When transferring (backing up) large files (whether many files, or simply large files) over the LAN, use an FTP server and client (FileZilla is excellent for both). Windows throws permission errors all the time and there’s nothing more frustrating than a 50 GB file transfer via Windows File Sharing being stopped at the 42 GB mark because a program is using a file. FTP is not called File Transfer Protocol for nothing. It’s designed to copy files and does so intelligently. Not only can it resume large files, it will simply move on to the next file if it comes across one it cannot copy. At the end, it leaves you with a nice little list of files that it wasn’t able to copy–most of the time those are files you didn’t need anyway. (Thumbs.db anyone?)
An even nicer option, but one which costs a bit of money, is BeyondCompare, a terrific program that I use all the time to keep folders synced and to resume failed Windows transfers by only copying the files that didn’t make it the first time around.
2 Responses
February 12th, 2009 at 4:07 pm
I’ve been using Dropbox for a while now for folder syncing and haven’t had any problems. You get 2GBs free, can share folders with anyone through their web interface and if you want, you can get tricky with firefox’s password file to sync passwords accross computers (and platforms).
-getdropbox.com
February 27th, 2009 at 1:54 am
Oh yeah! FileZilla rocks!!
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