Back up a photo folder to a second internal disk.

Discussion in 'backup, imaging & disk mgmt' started by david banner, Mar 13, 2017.

  1. david banner

    david banner Registered Member

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    What would be a good program to back up a photo folder to a second internal disk. I usually copy and paste and when new photos add a couple gigs more copy paste again and then delete the first one. But it is a bit inconvenient. If I could back up and then next time only back up the new photos would be better. And want to have a thumbnail on the backed up version
     
  2. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    David,

    If you want a free app, Robocopy. It's what I use. You can run it manually or automatically.

    There are dozens of apps that will do what you desire.
     
  3. david banner

    david banner Registered Member

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    is there any program to back them up and have them just as they are on the original folder i.e not in a way they have vto be restored to be seen. Or am I just best to do as I do copy and past. If I could copy past and only copy the changes since last copy would be fine.EDIT Trying SyncToy
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2017
  4. Cruise

    Cruise Registered Member

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  5. TheRollbackFrog

    TheRollbackFrog Imaging Specialist

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    ...and Bvckup2 does this very well. The BETA (last before release) is available for free at the bottom of the home page. The BETA (download HERE) was excellent and I use it on all the family computers.
     
  6. kC_

    kC_ Registered Member

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    Robocopy "source folder "destination folder" /MIR
     
  7. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    David,

    Yes, the backups are in native format. Identical to the source. If you add a few pictures to the source folder, those pictures are copied to the target folder. The pictures already in the target folder aren't copied a second time.
    If you delete a few pictures from the source folder, those pictures are deleted from the target folder. The target folder remains a mirror backup of the source folder.

    Copy this into Notepad...

    Code:
    robocopy "D:\folder1\folder2\source_folder" "E:\folder3\folder4\target_folder" *.* /mir
    Edit both paths for your system and save it as a .cmd file. So the file extension will be .cmd instead of .txt.

    You can double click this batch file and the backup will happen. You can schedule the batch file (Task Scheduler) and the backup will happen automatically. Hourly, daily, weekly, your choice.
     
  8. david banner

    david banner Registered Member

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    SyncToy seems fine. Thanks all. Will look at fast copy
     
  9. beethoven

    beethoven Registered Member

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    Brian, how would you change the code if you did not want to capture all files in that folder? I have three specific files that change daily and I would like to have them backed up / copied to my secondary workspace but these three files are in a folder with many other files. I realise I could create a subfolder on the source and solve the issue that way, but is there any option to specify specific files?
     
  10. treehouse786

    treehouse786 Registered Member

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  11. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    beethoven,

    Your batch file would be...

    Code:
    robocopy "D:\folder1\folder2\source_folder" "E:\folder3\folder4\target_folder" "file1.xxx"
    robocopy "D:\folder1\folder2\source_folder" "E:\folder3\folder4\target_folder" "file2.yyy"
    robocopy "D:\folder1\folder2\source_folder" "E:\folder3\folder4\target_folder" "file3.zzz"
     
  12. beethoven

    beethoven Registered Member

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    Great - thank you. You are a champion. What is the reference to *.* /mir? I suppose I need to drop this from the original script - just trying to understand the components.
     
    Last edited: Mar 14, 2017
  13. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    *.* everything (files)
    /S Copies subdirectories (excluding empty ones)
    /E Copies all subdirectories (including empty ones)
    /PURGE Deletes destination files and directories that no longer exist in the source
    /MIR Mirrors a directory tree (equivalent to running both /E and /PURGE)
     
  14. beethoven

    beethoven Registered Member

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    Thanks again
     
  15. kC_

    kC_ Registered Member

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  16. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    If you have a "small" folder you want mirrored to a backup folder whenever new files are added to the source folder you can use...

    /MON:1 /MOT:1

    The source folder is checked every minute and if one file has been added or deleted, Robocopy does its job.
     
  17. beethoven

    beethoven Registered Member

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    kC & Brian - will study this more - looks like I have a bit of homework to do to make full use of this but the initial set-up with Brian's script works well already. For this particular job the number of files don't change or rather I am only interested in three specific files that change every day. For simplicity sake I put them into their own folder now, so can use the first script. Could not quite work out quickly why the file specific instructions did not work right away but might just be a space in the wrong position.
     
  18. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    beethoven,

    Can you post a line that doesn't work?
     
  19. beethoven

    beethoven Registered Member

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    Brian, I had used your scripts and copied and pasted these as base, then copied the real folders etc over that. As mentioned the original folder script worked fine but when I did this for the files, the command window would open quickly and then close, so I am not sure what happened except I assume I made a mistake when copying. As I used the same txt file (changed to cmd) each time, I don't have the "failing" one anymore but don't worry, I may give it another try later this week when I have more time. The one thing I remember and which may be the issue is that I assumed I had to have three lines in the script, one for each file. Was that correct or should I have just listed the three files subsequently at the end of the first and only line?
     
  20. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    Yes, three lines in the one batch file. If there are spaces in the paths or spaces in the filenames you have to use " "
     
  21. beethoven

    beethoven Registered Member

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    ok, re the spaces, I suspect I created a space by mistake when using cut & paste but can't be sure - I did try to compare carefully afterwards but could not detect anything - anyway, will try again later this week just to see if we can get to the bottom of it
     
  22. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    A good way to detect errors is to create a 4th line with...

    pause

    Then the command windows remains open and you can see what went wrong.
     
  23. beethoven

    beethoven Registered Member

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    I like that
    :thumb:
     
  24. Brian K

    Brian K Imaging Specialist

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    I did some tests. You can also do it with one line...

    Code:
    robocopy "D:\folder1\folder2\source_folder" "E:\folder3\folder4\target_folder" "file1.xxx" "file2.yyy" "file3.zzz"
    Both batch files work.
     
  25. ichito

    ichito Registered Member

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    I do exactly the same from time to time using feature "synchronise folder" in file manager Free Commander. There are few options that can be useful according to your needs. It looks like on screenshots below:
    170316111417_2.jpg

    170316111803_4.jpg
     
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