Hello:
This thread is a spin-off of my NAS thread. I decided to spin it off and start this one in the Windows subforum because even though it's storage and network related, what I really need is to learn how to do all this in Windows 10 Pro. At this time, I don't need these instructions for Mac or Linux.
Here's the test I want to do, but am struggling with the concepts as implemented in Windows 10 Pro.
Set up 3 folders, one each on my workstation, laptop, and MyBook NAS. The first two run Windows 10 Pro and the MyBook runs the factory OS for that device. The firmware has been updated on the MyBook.
Here are the steps (in plain language) that I "think" I need to perform. I just don't know how do do them in Windows:
Test 1:
1. Define a "remote/cloud" test folder on my NAS and make it visible on my home network. This will be the "cloud sync" interim folder. If I go live with this, the interim folder will not be backed up.
2. Define a "workstation local" test folder on my Windows 10 Pro workstation on a partition other than "C:". It will contain files of different types, and would be backed up (if this were a permenant setup). If I go live, this folder would be backed up as part of my normal workstation backup strategy.
3. Put some copies of various files into the worstation local folder.
4. Point the workstation local folder to the empty NAS folder created in 1 above.
5. Sync the workstation and NAS folders. The NAS folder should now have the SAME files in it as the workstation local folder.
Test 2
6. Define a "laptop local" test folder on my Windows 10 Pro laptop on a partition other than "C:". If I go live, this folder would be a part of my laptop backup strategy.
7. Point the laptop folder to the NAS folder that was created in 1 above.
8. Sync the laptop and the NAS. Now the laptop, NAS, and workstation should have the same folder contents.
Test 3
9. Add a file to the laptop folder.
10. Sync laptop with the NAS. Confirm that the new file should have been copied to the NAS.
11. Sync workstation with the NAS. The new file should now be present on all three devices.
12. Automate the Workstation and Laptop syncs, then play around, adding, deleting, and changing files on either the laptop or the workstation. Confirm that all actions on one PC get replicated to the NAS and then to the other PC.
13. Confirm that laptop, NAS, and Workstation play nice and don't accidentally result in deleted files or changes not being replicated.
I think I should be able to do this with a combination of Window's setting for "Always available offline" and the Windows "Sync Center" running on both computers. But I'm in over my head a bit here as to the configuration I need to do. The articles I've found online are really not very helpful.
Can anybody give me some guidance on how to do this, or where there might be some decent documentation? I'm happy to self-educate.