my DOS driver?

[–]johnl1479 22 points23 points ago

Rsync would work.

[–]MattVortex 10 points11 points ago

It doesn't always work well when changes are being made from both ends. For those situations, Unison is best.

[–]johnl1479 2 points3 points ago

Fair point. If changes aren't being made simultaneously though, it's going to work quite well

[–]lahwran_ 0 points1 point ago

I thought unison was built on top of rsync? could be wrong though.

What I'd really like is unison-style autosynchronization, but with version control like what git provides. I might try using git for it ... of course git doesn't function as a full backup tool, but it works great for version control, and this would be basically automated version control.

[–]eleitl 3 points4 points ago

Tried Amazon S3?

http://aws.typepad.com/aws/2012/02/amazon-s3-price-reduction.html

[–]crankybadger 1 point2 points ago

15GB = $2.10/mo plus transfer fees, or $1.40 if you're willing to risk it on the reduced-redundancy version.

[–]eleitl 1 point2 points ago

Sounds cheap enough. I think Cyberduck even offers that as an option.

[–]esquilax 2 points3 points ago

Bitcasa.

[–]closer9 2 points3 points ago

Sparkleshare

It's basically Dropbox, only opensource. You can host your own server and have as much space as you want. They don't have a windows client yet though.

[–]movzx 4 points5 points ago

It's basically Dropbox, only opensource.

open in new tab

You can host your own server and have as much space as you want.

get excited and switch to the next tab while reading the final sentence

They don't have a windows client yet though.

process the last sentence, make a frowny face, and close the tab before it is done loading

[–]mirmillone 4 points5 points ago

megacloud.it

512gb free

[–]ProlapsedPineal 2 points3 points ago

Thanks for this, I'd never heard of it. Is this the new dropbox?

[–]mirmillone 2 points3 points ago

It's an italian company and I really like them.

Give it a try ;)

[–]louisc 7 points8 points ago

Def seems sketchy.

[–]crankybadger 2 points3 points ago

I thought mega. was taken down by storm troopers.

[–]mdaniel 1 point2 points ago

From their welcome email:

Thank you for signing up with us. Your new account has been setup and you can now login to our client area using the details below.

Email Address: blah@example.com Password: hunter22

:-(

I have heard the theory about companies sending email with the plaintext password but encrypting it in their database. However, I come down on the side of "please don't transmit plaintext passwords".

[–]ChristianM 0 points1 point ago

512 GB ? Free ? Fo`real ?

[–]kcin 7 points8 points ago

Petandrive: 1000 terabyte for free

[–]ChristianM 2 points3 points ago

Ok. What's the catch here ?

[–]kcin 1 point2 points ago

I don't know if there's any. In forums people wrote they uploaded hundreds of GBs and couldn't fill their space.

Of course, free users are limited to download 2 GB/day, so if you don't pay then you can't move lots of data in/out quickly.

[–]crankybadger 1 point2 points ago

ACTA.

[–]mdaniel 0 points1 point ago

From reading their help page, it seems they are in the same vein as hotfile, rapidshare and friends: they pay out cents per download of files to affiliates, you can copy a file from a friend's account without downloading it yourself, and so on.

I don't doubt their claims of 1000Tb, I just have suspicions about their ability to stay in business for as long as I would want to keep my files.

Basically: great for the user who wants to backup blu-ray movie rips, suboptimal for storing the videos of your child's first steps.

[–]ouroborosity 0 points1 point ago

How in the hell can this be sustainable? I'm seriously going to hit up their live chat and ask this question.

[–]movzx 0 points1 point ago

Hard drives are fucking cheap. If they sell premium services it may be worth the loss in order to get those customers.

[–]ROGER_CHOCS 1 point2 points ago

it isnt the hard drives, its the law. I would be pissed if this shit got taken down by the internet nazi's and my legitimate files are on there..

[–]movzx 0 points1 point ago

He asked how it was sustainable... As in, how could they keep offering this much space without charging for it.

[–]Wargazm 0 points1 point ago

Holy fuck, dude. Do you have any experience with these guys? Are they legit? because I would love to backup all my blu-ray movie rips to that service.

[–]mirmillone 0 points1 point ago

Yes.

[–]ecki77 1 point2 points ago

For personal use: Buy a pogoplug and plug your USB drive in. It has remote access and synching options as well.

[–]finnio 1 point2 points ago

Have you got your own server? Try http://sparkleshare.org/

[–]Codebender 1 point2 points ago

Sounds like you're on Windows, so rsync, et. al., is not the most convenient solution. I like AeroFS, it can store files "on the cloud" if you want, but mostly just does automatic synchronization like Dropbox:

http://www.aerofs.com/

[–]Neurario 0 points1 point ago

Looking into this, sounds awesome!

