How to Synchronize Multiple Computers and Back Your Files Up at the Same Time

You can synchronize multiple computers and back up your files at the same time by using online services or external hard drives.

Many of us have more than one computer at this point. We might have a desk top computer and a laptop or a laptop at home and a laptop at work. We often need access to the same data wherever we are. So that we can continue working on our projects wherever we happen to be. This can be pretty tricky. We might forget a file at home that we need at the office or vice versa. Or we are not sure which one the recent version is and we start working on one only to find out later that we have already completed some piece of  it that was on another computer.

If you have multiple computers it is essential that you find some method for synchronizing your data so that everything is the same all the time on both of your computers. There are a couple of different ways that you can do this. One you could save your information onto a flash drive and make that your base of data. You might keep certain projects on certain flash drives or maybe keep one flash drive that has a lot of capacity so that you can keep all of your important stuff on it. And then you would backup your flash drive of course. But your flash drive would be where you would work on the documents themselves.

Another strategy is to use software that can synchronize your different computers either locally over your network at your home or your office or over the internet There are a few different sets of software that do this and these work pretty well. But my favourite method now is to use a service where not only does it synchronize your information across multiple computers, but it also keeps a secure backup of them online. And this is really helpful because if you were to lose one of your computers or if your computer broke and you did not have access to it or it was stolen, you could go online to the website for these different companies and then get a download of the document that you need to work on. So you have access to your stuff no matter where you happen to be. But the key idea here, whatever methodology you choose, is to not have different data in different places. You want to make sure that if you are in business and you are working on your stuff, that wherever you happen to be, you can use the same projects, files, documents without having to go back and forth physically between the different places where your computers happen to be. Your data should follow you, not the other way around.

Read more about effectively backing up your data at www.profitableproductivitysystem.com.

4 Responses to “How to Synchronize Multiple Computers and Back Your Files Up at the Same Time”

  1. James Hansson

    Synchronizing files on multiple computers is indeed important…

    I have found these other additions save my mobile life with my home computer, office computer and netbook:

    http://www.xmarks.com – automatically synchronize internet bookmarks
    http://www.easy-email.net – automatically synchronize email
    http://www.lastpass.com – automatically synchronize passwords (securely)

  2. Joshua Zerkel

    James, thanks for the comment and for the resources – those are some of my favorite tools as well. Check out more great tools at http://www.customlivingsolutions.com/productivity-toolbox!

  3. Thomas Petty

    Thanks Josh. I’m a huge fan of http://www.dropbox.com. It’s free, and you get 2GB of storage. The program will install on a Windows PC, Mac, and your iPhone, iPad, Android or Blackberry. I don’t know how many times I’ve left a presentation on the memory stick in the computer, then walked away with it.

    With Dropbox, I can get to my files anywhere, as long as there’s an internet (web) connection. Or I just boot up my laptop before leaving to speak, and it auto-syncs to the laptop.

  4. Joshua Zerkel

    Thanks – Dropbox is one of my favorite tools as well!

Leave a Reply