Beginner sync file question

This is a very beginner question for those with multiple computers. ;)

My beginner question is "how best to keep all documents up to date and
backed up if I/we use two computers?" I'm very concerned that I don't
risk making any inadvertent changes to our long term permanent files.

I've never "sync"ed files before (if that is the proper terminology).

Do I just copy all my files (and my wife's files) to our PB on departure
and then back to desktop on return or is there a better way to assure
nothing is lost and all our files are up to date? Or is it better to
somehow segregate the modified or new files and only copy those back to
our "main" computers on return.

In the past, there were just a few documents I (or my wife) was working
on and I'd copy them to my/her desktop Mac on our return. And I wouldn't
use email. But now with a new PB and if we are on vacation longer, I/we
may use many or most of our files while away from home.

FWIW, I back up my desktop Mac to an external HD daily, weekly, monthly.
And I have a small external FW drive that I use with my Powerbook for
backups of any modified files while traveling and for emergency backup
of files, apps and OS.

Perhaps there are good articles on this subject?

Thanks for any tips.

--
Please send email to: nwhiii at yahoo dot com

In article <Gc-dnXbqCej__ojcRVn-pQ.DeleteThis@speakeasy.net>,
Norm <NOSPAM.DeleteThis@nospam.com> wrote:

 > This is a very beginner question for those with multiple computers. ;)
 >
 > My beginner question is "how best to keep all documents up to date and
 > backed up if I/we use two computers?" I'm very concerned that I don't
 > risk making any inadvertent changes to our long term permanent files.
 >
 > I've never "sync"ed files before (if that is the proper terminology).
 >
 > Do I just copy all my files (and my wife's files) to our PB on departure
 > and then back to desktop on return or is there a better way to assure
 > nothing is lost and all our files are up to date? Or is it better to
 > somehow segregate the modified or new files and only copy those back to
 > our "main" computers on return.
 >
 > In the past, there were just a few documents I (or my wife) was working
 > on and I'd copy them to my/her desktop Mac on our return. And I wouldn't
 > use email. But now with a new PB and if we are on vacation longer, I/we
 > may use many or most of our files while away from home.
 >
 > FWIW, I back up my desktop Mac to an external HD daily, weekly, monthly.
 > And I have a small external FW drive that I use with my Powerbook for
 > backups of any modified files while traveling and for emergency backup
 > of files, apps and OS.
 >
 > Perhaps there are good articles on this subject?
 >
 > Thanks for any tips.

I think you'll find it worth the money to buy a synchronization app. I
use ChronoSync to keep selected folders on my PowerBook and iMac in
sync, but there are other apps that are just as good. I run the sync
routines once a day upon returning home. It only takes a few minutes to
synchronize my Desktop, Documents, Sites, Public, and Libarary/Mail
folders. I also use Retrospect to back up the /Users folder on the iMac
to an external hard drive. And I use Carbon Copy Cloner once a week to
clone the iMac's entire drive to an external drive.<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->