Depending on your needs, I definitely prefer the reinvented wheel called rsync. Just because something has been invented doesn't mean that it cannot be usefully redone. It just means that you should think twice before you do it and have a reason. But wheels have been reinvented a few times over the last few thousand years, and on the whole I prefer the ones that we have today... :-)

ObRandomObservation: Take a look. While you are not supposed to reinvent wheels, hubcaps seem to be a different story...