I found a really cool little utility a while back and I thought I’d share it with everyone.  It’s a powertoy made by microsoft called synctoy.  It’s kind of like the old, “briefcase” we had in windows 98 that was used to keep folders synchronized, but this utility is a little bit more powerful.

I plan on using it for my carputer whenever I get enough money to build it.  I’ll use it with a wireless connection to my network, and use the utility to transfer my music files onto the carputer and to keep the two systems synchronized.

I’m also pretty sure that it can be run with scheduled tasks so that you can sync at certain times of the day without intervention. check it out here: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/prophoto/synctoy.mspx

*edit-  I have confirmed that you can schedule syncs from the help menu inside of synctoy.  The instructions are here:

Schedule SyncToy

While you do not have to schedule SyncToy to use it, some users may find it helpful to schedule recurrent SyncToy runs. Perhaps you have a folder pair that takes a long time to sync and you want to run SyncToy in the middle of the night, for example.

SyncToy does not provide a user interface to schedule folder pairs to run at designated times. However, there is a method to schedule tasks using the Microsoft^© Windows^© operating system.

 

Windows Vista

To schedule a task using the operating system:

1. From the Start menu, select All Programs – Accessories – System Tools – Task Scheduler.
2. Select Create Basic Task in the Actions pane on the right.
3. Add a Name and Description and select Next.
4. Choose when you want the task to start and select Next.
5. Choose date/times (if applicable) to run task and select Next.
6. Choose Start a Program option and select Next.
7. Select Browse and locate the SyncToy.exe.
8. Type “-R” in the Add Arguments textbox. –R all by itself will run all folder pairs that are active for run all. If you want to run just a single folder pair, add –R“My Pair” to the end of the command line. Note: there is a space before the hyphen but not one after the R. If the folder pair name contains a space, surround it with quotation marks, as the example above shows. For another example, assume that SyncToy is in the folder named C:\My Folder and that you want to run a folder pair named “My folder pair.” Enter the command line as follows, including the quotation marks: “C:\My Folder\SyncToy.exe” -R”My folder pair.” Note that there are two sets of quotation marks in this case: one is around the path to the SyncToy program file and the other surrounds the folder pair name.

Windows XP

To schedule a task using the operating system:

1. From the Start menu, select All Programs – Accessories – System Tools – Scheduled Tasks.
2. Select Add scheduled task to start the Scheduled Task Wizard. You will see a list of possible programs to run.
3. SyncToy may appear as an option in the list. If SyncToy does not appear in the list, click Browse and go find it.
4. The wizard will next prompt you to enter how often you want to run the scheduled SyncToy (for example, daily, weekly, et cetera). Select a frequency.
5. The next page asks when to start the task. Select a start time.
6. The next page asks for the user name and password to run the program under. Enter your user name and password.
7. The final page contains an option to open the properties dialog when the wizard ends. Select this checkbox.

Modify the Run textbox to include the –R command line option. –R all by itself will run all folder pairs that are active for run all. If you want to run just a single folder pair, add –R“My Pair” to the end of the command line. Note: there is a space before the hyphen but not one after the R. If the folder pair name contains a space, surround it with quotation marks, as the example above shows. For another example, assume that SyncToy is in the folder named C:\My Folder and that you want to run a folder pair named “My folder pair.” Enter the command line as follows, including the quotation marks: “C:\My Folder\SyncToy.exe” -R”My folder pair.” Note that there are two sets of quotation marks in this case: one is around the path to the SyncToy program file and the other surrounds the folder pair name.