What can I use for USB thumb drive syncing?

[krye]

I want to keep the files on my thumb drive in sync with my Mac. This way, if I loose the thumb drive, I'll know exactly what was on it. Sure, all the files are on my machine anyway, but for day to day file swapping stuff, not everything ends up back where it belongs. And I'd have to hunt and peck to find all my "on the go" files, etc, etc. You know, stuff I like to keep handy.

It would be nice to know every time I popped my thumb drive in, everything was copied to a directory as a backup. I know if I lost the thumb drive they'll be that one file that never made it back to my mac, or I won't notice it's gone until I need it.

What app can I use to duplicate the thumb drive automatically to a directly upon mounting?

 

[MisterMe]

...

What app can I use to duplicate the thumb drive automatically to a directly upon mounting?

Any MacOS X synching utility will do. I use Qdea's Synchronize! Pro X.

Caveat: It works much better if your format your thumb drive as HFS+.

 

[krye]

Any MacOS X synching utility will do. I use Qdea's Synchronize! Pro X.

Caveat: It works much better if your format your thumb drive as HFS+.

Cool, but I need to keep it as FAT32 for Windows compatibility. And I was thinking this is something a free app could do.

 

[davidwarren]

synctwofolders might do it.

edit-- let me know if you find a way to schedule a sync with this program

 

[krye]

I figured out a simpler solution. I created a folder called "USB backup". I dragged the contents of the thumb drive into it. I then created an Automator action to replace the contents of that directory with the contents from the thumb drive. I saved the action as an application and put it on the desktop.

Now, before I eject the thumb drive, I double-click the desktop icon and everything is replaced in the backup folder. Now if I loose the drive, someone steals it, or it breaks, I can rest assured that I'll know exactly what was on it the last time it left my machine.

Not bad.

 

[brand]

I can rest assured that I'll know exactly what was on it the last time it left my machine.

If you remember to run your sync program.

 

[krye]

I found a better syncing workflow on Apple's site. You have top install it to Automator and edit the source and destination directories for what you want, set it to show the dialog when run and save it as an application. It works great.

http://www.apple.com/downloads/macosx/automator/syncfoldersaction.html