Laptop-desktop synchronization

[Overwind]

What software are people around here using to keep files synchronized between multiple computers?

I have trialled a lot of file sync tools to keep my laptop and desktop in sync, but everything I've tried so far (Syncback: very slow, ViceVersa: incompatible with junctions, SuperFlexible: broken exclusion system) has at least one show-stopping problem. So, therefore, I'm curious what other people are using.

What else is out there that can sync multiple directories in one profile and doesn't generally suck?

[Hurdler]

I haven't tried it yet, but SyncToy (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/prophoto/synctoy.mspx) gets recommended a lot.

[jeepfun]

FolderShare http://www.foldershare.com

I have to admit, I'm annoyed that Microsoft has not added to it yet (2 years) but it works very well. I can't live without it.

[rgratto2]

Well, this is maybe a little off topic, but Synergy (http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/) to use the same mouse and keyboard, and Foxmarks (http://www.foxmarks.com/) to synchronize the browser.

[DeaconFrost]

I haven't tried it yet, but SyncToy (http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/using/digitalphotography/prophoto/synctoy.mspx) gets recommended a lot.
I use that quite a bit, and it handles my backup chores for my remote users at work as well.

[wildfire99]

This is incredibly frustrating. I have the same need, but all the traditional backup items (save FolderShare) require you to have direct access to your destination directory. I don't want to open up my laptop to the world just so I can 'share' data to it.

I tried LapLink's PCSync, and while it does exactly what I want, it's so ridiculously slow that I've had to forcefully shut it down several times because I've gotten tired of waiting for it to 'index' a handful of folders (not to mention how horribly intrusive their site and program registration is). I left it on for over 2 hours and it hadn't even *started* to transfer one directory with around 100,000 files (24GB). I guess they only meant for it to transfer grandma's email.

FolderShare might be nice, but it give me the creeps to know that my data is probably going through Microsoft's servers at some point, or at least a list of what I'm doing, not to mention I have to sign up with a central server that may go down or be shut down at any time.

This isn't a hard task, why are backup companies so retarded? I'm going to have to just write my own software, eventually.

[firas]

I wanna add another question here…

now I have about 200GB of music on a hard disk
another about 150GB of music on another hard disk
another about 100GB of music on my current working hard disk
another about 2GB of music on my memory stick
one of my friends have about 100GB of music on his hard disk, I know that about 70GB of these files are from me

though the total is about 450GB, the actual total is maybe about 250GB
cuz everything is duplicated here and their

I just want a tool that can synchronize between 2 local folders and like combine them both in 1 folder that will contain all the files used to exist on both folders without duplicating anything
any ideas?.....