Dear Lifehacker,
I'm looking for a program to synchronize folders on two different computers (very different - one is a PC and one is a Macbook). Any suggestions?
Signed,
A Dell + MacBook owner


Dear Dell + MacBook,
There are several file syncing applications for both Windows and OS X, but few point and click options are cross-platform. However, that doesn't matter: most can write to network drives, and it's easy to mount your Windows hard drive on your Mac or vice versa. (Here's how to mount a shared Windows drive on the MacBook, and here's how to see your MacBook share on your PC.)
Once you've got the network drive mounted, you can use an operating system-specific syncing program to work with it. For instance, SilverKeeper for Mac can synchronize a local folder with the mounted Windows drive. On Windows, my favorite app is SyncBack SE, which offers a free version and paid upgrades for more features. If you don't mind working in the Mac Terminal or in Cygwin for Windows, the powerful old-school rsync can mirror files across systems using an encrypted connection.
Whatever route you choose, do be prepared to see hidden system files like the Mac's .DS_Store and Windows' Thumbs.db to show up on the other operating system (which doesn't hide them.) Here's more on dealing with .DS_Store and Thumbs.db.
Bi-OS readers, how do you sync up files between your Mac and PC? Let us know in the comments.
Love,

Lifehacker
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