What are some desktop laptop merging solutions?

[jtjallday]

I have a Dell XPS 13 that I use for medical school stuff, which is great because of the battery life. I also have an awesome gaming rig at home. I prefer to work on my desktop because of the bigger screen and more comfortable set up, but I need to have access to the files on my laptop when go to school or the hospital. Instead of constantly using a USB to swap files, is there a way that I can have a shared folder between them for pdfs, videos, Microsoft office documents, etc.? I have windows 10 home edition on both. 

[Renton577]

Try using Onedrive built into Windows 10, as long as they have internet that should be fine.

[Electronics Wizardy]

 

You setup a file share if you need to acess files. You can store stuff in the cloud, you can store stuff on a external hdd and carry it with you and store everything on that drive

[squirrl]

There's 2 main solutions:

 

- Setup synchronised folders: Files in each folder are copied/deleted so that each folder is in sync with each other. This will happen when you go home and both devices are connected to each other over the network.

 

- Use something like Dropbox to automatically upload these files to the internet. when each computer accesses the internet, it will download any changes that have been made. This also allows you to access files on other devices or share them with your friends/family.

 

An alternative to the last solution is use your desktop as a server and host a private version yourself. This gives you as much storage as you like, but you're limited to the upload/download speed of your home network, and there's no backup unless you make it yourself.

 

You could also invest in a NAS which is a box that you connect to your network and acts as a file server. This would have the same limits as using your PC, but without having to keep your PC on the whole time, and can be used as a backup if you have the data on your PC/laptop as well.

 

[m0k]

I use google drive for all my school work
use my laptop when im out of the house
desktop when im back home
simple easy
nothing complicated about it. 
and if needed, i can access the files anywhere else through a browser or my phone 

[BlueChinchillaEatingDorito]

I use OneDrive for Business. My subscription allows me to have an Office suite installed into 5 different computers (Infinite for Android and iOS), all of which are seamlessly integrated with OneDrive so you can open and save files directly on Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc. You can also edit on the webpage if you so desire.

[ixiboneheadixi]

you can just transfer the files around over your network

[jtjallday]

On 7/26/2016 at 4:56 PM, squirrl said:

There's 2 main solutions:

 

- Setup synchronised folders: Files in each folder are copied/deleted so that each folder is in sync with each other. This will happen when you go home and both devices are connected to each other over the network.

 

- Use something like Dropbox to automatically upload these files to the internet. when each computer accesses the internet, it will download any changes that have been made. This also allows you to access files on other devices or share them with your friends/family.

 

An alternative to the last solution is use your desktop as a server and host a private version yourself. This gives you as much storage as you like, but you're limited to the upload/download speed of your home network, and there's no backup unless you make it yourself.

 

You could also invest in a NAS which is a box that you connect to your network and acts as a file server. This would have the same limits as using your PC, but without having to keep your PC on the whole time, and can be used as a backup if you have the data on your PC/laptop as well.

 

Do you have a link to somewhere that explaind how I can set up synchronized folders?

[squirrl]

11 hours ago, jtjallday said:

Do you have a link to somewhere that explaind how I can set up synchronized folders?

You could use something like synctoy (https://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/download/details.aspx?id=15155) or any other sync software that you like. Just follow what it says in the UI or on the website of whatever you choose.

[jtjallday]

Thanks to everyone who replied and helped me out. I just thought I'd give an update on my solution. After trying a few different things, Google Drive turned out to be the easiest and most painless way to share small files between my computers. After adding google drive folders and sub-folders to the QuickAccess panel in FileExplorer, it all just became a breeze. 15GB is plenty of space as most of my files are word documents or pdfs. I had a ton of network connectivity problems with Homegroup and I couldn't access files on my PC from school. Thanks again.

[Ingrid_W]

Nice to Know. But what's the network problem exactly? If your PC is able to connect to network, the Google Drive app could also do. Sync data before accessing. 

[jtjallday]

On 8/8/2016 at 9:50 PM, Ingrid_W said:

Nice to Know. But what's the network problem exactly? If your PC is able to connect to network, the Google Drive app could also do. Sync data before accessing. 

I'm not sure exactly what the problem is. When I first connect the Desktop and the Laptop via homegroup, there aren't any issues. It's when I leave with my laptop and come back do I have connectivity problems. Something about leaving the physical area of my home network kills the Desktop-Laptop connection and it won't reconnect through homegroup until I have the devices forget each other and start over.

[Ingrid_W]

On 2016/8/15 at 1:06 PM, jtjallday said:

I'm not sure exactly what the problem is. When I first connect the Desktop and the Laptop via homegroup, there aren't any issues. It's when I leave with my laptop and come back do I have connectivity problems. Something about leaving the physical area of my home network kills the Desktop-Laptop connection and it won't reconnect through homegroup until I have the devices forget each other and start over.

I am not sure about this homegroup issue. My suggestion is turn off the network and try again. Maybe others can help you about this. Good Luck.