best backup software for windows 7

[Lady Fitzgerald]

I'm also baffled. Before I replied to original question about the time/date stamps, I inserted a backup drive in my computer and compared the contents of a couple of folders on the backup drive with the same contents of the original folders just to make sure and the times and dates were identical.

Could you post screen shots showing where the time and date stamps have changed?

 

[dpwoodpecker]

Good morning....here are a couple of screenshots: the first shows the top level subfolders right under CommWork and the second shows the next level down within one those subfolders (2010 SEA).





I don't know if permissions and access would cause affects in this regard but I had used MiniTool Partition Wizard to format the D partition on the SSD and the security tab for it doesn't show either of my user accounts specifically:



Both SYSTEM and Administrators group have full control and Users group only have Read & Execute + List folders content permissions.

Thank you for taking the time to look at these for me.----dpwoodpecker

 

[dpwoodpecker]

I forgot to mention that I didn't click the box "copy NTFS permissions" (under Options) in the configuration used. Also forgot to share that I've had the external HDD for awhile and had created the G partition using the old laptop running XP. In using the HDD with this laptop running Windows 7, the admin user account now has ownership and the standard user account also have full control of the data partition (G) on it. By the way this same problem of subfolders not retaining original dates also happened awhile back in using SyncBack.

 

[dpwoodpecker]

I clicked on "last page" link and missed reading ignatzatsonic's response....and checked as you showed - the original created dates are preserved. See sample:



This was helpful for me to clarify then that I need to be able to maintain the "modified" time/date of the source subfolders in doing the sync/backups - would that be possible at all with these programs?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I don't know if permissions and access would cause affects in this regard but I had used MiniTool Partition Wizard to format the D partition on the SSD and the security tab for it doesn't show either of my user accounts specifically:


Both SYSTEM and Administrators group have full control and Users group only have Read & Execute + List folders content permissions.

The properties page/security tab for my source drive appears the same as yours.

My System and Administrators group have full control. Users group has read and execute, list folder contents, and read permissions.

I have no idea if it matters.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I forgot to mention that I didn't click the box "copy NTFS permissions" (under Options) in the configuration used. Also forgot to share that I've had the external HDD for awhile and had created the G partition using the old laptop running XP. In using the HDD with this laptop running Windows 7, the admin user account now has ownership and the standard user account also have full control of the data partition (G) on it. By the way this same problem of subfolders not retaining original dates also happened awhile back in using SyncBack.

I can't find this "copy NTFS permissions" setting you refer to under "options". I can't even find "options". So I can't compare to my own setup. EXACTLY what are you looking at?

I have no reason to believe that how or when the G partition was made would matter.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Hmmm....regarding the "modified" dates in the second pic in post 42 above:

Source is G drive; copy is on D.

There are 6 files shown for each drive. Curiously, 4 of them retained the modified date. Two others did not: hongkong and Thai tour, which show a new modified date of "yesterday 8:25 PM".

What would account for only 2 of 6 getting a new modified date?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Here’s a couple of pix of my folder trees showing modified dates for a series of folders.

The first is the source D drive, showing modified dates ranging from April 3 to June 17 at 1:51 PM.

The second is the destination E drive, showing modified dates all near 10 PM on June 16. I know what that date and time means. It is the FIRST time that Free File Sync was run on THAT physical drive. I bought a new 3 TB drive on June 16 and ran Free File Sync on it that night, creating those folders for the first time.

I just ran Free File Sync again in the last 5 minutes. The modified dates for the G destination drive did NOT change. They remain near 10 PM on June 16.

As far as I know, this is ordinary default behavior when doing a custom sync in FFS.

Folder “created” dates are as shown on the properties page as explained in my earlier post—source and destination drives are in complete agreement, with matching created dates from June 2011. I know what that date is: the date I first installed and loaded data on my then new Samsung 1 TB primary data drive.

I have no idea why you might get different behavior.

 

[dpwoodpecker]

Wow....thank you for the step-by-step explanation, ignatzatsonic. Here is the screen shot of FFS main window with tools tab (highlighted) on menu and within that is the "options" choice I had mentioned....and the dialog box is what opens up when it's chosen.

 

[dpwoodpecker]

I don't know if permissions and access would cause affects in this regard but I had used MiniTool Partition Wizard to format the D partition on the SSD and the security tab for it doesn't show either of my user accounts specifically:

Both SYSTEM and Administrators group have full control and Users group only have Read & Execute + List folders content permissions.

The properties page/security tab for my source drive appears the same as yours.