[–]kaoticsnow 1 point2 points ago

http://fak3r.com/2009/09/14/howto-build-your-own-open-source-dropbox-clone/

[–]cyber_rigger 3 points4 points ago

Get a good used station wagon and a pile of magnetic tapes.

Now get off my lawn.

[–]joazito 1 point2 points ago

Use Crashplan. It's free if you don't need space on their servers.

[–]snkscore 1 point2 points ago

But this doesn't make it accessible on the other machines, it just backs up the files.

[–]joazito 0 points1 point ago

Yeah I think it only backups one way in the free version, not syncs. So disregard this OP.

[–]possiblyabsurd 0 points1 point ago

I guess you've had your answers already, but in case not, I asked pretty much the same questions a while ago: http://www.reddit.com/r/software/comments/miys6/tool_to_autosynch_folders_over_the_internet/. You may find some further recommendations in that thread.

[–]OneArmJack 0 points1 point ago

You might be better off having a NAS drive on your network and just keeping the files on there.

[–]movzx 0 points1 point ago

Not a great solution when you have a laptop and need access.

[–]akcamperdude 0 points1 point ago

check out Bitcasa offering unlimited syncing and storage free for now, in beta, i think they said $10/month eventually Bitcasa Beta Invite

[–]densets 0 points1 point ago

if you are on a mac, you will hate this. network drive. wtf were they thinking.

[–]OvrLpdIO 0 points1 point ago

Checkout Microsoft Skydrive for 25GB of free storage.

http://skydrive.live.com

I believe you need Windows Live Essentials to sync folders http://explore.live.com/windows-live-essentials

[–]k1down 0 points1 point ago

Windows Live Mesh is actually pretty great, but when you set up the shares initially it will put a serious hurt on your HD read access until it gets all squared away.

[–]snax2k1 0 points1 point ago

Try Crashplan, I use it between my Laptops and desktop computers and it seems to work pretty damn good.

[–]epsiblivion 0 points1 point ago

bitcasa has infinite storage. pm for invite

[–]wolfcry0 0 points1 point ago

Something like goodsync or syncback, I use goodsync personally

They don't sync over the internet but you could use a VPN like hamachi to be able to sync over the internet securely

[–]zorno 0 points1 point ago

Google docs and gladinet cloud desktop seems pretty awesome so far.

[–]eleitl -1 points0 points ago

Does it have to be online? You could use a dyndns service, and forward the ports.

[–]boatski -1 points0 points ago

Microsoft Sync Toy

[–]ergotron 2 points3 points ago

SyncToy hasn't been developed for ages. I used it until a couple of months ago and quit because it failed frequently. Coming from Linux, I was used to rsync and found SyncToy to be just that- a toy. I use rsync provided by cygwin and bitvise SSHD. It's a lot more to setup, but the power, flexibility, and stability of rsync are proven. I'm sure there are native Windows implementations of rsync. Even if there aren't, though, SyncToy sucks.

[–]rcinsf -1 points0 points ago

Svn?

[–]crankybadger -1 points0 points ago

For the love of fuck, no.

[–]Yorn -2 points-1 points ago*

Pay $100/year instead and go with Dropbox's 50GB yearly option. It's really not that bad of a cost if you think about it, especially given the cost of a VPN and how stupid-simple Dropbox is to configure and set up.

I might actually go with the pay option of megacloud.it the next time I go to renew, though.

If you just need document synching, you could try InSync.

[–]ergotron 1 point2 points ago

50GB for $100 is pretty expensive and Dropbox is a major security risk. SpiderOak would be a better choice. They encrypt everything client-side.

[–]Yorn 0 points1 point ago

Dedupe for files works faster with Dropbox than with Spideroak precisely because if you are sharing material that others have in their Dropbox it uses the same blocks accordingly. So yes, if security means the world to you, then use something else, but if you are sharing 50gigs of TV shows from EZTV, enjoy the faster transfer rates with Dropbox.

[–]ergotron 0 points1 point ago

Oh, were we talking about torrents? Yeah, who cares about that! Sorry, I guess I assumed we were talking about personal data.

[–]Yorn 0 points1 point ago

Yeah, I didn't make that clear. I just assumed when he was talking about gigs of data he was, too.

[–]ergotron 0 points1 point ago

Man. This is like the 6th in a row, pleasant, reasonable conversation I've had here. That's crazy! Thanks!

[–]brightboy -5 points-4 points ago

Install a Linux VM on one machine, set it up as a server, have your own monitored, controlled, and owned syncing system.

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