SyncToy not working right with new drive...

[robhixkg]

Good evening all,

I had a really slick backup setup with SyncToy and a few external hard drives. As I could I was buying new drives for the process since my drives at that time were getting old. Here is the problem. I have the left folder set to Echo to the right folder. So, one week one of the folders had no changes. I hooked up a new drive, hit the SYNC button and got a message saying there was nothing to do. So obviously SyncToy only checks the source drive for changes and does not consider that there is no data on the destination drive.

Is there a way to get SyncToy to pick up these changes and populate the new drive with the data?

Thanks in advance,
Rob Hix

 

[HammerHead]

Sync Toy

I'll take a shot in the dark since I don't use Sync Toy. In your set up or preferences which ever it is called there should be a setting to just copy the files rather than to update them or "sync". Once it has copied the files to the new destination you could go back to your present settings if you want. But IMO if you are just doing a back up I would leave them once you are successful.

 

[Phone Man]

Remove the old pairing and set up a new pairing and it should work.
I just did that on my system. I replaced my source 1tb drive with a 2tb and the new pairing looked at both the new source and the old backup and updated the backup.

Jim

 

[HammerHead]

Snip From Software

Here is what I was trying to get across. This is from the software that I use. Notice the choices in the drop down menu. You can just do a plain old copy. Which to me is one kind of a backup.

View attachment 174941

File sync software keeps an index or catalogue at each location of the files. Since your drive is "brand new" that index is probably missing. Hence the confusion.

 

[Tinkerdog]

Here is what I was trying to get across. This is from the software that I use. Notice the choices in the drop down menu. You can just do a plain old copy. Which to me is one kind of a backup.

View attachment 174941

File sync software keeps an index or catalogue at each location of the files. Since your drive is "brand new" that index is probably missing. Hence the confusion.

Yes, SyncToy keeps an index on drive (and I believe Folder also) for syncing.

So, since no index, no syncing. I believe you will need to redo the syncing for the new drive (manually recreate the sync for each folder you want), again.

 

[Tinkerdog]

Also, if you test Synctoy by changing a subfolder name, then syncing, you will find you now have 2 folders, the older folder by the old name, and a new folder by the new name, with a copy of ALL the files from the previous folder in it !! (Synctoy refuses to delete the older folder and it's files during this operation).

That is why I went to SyncBack Free version. Works everytime!

 

[Phone Man]

Also, if you test Synctoy by changing a subfolder name, then syncing, you will find you now have 2 folders, the older folder by the old name, and a new folder by the new name, with a copy of ALL the files from the previous folder in it !! (Synctoy refuses to delete the older folder and it's files during this operation).

That is why I went to SyncBack Free version. Works everytime!

I never had that problem. I use Echo mode and all changes are updated. I use it a lot for Pictures and Videos and do a lot of moving around to organize them. Might be an option that is not right.

Jim

 

[DeaconFrost]

I've also swapped drives without issue with SyncToy. I had a folder on my desk and used SyncToy to copy it to 20 different blank USB flash drives. Each time, I'd plug in a new drive, run the Sync and it would complete without issue.

 

[Tinkerdog]

Also, if you test Synctoy by changing a subfolder name, then syncing, you will find you now have 2 folders, the older folder by the old name, and a new folder by the new name, with a copy of ALL the files from the previous folder in it !! (Synctoy refuses to delete the older folder and it's files during this operation).

That is why I went to SyncBack Free version. Works everytime!

I never had that problem. I use Echo mode and all changes are updated. I use it a lot for Pictures and Videos and do a lot of moving around to organize them. Might be an option that is not right.

Jim

There are others that have had this issue......
Echo not deleting empty folders on right-side

 

[guest85340]

Solution to a related problem

I use a USB drive to synch files between two laptops. I had deleted a large folder of files on my USB drive to make space, and then noticed that Synchtoy didn't replace the deleted files the next time I synched the drive to my laptop

My simple solution was to create a new drive pair exactly like the old one which essentially re-synched the two file sets. The advantage was that only the files I had deleted had to be copied back to the USB drive which saved quite a bit of time.