Web Worker Daily

Do you carry a USB thumb drive with you? It makes a lot of sense to do so, now that you can get so much capacity at such low cost. I keep one on a keychain and I’m always adding useful applications to it. The ones I’m getting the most good use out of now are free synching applications, which allow me to keep entire folders on my computers synchronized with my USB thumb drive.

GoodSync is the easiest to use of the various synchronization applications I’ve found. It’s completely free, and now that I have the folders I want synchronized set up, I can keep them in synch on my computer and my USB thumb drive with one click.

GoodSync is actually capable of doing much more than I use it for. You can schedule to do automatic backups, for example, although I happen to use separate backup software for that application. Just like backing up locally, you can also use it to keep local media and FTP sites in synch.

Easy2Sync has a free version of its synchronization application, and for simple tasks it works fine. Easy2Sync’s interface relies on wizards so you can set up rules for synching and synch just the files and folders you want. I found the wizards to be a little more in the way of interface than I really needed, but you may be comforted by them.

Of course, both of these synch applications are good for matching up files and folders on many kinds of devices other than USB Flash drives. The good news is, no matter what you use them for, is that they’re free.

What do you use to keep files in synch?