Networked folder synchronization in a Windows environment

[Adabiviak]

I'm looking for a simple way to backup work files from a portable computer (slate) to a network share, and am interested in others' experience with this sort of rot. Here are the various things I've tried in the past:

Copy and paste: it works, but if the files I need backed up are in different folders on the slate, this becomes time-consuming.

Briefcase: despite claims that it doesn't work over a network, I've been using it over a network for years. If (and when) our I.T. department reorganizes the network paths, a new briefcase is needed, which is fine, as the original, working files reside on the slate. Does anyone know why it's said not to work over a network?

Roaming profiles: a frickin' nightmare. Has this worked well for others?

Offline files: I'm tinkering with this now to see how it works. Has anyone used these before? Did they fit the bill?

Thanks.

 

[No Limit]

If you have xp professional or vista business ntbackup is a good utility, just type ntbackup at the run prompt.

If you have access to roaming profiles that menas your network is in an active directory enviroment. Whoever is responsible for your domain controller and any other servers on your network should also have a back up solution for you to use. Normally your company should have a policy in place where the IT department is responsible for your back ups, you shouldn't have to do this yourself. And finally, why does your IT department reorganize the network paths? This is something that really shouldn't ever be done unless absolutely necessary. Mapping the share to a local drive will allow you to keep the same location even when they change it around on you. I'm not familiar with using briefcase (way before my time) but if it requires a constant path if you are using mapped network drives you will just have to remap the drive to the proper network location when that location changes.

 

[Adabiviak]

They do use active directory, but I think few people have roaming profiles enabled anymore since we consolidated our office buildings. Their backup solution is a mapped network drive for all windows accounts that important files are to be stored in, which is backed up automatically (with shadow copies, scheduled backups to external storage, redundancy, etc.) Anything not in that drive is fair game to be lost. I'm on the go pretty frequently (even when on-site), so working out of this drive isn't an option, but it's perfect for backing up those files that I need to keep alive.

Our I.T. department reorganizes the network paths because they're crazy like that. They do a number of sketchy things (using DHCP to assign IP addresses, then mapping that address statically, so on occasion, IP addresses are 'stolen' by new devices and someone's VoIP phone or PC is offline until they figure out what's up, for example).

I'm going to give NTBackup a spin now.

edit - NTBackup is a little clunky for irregular but frequent backups of a handful of files, but it'll be good for archiving my profile as a whole, thanks.