Intelligent migration/sync tool for PC to PC over LAN?

Hello... [W764 Ultimate on two laptops]

Situation: Work on primary laptop 12hrs/day, often installing programs or making other changes. Have a secondary laptop as a safeguard, in case the primary laptop fails and takes time to order parts/etc.

Been using MacReflect to make an image of primary laptop, then migrating that image to the 2nd laptop... but each time have to inject drivers and reinstall cert/OEM key, etc

Goal: Looking for an intelligent migration tool that won't copy over things already present on the target machine, just update it. But this can include newly installed programs, so FileSync, etc aren't useful.

Tried EASUS Todo PCTrans - did not recognize that 99% of the programs on the source machine were already present on the target. And I can't manually scan all those listed programs... the sftw needs to compare the two systems like a synch program does, and just show me the changed items.

Anyone know of a migration/sync tool that does this? Would appreciate any suggestions! Thanks!

PS Both laptops are similar in specs with standard 1TB internal drives.

Simple way is use a free virtual machine then you can just open it on any PC in the world

RoWin7 said:

I also have multiple machines with the same programs. Syncs and LANs are for copying data; they don't install programs because installs interact with the OS, scatter their files over several folders and make entries in the registry. When I add a program to Machine #1, I have to sit down at Machine #2 and do the same. [...]

I always thought that too, but then found Zinstall and the one I mentioned, EASUS Todo PCTrans. These programs are for migrating all programs, files, settings, data, pics, etc - your entire system - from one machine to another, over your LAN.

They are targeted to the person who (for example) buys a new W10 machine, and wants their W7 machine duplicated on the new W10 system. Zinstall or PCTrans will connect both machines on your LAN, then transfer everything from the W7 machine to the W10 machine.... it's like migrating an image but better b/c it doesn't bring over the wrong drivers or break licensing on the target machine. But all programs are 'installed' by the transfer process using intelligent migration (copying install files to various folders, making reg keys, etc, in accord with the target's OS)... along with copying all data, settings, files, etc.

You can also choose to NOT transfer certain programs or data, if you choose.

So it's "this close" to what people like you and I are looking for, who want to keep machines updated without migrating an image, then having to reinstall drivers, chipsets, etc... and licensing.

But PCTrans listed all programs installed on the source machine, with only a handful marked as 'already present' on the target machine (when I'd just done a standard image migration, so I knew all programs were in fact present, except maybe one or two small open source tools I'd added)... so the 'synch' part of the program is not up to the task. I did not want it to 'reinstall everything' ... just what was missing.

I guess I'll have to look deeper into Zinstall to see if it's any better, or to other programs that are along these lines. A newer breed, it seems. If you find anything please post it in this thread. :)

samuria said:

Simple way is use a free virtual machine then you can just open it on any PC in the world

Thanks for the suggestion. My system is complex (several drives with various purposes) and I don't want to get into a VM. Just want my plain old laptop duplicated on my 2nd machine, so I can jump on that machine if need be. :) Old school, I guess.

Thanks, but I do not use cloud services. Against my religion.

I did try PCTrans again - it was not viable. It did transport some programs but most did not work and would have needed reinstallment. Also created other messy problems. So restored the original image and updated C:\ manually. Luckily I keep all data on subsequent partitions (D, E, F...) so it was only C:\ that needed updating and ended up only taking a few hours to install a few missing programs and adjust shortcuts on the desktop, etc.

From now in am using Free FileSynch to synch data files from the other partitions, and also have it synching the browser folders on C:\ and a few other important folders (for my purposes) like the Desktop, etc, so that I won't have to migrate anymore to keep the second machine current. Will just make a note when I install a new program on the primary machine, so I can install it on the secondary machine later. That takes far less time than migration and keeps the secondary machine current as I go.

Thanks to all for the input.

RolandJS said:

How do you handle the license situation? Some programs are smart enough to call home and make sure only one computer has that one particular license

You firewall them out of the network and ensure they don't publish your private data to anyone. Even the rudimentary Windows Firewall does a good job at this, when properly configured.