SyncToy question

perkinw · 26 Aug 2016

I have been using SyncToy in echo mode to update media files on a Synology NAS with the latest versions of those files on Windows. It has always worked flawlessly.

I recently migrated to a new Windows machine. On the new machine, the data drive is D:\ rather than C:\. This breaks the existing folder pairs, in which the Left Folder starts with C:\.

I did not see a way to edit the Left Folders, so I deleted the old Folder Pairs and created new ones with the left folder starting with D:\. But now SyncToy considers the Folder Pairs as never having been run (Last Run: Not run yet).

What will happen if I run such a Folder Pair? I'm concerned that it will create duplicates of every file.

ignatzatsonic · 29 Aug 2016

perkinw said:

I have been using SyncToy in echo mode to update media files on a Synology NAS with the latest versions of those files on Windows. It has always worked flawlessly.

I recently migrated to a new Windows machine. On the new machine, the data drive is D:\ rather than C:\. This breaks the existing folder pairs, in which the Left Folder starts with C:\.

I did not see a way to edit the Left Folders, so I deleted the old Folder Pairs and created new ones with the left folder starting with D:\. But now SyncToy considers the Folder Pairs as never having been run (Last Run: Not run yet).

What will happen if I run such a Folder Pair? I'm concerned that it will create duplicates of every file.

I'd assume it would copy all files on D to the destination drive unless you configured it to make certain exceptions--maybe overwriting the files already on destination and maybe not.

If the originals are unchanged since the last run on the old configuration, including time stamps, maybe they will not be re-copied and will just be bypassed. I'd guess SyncToy compares time stamps.

However, your suspicions could be right--the mere fact that the originals are now on D rather than C might force an additional copy---even if the time stamps on the originals have not changed.

You say "I deleted the old folder pairs".

Do you in fact mean that you deleted the copied files from the destination drive? Or do you just mean that you deleted the existing source and destination configuration from within SyncToy and then made a new configuration.

I'd probably delete the existing backups from the destination drive and then make a new set of backups using the new configuration.

You could always run a test--configuring SyncToy for just one subfolder--and see what the results are.

I've used 4 or 5 backup apps over the last 15 years. Only 2 of those worked flawlessly for a long time (Second Copy and Free File Sync). I think I did try SyncToy a year or so ago and gave up on it due to difficulties with the "include" or "exclude" function.

I'm currently using SyncBackFree version 7.6.8.0, which has worked fine for about 3 months. I gave up on Free File Sync as it has an unnecessarily complex interface and additional functionality I don't need.

perkinw · 30 Aug 2016

After making the original post (and before reading your reply), I did some experimenting to understand how SyncToy works. I understand it much better now. After deleting the old folder pair and recreating a new one, SyncToy does not create duplicates of every file, as I had feared. It recognizes files in the target folder and doesn't overwrite them unless the timestamp in the source is more recent, or unless the content has changed, if you select that option.

When I say that I "deleted the old folder pair" I meant that I did it through the SyncToy interface. This removes the configuration from SyncToy and also removes the pair of.dat files from the source and target directories that SyncToy puts there when you create a new folder pair.

You suggestion to delete existing target files is exactly what I ended up doing. There were too many differences between source and target since the last time I ran SyncToy (e.g., I had reorganized a number of directories), which resulted in lots of duplicate files.

Thank you for mentioning SyncToy alternatives. I will try SyncBackFree.