Which free tool would you recommend? (file backups/copies) ALREADY SOLVED THANK YOU ALL!
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Hello all, After asking here about a good tool to make some file copying, I've received wonderful answers from a lot of members here. At the end I've chosen Robocopy as [@Gary R. Wheeler](/Members/Gary R. Wheeler) has suggested. Thank you again Gary and thank you all for your posts, they are really interesting! ================================================================================ At our house computer (Windows 7) we have an USB external hard disk which is used to copy our documents and important files and have them in another physical disk (you know: just in case). Nowadays what I'm doing is something like: delete the second disk completely and then copying everything again to the second one. X| X| X| I hate doing that and I'm sure any method under the sun will be better. Now my question is: I would like to get something lightweight, that could be programmed to work each week or so and that would ensure that all the data would be updated on the backup folder. I’m not worried on the deleted files: if we delete one file we want it that way so it should be deleted also in the “backup”. What tool would you recommend, which configuration would you recommend and why? Thank you in advance! :thumbsup:
[www.tamautomation.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
I've been using Cobian Back-up[^] for donkeys' yonks, because it's configuration is so easy and logical.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
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Hello all, After asking here about a good tool to make some file copying, I've received wonderful answers from a lot of members here. At the end I've chosen Robocopy as [@Gary R. Wheeler](/Members/Gary R. Wheeler) has suggested. Thank you again Gary and thank you all for your posts, they are really interesting! ================================================================================ At our house computer (Windows 7) we have an USB external hard disk which is used to copy our documents and important files and have them in another physical disk (you know: just in case). Nowadays what I'm doing is something like: delete the second disk completely and then copying everything again to the second one. X| X| X| I hate doing that and I'm sure any method under the sun will be better. Now my question is: I would like to get something lightweight, that could be programmed to work each week or so and that would ensure that all the data would be updated on the backup folder. I’m not worried on the deleted files: if we delete one file we want it that way so it should be deleted also in the “backup”. What tool would you recommend, which configuration would you recommend and why? Thank you in advance! :thumbsup:
[www.tamautomation.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
Syncback free is the perfect tool for this. Using this on multiple family/ friends computers for years. http://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/freeware-hub.html[^]
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Hello all, After asking here about a good tool to make some file copying, I've received wonderful answers from a lot of members here. At the end I've chosen Robocopy as [@Gary R. Wheeler](/Members/Gary R. Wheeler) has suggested. Thank you again Gary and thank you all for your posts, they are really interesting! ================================================================================ At our house computer (Windows 7) we have an USB external hard disk which is used to copy our documents and important files and have them in another physical disk (you know: just in case). Nowadays what I'm doing is something like: delete the second disk completely and then copying everything again to the second one. X| X| X| I hate doing that and I'm sure any method under the sun will be better. Now my question is: I would like to get something lightweight, that could be programmed to work each week or so and that would ensure that all the data would be updated on the backup folder. I’m not worried on the deleted files: if we delete one file we want it that way so it should be deleted also in the “backup”. What tool would you recommend, which configuration would you recommend and why? Thank you in advance! :thumbsup:
[www.tamautomation.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
robocopy with the /mir switch.
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Hello all, After asking here about a good tool to make some file copying, I've received wonderful answers from a lot of members here. At the end I've chosen Robocopy as [@Gary R. Wheeler](/Members/Gary R. Wheeler) has suggested. Thank you again Gary and thank you all for your posts, they are really interesting! ================================================================================ At our house computer (Windows 7) we have an USB external hard disk which is used to copy our documents and important files and have them in another physical disk (you know: just in case). Nowadays what I'm doing is something like: delete the second disk completely and then copying everything again to the second one. X| X| X| I hate doing that and I'm sure any method under the sun will be better. Now my question is: I would like to get something lightweight, that could be programmed to work each week or so and that would ensure that all the data would be updated on the backup folder. I’m not worried on the deleted files: if we delete one file we want it that way so it should be deleted also in the “backup”. What tool would you recommend, which configuration would you recommend and why? Thank you in advance! :thumbsup:
[www.tamautomation.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
A very old one I've used in the past: Karen's Replicator[^] For something written in VB6 it doesn't seem to work badly at all. Reasonably fast, not too resource hungry and once you've set it up - there's no user interruptions. Not saying it's "better" than any of the others, it probably isn't. But AFAICT it provides all needed functionality in a way that even a non-PC-litterate could get something going.
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c#, system.IO, Windows service SMACK ouch. I use windows backup but it is not what you are looking for. I don't know of any backup system that will remove deleted files from the repository. Sort of defeats the purpose of backup me thinks!
