Copying over only the things that are different

Possible Duplicate:
Which is the best application to Sync two folders?

I'm having a hard time synchronizing my folders. Currently I'm doing manual RAID-1.

It sucks because OCCASSIONALLY I update a folder on drive C: that needs to be "mirrored" over to drive F:.

WHen I do the mirror, windows wants to overwrite ALL or overwrite NONE (which means hella longer copy time), instead of letting me only "overwrite if source file is newer".

How can I do that?

bobobobo

Posted 2009-08-19T16:42:37.583

Reputation: 4 632

What automated tools have you tried and why did you reject them? – ChrisF – 2009-08-19T16:45:25.470

Normally any synchronization tools should be able to do this... – Ivo Flipse – 2009-08-19T16:55:50.270

Not everyone knows that there are tools for that, Ivo ;) – Gnoupi – 2009-08-19T17:20:55.853

Answers

You could try SyncToy, great for such tasks.

SyncToy

Typically, for your use, you would create a folder pair with C:\Something on the left, F:\Something on the right, and the action "Echo". It would make the right folder a backup from the left one, copying only modified files.

If I understood well, this is what you need ?

Note that you have ways of setting a SyncToy task in Scheduled tasks, and have your backup executed on a regular basis.

Gnoupi

Posted 2009-08-19T16:42:37.583

Reputation: 7 909

Use xcopy /d/y <source> <destination>, example:

xcopy /d/y C:\Backup\MyFolder F:\SAVED\MyFolder

maxwellb

Posted 2009-08-19T16:42:37.583

Reputation: 935

I want to do this to my entire hard drive, but it barfs at system files (like hiberfil.sys) any ideas? – Justin – 2009-10-22T21:41:01.050

Microsoft's RichCopy tool provides the options for this (plus a ton more):

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TJ L

Posted 2009-08-19T16:42:37.583

Reputation: 1 869

As you've already noticed, there are a number of ways this can be done. Personally, I use SyncBack (free version) and run it occasionally. It can also be run through Windows Scheduler to happen on a regular basis. All sorts of options.

LifeHacker also has one of their Hive Five for syncing files. Very useful, as per they are voted on by the users. (lifehacker, search for hive five best file syncing tools)

For you it sounds like any of these would work. Just a matter of preference. :-)

TiX2garr

Posted 2009-08-19T16:42:37.583

Reputation:

I've been using GIF Backup (http://www.gfi.com/backup-hm/backup-hm-features.htm) as a backup solution and it works pretty well. It doesn't use any proprietary files for backing up, it just does a straight copy. You can set it to only do incremental copying, so it only backups or copies what was changed since the last run!

Chuck

Posted 2009-08-19T16:42:37.583

Reputation: 491

Try BART: Very small in size and works great. It's also very fast.

http://www.zhornsoftware.co.uk/bart/index.html

Robert

Posted 2009-08-19T16:42:37.583

Reputation: 53