Compare Two Machines for File Differences

[cpeek]

I have two identical systems (hardware wise) running Windows XP that
were built as master image machines for a cloning process using Ghost.


I would like to be able to compare the two machines to determine any
differences - i.e. system files that are different, different versions,
missing files, etc. Can anyone suggest a utility or process to
accomplish this short of manually going through each machine doing a
side by side comparision?

As a bonus, it would be great to have a tool/process to compare
settings/registry. Does anyone know of something that can do this?

 

[_DD]

I have two identical systems (hardware wise) running Windows XP that
were built as master image machines for a cloning process using Ghost.

I would like to be able to compare the two machines to determine any
differences - i.e. system files that are different, different versions,
missing files, etc.

The best compare program that I have seen is "Beyond Compare" by
Scooter Software. Very direct and functional, but comprehensive (they
even have plugins that allow comparison of MP3 tags, should the need
arise!)

Give them a look at ScooterSoftware.com. DL the evaluation.

Presuming that you already have the two systems networked together,
map your drives to drive letters on the opposite system (not
necessary, but it makes things easier). Beyond Compare will recurse
through all folders, pinpointing differences in file sizes, dates, or
even content (if you choose to do a binary compare).

Having said all of this, you probably don't want to go copying system
files back and forth with wild abandon. This is suggested as a
read-only test to see if anything is missing or corrupt.

As a bonus, it would be great to have a tool/process to compare
settings/registry. Does anyone know of something that can do this?

That's not easy. You could export critical sections of both
registries and compare them with Beyond Compare's 'Diff' but I'd
suspect way too many differences to wade through.