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
I don't plan to automate it... so I would only make the backup once needed (which is each time I add some pictures to the HDD). Using Robocopy (which I've already tried) it's a breeze and really fast so I've chosen that option. Thank you! :thumbsup:
[www.tamautomation.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
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FreeFileSync http://sourceforge.net/projects/freefilesync/[^] is very good. Can be used to sync two folders, or to mirror one folder to another. It's similar to SyncToy mentioned by others, but has the advantage that it uses Volume Shadow Copy to copy files in use, which SyncToy does not (I believe). The "preview" window allows you to see what files will be copied and make changes if needed. Or you can run it in batch mode. One disadvantage of FreeFileSync is that it uses the SourceForge installer, so during install you have to look for and turn off the option to install some other piece of crap-ware.
Looks nice, I've gone with Robocopy, it works, shows the amount of errors at the end and it's blazingly fast. Enough for my needs. But thank you, I'll keep an eye to it, it seems nice and sometimes you need a GUI to work with something as the user is not tech-savy. :thumbsup:
[www.tamautomation.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
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Terracopy.
I guess you mean Teracopy[^]. Looks good, but time ago I tried it and even it worked well it was not as fast as they were telling... probably something wrong in my PC... Have not thought on that, but I'll stay with robocopy. Thank you! :thumbsup:
[www.tamautomation.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
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I have used Comodo Backup[^] in the past, and it worked just fine. It has very nice feature set.
Remind Me This - Manage, Collaborate and Execute your Project in the Cloud
I'll keep robocopy as it is already installed on my W7 computer and it does what I need (simple copy to an external HDD). Anyway, that tool seems really powerful. Looks good, I'll keep an eye on it. Thank you! :thumbsup:
[www.tamautomation.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
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I wrote this[^] more than 10 years ago - it's pretty basic (no scheduling :( ) but may be of help in a pinch. A full-feature one is in the works, but it will be a few months before it's available. /ravi
My new year resolution: 2048 x 1536 Home | Articles | My .NET bits | Freeware ravib(at)ravib(dot)com
I'll stick with Robocopy, but this looks promising. Will you make an article of it? Thank you for the suggestion! :thumbsup:
[www.tamautomation.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
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I don't plan to automate it... so I would only make the backup once needed (which is each time I add some pictures to the HDD). Using Robocopy (which I've already tried) it's a breeze and really fast so I've chosen that option. Thank you! :thumbsup:
[www.tamautomation.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
Excellent, a useful bit of research, I think I'll just tag along with the same implementation :)
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
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I gave up with external drives for backup. I use http://www.drobox.com[^] and I'm very happy with it. I had a couple of crashes recently and got all my data back very easily. Plus I can access my documents from anywhere. :)
Even remote backup seems a good idea (and it is indeed) I don't feel really comfortable uploading all my pictures, videos and documents to a place where anyone could see them... I guess that no one would be interested on my pr0n neither on my plans to attack several countries, but imagine that could happen... :rolleyes: Seriously, it is a good option, but to get it working properly you need a good speed rate and at our place it is not possible to get it so I prefer something local. Thank you! :thumbsup: PS: just in case somebody here (which is important) or someone at the NSA or similar (which is not) have not understood that the phrase about pr0n and so is a joke they should visit a psychologist.
[www.tamautomation.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
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I've been using Cobian Back-up[^] for donkeys' yonks, because it's configuration is so easy and logical.
I wanna be a eunuchs developer! Pass me a bread knife!
Thank you Mark, but I'll keep the robocopy tool, it has been a breeze to setup, it is blazingly fast and makes what should do for me. Oh, and it is already installed in all Win7 computers so... Thank you again for your suggestion! :thumbsup:
[www.tamautomation.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
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Syncback free is the perfect tool for this. Using this on multiple family/ friends computers for years. http://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/freeware-hub.html[^]
Thank you selvan1790, I'll use robocopy, it has been what looked like more to what I need. :thumbsup:
[www.tamautomation.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
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robocopy with the /mir switch.
Yepo, that's the one I've chosen after the suggestions. Thank you! :thumbsup:
[www.tamautomation.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
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A very old one I've used in the past: Karen's Replicator[^] For something written in VB6 it doesn't seem to work badly at all. Reasonably fast, not too resource hungry and once you've set it up - there's no user interruptions. Not saying it's "better" than any of the others, it probably isn't. But AFAICT it provides all needed functionality in a way that even a non-PC-litterate could get something going.
