You would think that there would be something built right into Windows that allowed you to sync two folders, one on your hard drive and one on an external drive. Why not just drag the folder from your laptop to the drive? Well, when I do that, it copies everything, even stuff that has been copied before. If you have several gigabytes of music, this can take forever. It would be nice if Windows only made copies of the new stuff since the last backup. It would be even better if it worked both ways, if it also copied new files on the external hard drive to the laptop. But alas it doesn’t work that way. At least I don’t know a way do to it with just Windows XP.

I knew there must be some utility out there that would do this, but I waited until today to go looking. So today I went over to cnet and checked the download for a free application that could synchronize folders. I found GoodSync and it did exactly what I wanted. It analyzed the folder on my laptop and the folder on my external hard drive and copied files both ways that were missing. It seems great, but I just noticed that it’s only a free trial. After 30 days, I’ll need to pay $29.95 to keep it.

I’ve only used it once, but it seems to work well, and it was easy for me to figure out. If I notice any problems, I’ll come back here and update this.

• Misery is a Butterfly by Blonde Redhead
• Blood Bank by Bon Iver
• He War by Cat Power, also check out “The Greatest” which is also at the same link
• Tomorrow by Ladytron, I like the Great Northern Remix
• Star Witness by Neko Case
• My Rights Versus Yours by The New Pornographers
• Such Great Heights by The Postal Service
• Crazed by Rondo Brothers
• For You by Sharon Van Etten
• The Underdog by Spoon, you might also like “I Turn My Camera On” which was used in a car commercial a few years back.
• The Engine Driver by The Decemberists
• GFC by Albert Hammond Jr.
• My Girls by Animal Collective

This really just scratches the surface of the site. There are lots of other great bands… and of course lots of stuff you won’t like, but who cares? You can listen to it all for free and download whatever songs you like. By the way, here is a video of Crazed by Rondo Brothers: