In some cases, you need two folders in your PC to be synchronized to each other, example synchronize data between folders in your dropbox to local PC in order to save your time in copy it back or some other cases.
Here I would like to show a simple way to use in Windows 7 or 8 with command of mklink
Problem
Your original data is in drive D:/temp/share/toShare
You want to synchronize it to folder in drive C:/temp/myShared
Solution
The solution need to use Windows command from DOS Prompt.
Make sure that you have backup all of your data in drive C: to drive D: in order to synchronize back from drive D: as original source.
- Start your DOS prompt as Administrator
- Type following command <mklink /D “target” “source”>
mklink /D "C:\temp\myShared" "D:\temp\share\toShare"
You could see the successful message as:
symbolic link created for C:\temp\myShared <<===>> D:\temp\share\toShare
Now both folders are linked to each other, if drop a file to one folder, another one also has it and the same for delete or update.
How to delete the symbolic link
BE CAREFUL!
Simply by delete the target destination folder and not the source folder.
In my case, my destination folder that I linked is in drive C: so I just need to delete the folder:
C:/temp/myShared
2 replies on “Link Two Folders for Data Synchronization in Windows”
One of my solution, if anymore, please share in comment.
One use case example as I always perform:
mklink /D "C:\Users\PC_USER\AppData\Roaming\.purple" "D:\Dropbox\.purple"
You will get your Pidgin profile sync. across any machine you by above simple solution.
You can do same thing for other cases such as on Firefox or Thunderbird profile.
Please share your use case.