Help Files

[Tuthmes]

So I've got a large collection of Music and Video's, where from time to time I add stuff I would like to keep. Also I want to check if what I have is compleet or if anything is corrupted.

Nowadays I just manually add files on both my internal HD and external one. Anyways I know I should be looking at backup software to do this automatically, but i'm not sure which one is good.

So a little info there if possible would be great.

The 2nd part should be easy. Open an command promt and navigate to the directory you want and save it to a .txt file or use winamp to save the list and open it with notepad. But this really isnt an option with over 1.5TB of data.

There has got to be a way to see some sort of snapshot of what is in a directory and every sub directory there in it.


I'm running Windows 7 and Kubuntu 11.04. But usually i'm on Windows 7.

 

[caLLous]

Not entirely sure what you're asking but FreeFileSync satisfies all my file sync/backup/comparison needs.

 

[soze]

Here are a few tools with some plus and minus points.

Microsoft also do a program called SyncToy which does a similar job.

 

[Killswitch]

For folder sync/backup on Windows I've used these two and they're both pretty good (rsync is king but cygwin is meh)

DeltaCopy - Rsync for Windows

cwrsync - Rsync for Windows | ITeF!x

And if you're feeling very Windows old-skool then what about RoboCopy?

As for comparing files it should be pretty trivial to write a little batch file that uses dir and windiff to compare your live and backup folders. If you're that way inclined

Cheers

Lulzwitch

 

[Tuthmes]

After some reading I atleast know the difference between a backup or sync (or perhaps I still don't). What I would like to know is if I backup my files from (lets say) drive D to E.

- If I delete a file on D will it be deleted on E aswell (as it would with sync)?
- Everytime the sceduled backup is made does it overwrite every file or just check if the files are still the same and look for changes?

Still havent found something to have a good (and easy) look at my file structure (dir tree + files).

 

[caLLous]

Well, using FreeFileSync as an example, it has a few different ways of "syncing". The notable ones are:

1. MIRROR. This maintains exactly the same files in each folder (it will delete stuff on the right side to make it match the left side if necessary)
2. UPDATE. This is what I use, it just updates stuff on the right from the left if it doesn't find it there or if the entry on the left was modified more recently or is bigger etc (you can tell it to ask you what to do as it find things that might confuse it). You compare the folders first and it shows you a list of everything that will be copied across, it's dead easy.

'Update' is totally non-destructive (apart from updated files, but you typically want the most recent copy) to the right side (the destination), 'mirror' is not. There are also lots of custom things you can do and it will put stuff in the recycle bin rather than deleting it completely so all is not lost if you mess it up.

 

[Tuthmes]

Already hade it installed to compair files. Will have a serious look and a test @ thursday caLLous. See how it goes.

 

[Bob007]

Making a file list is easy. Might take a bit to run through 1.5 tb. Not sure, never done it.

$arr = @()
gci <1> -recurse | ? {$_.PSIsContainer -eq $False} | % {
$obj = New-Object PSObject
$obj | Add-Member NoteProperty Directory $_.DirectoryName
$obj | Add-Member NoteProperty Name $_.Name
$obj | Add-Member NoteProperty Length $_.Length
$arr += $obj
}
$arr | Export-CSV "<2>.csv"

Powershell script will extract the directory, file name and file size. Plenty of other NotePropery out there.

<1> = top folder you want to start at, F:\Music will start looking from there and work down.

<2> = Location of CSV you want to save. C:\Music.csv

Something like....

$arr = @()
gci F:\Music -recurse | ? {$_.PSIsContainer -eq $False} | % {
$obj = New-Object PSObject
$obj | Add-Member NoteProperty Directory $_.DirectoryName
$obj | Add-Member NoteProperty Name $_.Name
$obj | Add-Member NoteProperty Length $_.Length
$arr += $obj
}
$arr | Export-CSV "C:\Music.csv"

Import the csv into excel and play with it as you see fit.

 

[MYstIC G]

Crashplan is good for backups.

I use it to remote site backup over Hamachi and it works a treat.