Backup recommendation needed

[mmganga]

Hello, here is my situation...

I have a bunch of documents organized in a tree structure of say around 100 folders and subfolders and so on...these documents are on my laptop hard drive but I also keep a copy on a USB memory stick.

Sometimes I work on a different computer and I may update documents directly on the USB stick.

Needless to say my 'problem' is clear -- every few days/one-two weeks/etc. I want to 'sync' up the USB drive with the laptop tree structure.

I'm looking for a program that I can run with the following logic:

source location is USB drive; target location is c:\documents

copy all files from the source to the target, but

if the file name is the same on the target but a newer date, then copy the target file to the source

This would give me the functionality that I need (keeping both things in sync). So far I can use the Windows Explorer to drag and drop but it will give me warnings on every file (tedious) and also it doesn't allow for target->source copy it only asks if I want to overwrite the target (even if the target is newer).

Also, backup programs seem to be overkill or will plainly not support a 'virtual' USB drive as a source, or will want to back up to a compressed file or an image/etc. Not what I'm looking for.

Thoughts, recommendations?

Thank you!

 

[PanzerBoxb]

You are wanting a file synchronization utility more than a backup program. Which version(s) of Windows are you running on?

Example 1: SyncToy from Microsoft

Example 2: Sync Center from Microsoft

 

[mmganga]

Yes that is right; I run XP but want to transition to Vista or Windows 7; it'd be nice if it was supported in all of these...

And of course something simple and to the point is preferred rather than something with lots of pop-ups and other things.

Thanks for the fast reply.

 

[Nate7311]

Panzer is right, go with Synctoy. Simple, fast and usable on all modern Windows platforms.