What is the Problem:
In the modern office environment, important files are often stored
on networked drives that are accessible to many people in the organization.
The convenience of networked drives cannot be denied. Problems
arise, however, when you need those files, but you are not in the office.
What is the Solution:
Microsoft's
solution to this problem is the Sync Center. This tool will keep a synchronized, local snapshot of a network folder so that you can always have
access to the files that you predetermined that you will need. Additionally, Sync Center retains the physical
file path for those files, so you do not have to remember where, locally, those
files are stored. You may have a
networked file with a path of \\Server1\Project32\SDS\Task527.docx. Once Sync Center is configured for that
folder, you can access that precise folder path regardless of whether you are physically
connected to the network or not. Windows
will sync that file locally and remember the original path for the file. This allows all Windows apps which may depend
upon that file, to continue to function properly regardless of network
connectivity.
Sync Center is not available for Starter and Home editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7.
Sync Center is not available for Starter and Home editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7.
How to do it:
Setting Sync Center up is very easy, too. Simply use Windows Explorer to browse to the file
or folder you wish to be available offline (you must be in the parent folder of
the file or folder you wish to be available).
Then, right-click on the file or folder and choose “Always Available
Offline”. Voila!!! That file, or the contents of that folder,
will now be synchronized to your local computer and available even when you are
not connected to the network. Once you
return to the network, your changes will be updated to the network.
To view the Sync Center, use the Windows Explorer Tools menu.
Warning:
Because other users could change the same files that you changed
while you were away from the network, Sync Center does provide a mechanism for conflict
resolution. I hope to provide more
information about that at a later time.
Link(s):
CD
Nice, CD. This will probably solve our problem. Question though, how often does it sync? If my app is writing to a network file, then 10 sec later, I pull the network plug and go home, how can I be confident that data won't be lost?
ReplyDeleteThe nice thing is, with regards to files that you are creating and editing, your local "cache" will always be up to date with your latest changes. Once your local "cache" is written to, then Windows will go about updating the file out on the network drive.
ReplyDeleteFile changes that are made by others to your "offline folder" are not immediately brought into your cache. Instead, you need to provide a schedule for when you want Windows to synchronize changes down from the network folder. I will post more about this over the weekend.
What I want you to take away from this is that your own files will always be up to date and available to you offline.
CD