RJM62
Touchdown! Greaser!
- Joined
- Jun 15, 2007
- Messages
- 13,157
- Location
- Upstate New York
- Display Name
Display name:
Geek on the Hill
I use Macrium Reflect for imaging and cloning, and I'm very happy with it. But I was looking for software to copy and update certain files and folders to a folder on my new "disaster-proof" ioSafe external hard drive in unencrypted, uncompressed form, so it can be quickly accessed without any special software if the need arises.
I can do that from the clone drive, of course, but that drive isn't disaster-proof. I wanted these files on the disaster-proof drive, as well. I'm kind of a backup nut.
I must have downloaded a dozen trial programs, none of which could do this simple thing properly. The biggest problem was that they all seemed designed for idiots. Some, for example, had buttons or check boxes for "mail," but only if you used Outlook or Windows Mail. There was no way to manually select the Thunderbird data folder. And most wouldn't let me select a folder on a drive as the backup destination. They could only use the root, and I didn't want to repartition the drive just to do a simply file copy.
I finally gave up and used ShadowSpawn and RoboCopy. It took me about 15 minutes to write a batch file that works just fine. I haven't decided whether to let it monitor for changes or just run as a scheduled task a few times a day. I work with a lot of video and image files that may be changed a dozen or more times before they're done. But I may enable monitoring anyway. I haven't decided yet.
If anyone's interested, this is the batch file I'm currently using:
It assumes that you have ShadowSpawn installed, which just means copying the executable into the System32 folder. It's old, alpha code that's not maintained anymore, but it still works just fine. All it does is shadow the selected folder so RoboCopy can copy it, even if the files are in use. It's pretty standard, old-school stuff. It's also quick-and-dirty. There's no error handling in there. I wasn't even sure that ShadowSpawn (or RoboCopy, for that matter) would work on Win10. But they do.
There was one hiccup, though: I forgot that Win7 and later uses "junctions," which are more like symlinks than ordinary Windows shortcuts. They did this for backward compatibility. The problem is that RoboCopy ****s the bed with gusto on certain junctions and goes into an infinite recursive loop, copying the same folders inside of themselves until the drive is full.
The /xj switch takes care of that problem quite handily. Of course, that also means that it ignores data that might be behind a junction that won't cause a recursive loop. But that's not an issue in my case.
Rich
I can do that from the clone drive, of course, but that drive isn't disaster-proof. I wanted these files on the disaster-proof drive, as well. I'm kind of a backup nut.
I must have downloaded a dozen trial programs, none of which could do this simple thing properly. The biggest problem was that they all seemed designed for idiots. Some, for example, had buttons or check boxes for "mail," but only if you used Outlook or Windows Mail. There was no way to manually select the Thunderbird data folder. And most wouldn't let me select a folder on a drive as the backup destination. They could only use the root, and I didn't want to repartition the drive just to do a simply file copy.
I finally gave up and used ShadowSpawn and RoboCopy. It took me about 15 minutes to write a batch file that works just fine. I haven't decided whether to let it monitor for changes or just run as a scheduled task a few times a day. I work with a lot of video and image files that may be changed a dozen or more times before they're done. But I may enable monitoring anyway. I haven't decided yet.
If anyone's interested, this is the batch file I'm currently using:
Code:
shadowspawn "C:\Users\[User Name]\AppData" Q: robocopy Q:\ "D:\Files and Folders\AppData" /s /xj /xo /tee /log:my_backup_log.txt
shadowspawn "C:\Users\[User Name]\Downloads" R: robocopy R:\ "D:\Files and Folders\Downloads" /s /xo /xj /tee /log:my_backup_log.txt
shadowspawn "C:\Users\[User Name]\Desktop" S:\ robocopy S:\ "D:\Files and Folders\Desktop" /s /xo /xj /tee /log:my_backup_log.txt
shadowspawn "C:\Users\[User Name]\Documents" T:\ robocopy T:\ "D:\Files and Folders\Documents" /s /xo /xj /tee /log:my_backup_log.txt
pauseIt assumes that you have ShadowSpawn installed, which just means copying the executable into the System32 folder. It's old, alpha code that's not maintained anymore, but it still works just fine. All it does is shadow the selected folder so RoboCopy can copy it, even if the files are in use. It's pretty standard, old-school stuff. It's also quick-and-dirty. There's no error handling in there. I wasn't even sure that ShadowSpawn (or RoboCopy, for that matter) would work on Win10. But they do.
There was one hiccup, though: I forgot that Win7 and later uses "junctions," which are more like symlinks than ordinary Windows shortcuts. They did this for backward compatibility. The problem is that RoboCopy ****s the bed with gusto on certain junctions and goes into an infinite recursive loop, copying the same folders inside of themselves until the drive is full.
The /xj switch takes care of that problem quite handily. Of course, that also means that it ignores data that might be behind a junction that won't cause a recursive loop. But that's not an issue in my case.
Rich
