Expert SyncToy Question...

[Guest]

OK...

SyncToy is great...although I have a question that I can't work out the
answer, so I suppose it might turn into a feature request.

Here's the scenario:

Say I have 200Gb of music albums stored on my computer, but my MP3 player
only has a 40Gb capacity.

Obviously I can't put all my music from the computer onto the mp3 player
(and neither would I want to)

What I'd like to be able to do is: Have SyncToy scan both devices but to use
this position as a 'baseline', and not to try and sync the 2 devices up. But
from then on using an 'Echo Pairing' just copy over to the MP3 player, New,
Amended or Deleted items.

This way my MP3 player would receive anything New that I have put on the
computer, it would rename stuff on the MP3 player that I have edited on the
computer(which I do all the time with Tag&Rename), and it would delete stuff
from the player that I have deleted from the computer(which I also )

Do you understand what I mean?

 

[Michael J. Mahon]

OK...

SyncToy is great...although I have a question that I can't work out the
answer, so I suppose it might turn into a feature request.

Here's the scenario:

Say I have 200Gb of music albums stored on my computer, but my MP3 player
only has a 40Gb capacity.

Obviously I can't put all my music from the computer onto the mp3 player
(and neither would I want to)

What I'd like to be able to do is: Have SyncToy scan both devices but to use
this position as a 'baseline', and not to try and sync the 2 devices up. But
from then on using an 'Echo Pairing' just copy over to the MP3 player, New,
Amended or Deleted items.

This way my MP3 player would receive anything New that I have put on the
computer, it would rename stuff on the MP3 player that I have edited on the
computer(which I do all the time with Tag&Rename), and it would delete stuff
from the player that I have deleted from the computer(which I also )

Do you understand what I mean?

I think so. I don't know of a fully automatic solution.

But you can already do something almost exactly equivalent to this
by sorting the computer's music folder by date, then selecting the
most recent files and copying them to your player. This is a very
simple and quick "click", "shift-click" operation.

In any case, you are responsible for deciding what to delete from
the player to make more room for newer files (unless they are just
updated versions of existing files).

-michael

Music synthesis for 8-bit Apple II's!
Home page: http://members.aol.com/MJMahon/

"The wastebasket is our most important design
tool--and it is seriously underused."

 

[Guest]

I think so. I don't know of a fully automatic solution.

Mac: OK..So you're not the 'Expert' I was looking for

But you can already do something almost exactly equivalent to this
by sorting the computer's music folder by date, then selecting the
most recent files and copying them to your player. This is a very
simple and quick "click", "shift-click" operation.

Mac: If I had 200Gb of music 'albums', would it be logical to house them all
in one 'Folder'?

Mac: And Yes, I am aware that you can sort files by date, but directories?

Mac: And Thirdly, if we are talking about a tool whose primary objective is
to make synchronising files an easy task, why the hell are you talking about
'work arounds'?

In any case, you are responsible for deciding what to delete from
the player to make more room for newer files (unless they are just
updated versions of existing files).

Mac: You plainly have not understood my proposal. I clearly stated that I
would like deletions from the left be undertook on the right.

<End of communication>

Mac: Nevertheless, Moving on, Answer me this...

Mac: I am currently happy with the balance of files on both my 'left' and
'right', and they are not identical, but from this point moving forward I
would like 'changes' of any kind on the left to be 'Reflected' on the right.

Mac: Proper answers only please, I'm sick of hearing 'ooh, you muppet,
didn't you know you could do this or that' without answering the proper
question.

 

[Guest]

I've found an acceptable middle ground.

the problem was that I was trying to sync a folder with more files that my
target device had space for, but I only wanted to sync the deltas (the
changes), not all files.

I was trying to sync my m:\music folder (100gb)
to my iRiver g:\music folder (I love iRiver players)

I only wanted the changes, because I only wanted new music & directory edits
to be replicated.

so I split my m:\Music folder down into 2 separate areas:

M:\music\old_faves\ (which isn't going to change that often)
&
M:\music\new_faves\ (which probably will have lots of filename & dir
changes)

and now I just replicate the much smaller 'new_faves' to my player.

Brilliant, it works like a dream ! And I've started recommending it to people.