Somehow VB and safety not look good in the same sentence without a big not in between both of them :laugh: I've not tested it and probably it will work wonderfully well, I've got robocopy working after some suggestions and it seems a good choice for my needs. Thank you for your hint! :thumbsup:
[www.tamautomation.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
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Excellent, a useful bit of research, I think I'll just tag along with the same implementation :)
Never underestimate the power of human stupidity RAH
If you want to use it, and you want to copy special folders like "My documents" you will have to use the /XJ switch to exclude juntions and allow it to continue processing the copy. I've ended with /MIR /XJ. Good luck! :thumbsup:
[www.tamautomation.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
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Somehow VB and safety not look good in the same sentence without a big not in between both of them :laugh: I've not tested it and probably it will work wonderfully well, I've got robocopy working after some suggestions and it seems a good choice for my needs. Thank you for your hint! :thumbsup:
[www.tamautomation.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
Joan Murt wrote:
Somehow VB and safety not look good in the same sentence
Yep! :thumbsup: That also scared me! One thing though: a few years ago I was tasked with a syncing app for my employer. The thing was they were rendering using 3dStudio, they were using a distributed render farm through the VRay addon. This meant that up to 50 PC's could be used at once to render a single image. They did however end up with issues as the network had access problems for sharing materials and such between the master PC and the slaves. Everything was tried including placing the materials on shared folders, but there was allways issues with this. Not to mention network traffic became bogged down as the same files were effectively copied multiple times to each PC. The idea behind the app I had to write for them was to keep network traffic to an absolute minimum while making a local copy of the materials on each PC. I ended up using robocopy, but it was found that even that would not suffice as it would still copy the entire material (if it was changed) - these wiles were easily several 100MB each, so were a real problem - especially as these were constantly modified (tweaked). The end product worked much the same way as a torrent client in that it broke each file into blocks, then used CRC to check if those blocks were different between PCs - only transmitting the different portions. It ended up using 1/1000th of the bandwidth the shared folder used, and around 1/100th of what robocopy did - though it was very specific on that use case. I haven't seen such for LAN / Local backup before, not even sure if something like DropBox does similar - though I'd have definitely given such idea a lot of time if I wanted to create a DropBox (or similar) client app.
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Joan Murt wrote:
Somehow VB and safety not look good in the same sentence
Yep! :thumbsup: That also scared me! One thing though: a few years ago I was tasked with a syncing app for my employer. The thing was they were rendering using 3dStudio, they were using a distributed render farm through the VRay addon. This meant that up to 50 PC's could be used at once to render a single image. They did however end up with issues as the network had access problems for sharing materials and such between the master PC and the slaves. Everything was tried including placing the materials on shared folders, but there was allways issues with this. Not to mention network traffic became bogged down as the same files were effectively copied multiple times to each PC. The idea behind the app I had to write for them was to keep network traffic to an absolute minimum while making a local copy of the materials on each PC. I ended up using robocopy, but it was found that even that would not suffice as it would still copy the entire material (if it was changed) - these wiles were easily several 100MB each, so were a real problem - especially as these were constantly modified (tweaked). The end product worked much the same way as a torrent client in that it broke each file into blocks, then used CRC to check if those blocks were different between PCs - only transmitting the different portions. It ended up using 1/1000th of the bandwidth the shared folder used, and around 1/100th of what robocopy did - though it was very specific on that use case. I haven't seen such for LAN / Local backup before, not even sure if something like DropBox does similar - though I'd have definitely given such idea a lot of time if I wanted to create a DropBox (or similar) client app.
Seems an interesting project indeed. As always: the right tool for the job. :cool:
[www.tamautomation.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
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do you mean dropbox.com?
Steve _________________ I C(++) therefore I am
yes :)
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Hello all, After asking here about a good tool to make some file copying, I've received wonderful answers from a lot of members here. At the end I've chosen Robocopy as [@Gary R. Wheeler](/Members/Gary R. Wheeler) has suggested. Thank you again Gary and thank you all for your posts, they are really interesting! ================================================================================ At our house computer (Windows 7) we have an USB external hard disk which is used to copy our documents and important files and have them in another physical disk (you know: just in case). Nowadays what I'm doing is something like: delete the second disk completely and then copying everything again to the second one. X| X| X| I hate doing that and I'm sure any method under the sun will be better. Now my question is: I would like to get something lightweight, that could be programmed to work each week or so and that would ensure that all the data would be updated on the backup folder. I’m not worried on the deleted files: if we delete one file we want it that way so it should be deleted also in the “backup”. What tool would you recommend, which configuration would you recommend and why? Thank you in advance! :thumbsup:
[www.tamautomation.com] Robots, CNC and PLC machines for grinding and polishing.
GoodSync from Siber Systems is good and easy to use.