PC Sync

Installing Pcsync takes a few steps. You might be required to install Java Virtual Machine (included on the CD-ROM) if it's not installed already. Additionally, to use a USB cable (supplied seperately), USB drivers need to be installed as well (includes a serial cable for transfers involving older systems). But after a couple of reboots, we had our systems--one Windows Me and one Windows 2000--hooked up and ready to go.

Pcsync uses a split-screen that lets you browse the contents of both PCs using either system. File transfer is as simple as drag-and-drop from one window to the other--you can also use right-click menus to send files from one system to the other. Using USB to transfer files is a boon to any user who has ever watched files drag their way from one system to another via a serial cable. When copying large files we were able to get sustained transfer rates of over 400 KB per second--it took only nine seconds to transfer a 4 MB file. Pcsync also supports many Internet storage sites, letting you easily transfer files between your system and the online drives.

Pcsync includes a Copy My Files Wizard, which walks you through the steps of transferring all your documents and data files from one system to another. For example, if you purchase a new PC, you can install Pcsync on both systems, hook them up, and then use this wizard to update the new one with all your personal files from your older system. And for those users planning on keeping both systems hooked up, Pcsync's SmartXchange feature synchronises folders on both PCs, automatically keeping the same file versions in each.

We would have liked to see better documentation with Pcsync--all the help files were on the CD-ROM, with only a skeletal installation and user's guide printed on the CD jacket. But the software does a slick job of attacking what can often be a monumental task--after we made our way through the installation process, file transfers were never easier. --J Curtis, Amazon.com

I need to occasionally transfer files of up to 100mb between my work's IBM Thinkpad laptop running Windows 2000 to my home PC (3 yrs old Pentium 3 550) running Windows 98. I did have a home network, but I have an amateur home recording studio, with hard-disk recording of audio, virtual synthesizers etc, and this was being hampered by the network drivers.

On the Win2000 machine, it installed perfectly and ran first time (thought I had to disable the infra-red port for improved performance). On the Win98 PC, it wouldn't see the special gold USB cable without having to restore some of the system files first (iphlpapi.dll). Once I got it working, the USB performance was appalling (7kb/sec!!), so I had to repair Direct Networking and now get transfer speeds of between 650 and 900 kb/sec. To do so, I had to make extensive use of Laplink's support knowledge base (articles 158, 360 and 194).

In summary, as the previous reviewer says, you're better off with a network unless like me, that's something you want to avoid. I get acceptable (but not great) rates when I need to transfer files and everything else works fine. Maybe I can improve the performance further and maybe USB 2.0 would be faster anyway... who knows. For me though, it works.


Rubbish   November 22, 2001
46 out of 49 found this review helpful

Don't buy this whatever you do. I am an experienced PC user (since 1984) and this is the worse peace of Software/drivers I have come across. Its hardly rocket science to write a transfer program (that's how Laplink got started), but yet this lot have gone so over the top, the product installs all kinds of rubbish (network drivers, Java console, USB layers etc) which all just seems to conflict with any other devices/drivers you may have. I even rebuilt my PC, but still got problems a day later. I managed to get my money back but my PC has never been the same since as the uninstall leaves all kinds of rubbish in the registry.

If you want to Sync 2 PC's, buy 2 network cards ( 10 each) and use mybriefcase, it will be 10x faster, save you money and more reliable.