My System and Administrators group have full control. Users group has read and execute, list folder contents, and read permissions.

I have no idea if it matters.

I don't know if it matters either but in case it does, the properties page/security tab shown in the 3rd attachment of my post #42 is of the destination D: (internal SSD data partition). For my source drive G: (external HDD), both the admin user account has ownership and the standard user account has full control, in addition to the above mentioned permissions.

Here’s a couple of pix of my folder trees showing modified dates for a series of folders.

The first is the source D drive, showing modified dates ranging from April 3 to June 17 at 1:51 PM.

The second is the destination G drive, showing modified dates all near 10 PM on June 16. I know what that date and time means. It is the FIRST time that Free File Sync was run on THAT physical drive. I bought a new 3 TB drive on June 16 and ran Free File Sync on it that night, creating those folders for the first time.

Well, this is the first time I've used FFS and on these drives (external HDD, source G: and internal SSD, destination D:, which again is a newly formatted partition). So do I understand correctly that in creating the new folders for the first time on destination drive, FFS cannot transfer the source subfolders' modified dates to those folders?

I just ran Free File Sync again in the last 5 minutes. The modified dates for the G destination drive did NOT change. They remain near 10 PM on June 16.

As far as I know, this is ordinary default behavior when doing a custom sync in FFS.

Using FFS for the first time, the custom option seemed easiest way to me for creating a simple configuration setting for copying my data from the HDD to the SSD. Do you think any of the other variants would give the result I need? This is more like migrating data that I am working on (thus the need to keep the subfolders' modified time/dates) to a new drive instead of a backup.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Wow....thank you for the step-by-step explanation, ignatzatsonic. Here is the screen shot of FFS main window with tools tab (highlighted) on menu and within that is the "options" choice I had mentioned....and the dialog box is what opens up when it's chosen.

OK, now I'm with you.

Here's what I have under options. All are default I would guess.

Note that I don't have "Copy NTFS permissions" checked.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Here are some pix of the security tabs of properties pages.

In this order: administrators group, authenticated users group, users group. I think they all match yours?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

I just did the following test:

1204 am. I created temp and subtemp folders on the source drive and put 2 files in subtemp.

1213 am. I ran FFS and checked the created and modified dates on the destination drive. They all matched the source drive—temp, subtemp, and subtemp’s contents.

1221 am. I then deleted one file from subtemp and immediately ran FFS again. The modified date for temp and subtemp both changed to 1221. The modified date for the remaining file did not change, because it was skipped and not recopied.

Pix below are in this order:

subtemp properties on source drive at 1204 am

subtemp contents properties on source drive at 1204 am

subtemp properties on destination drive at 1221 am

 

[dpwoodpecker]

Wow....thank you for the step-by-step explanation, ignatzatsonic. Here is the screen shot of FFS main window with tools tab (highlighted) on menu and within that is the "options" choice I had mentioned....and the dialog box is what opens up when it's chosen.

OK, now I'm with you.

Here's what I have under options. All are default I would guess.

Note that I don't have "Copy NTFS permissions" checked.

I didn't have that last box checked either when I ran the first sync....only on the 2nd sync testing whether it would make a difference in retaining the subfolders' modified dates. It does just that - copies the NTFS permissions to the copied files & folders.

 

[dpwoodpecker]

Here are some pix of the security tabs of properties pages.

In this order: administrators group, authenticated users group, users group. I think they all match yours?

These all match for my DESTINATION partition D, whereas your drive D is your SOURCE, right?

Here is the properties/security tab info for my SOURCE G (external HDD):

 

[dpwoodpecker]

I just did the following test:

1204 am. I created temp and subtemp folders on the source drive and put 2 files in subtemp.

1213 am. I ran FFS and checked the created and modified dates on the destination drive. They all matched the source drive—temp, subtemp, and subtemp’s contents.

Thank you for doing the tests....this step here simulates my scenario - I don't have problems with time/date stamps of files, just with folders.

So after running FFS at 1213am, the temp and subtemp folders on your destination G "all matched the source drive" and showed 1204am time. Whereas in my case those folders on my destination would show 1213 time as the modified time when FFS first created those folders on that drive!

I would appreciate further help to be able to copy my data now and also be able to use FFS as a backup tool later. ---dpwoodpecker

 

[ignatzatsonic]

These all match for my DESTINATION partition D, whereas your drive D is your SOURCE, right?

Here is the properties/security tab info for my SOURCE G (external HDD):

Yes. D is my source drive.

Here are the properties for my destination drive E.

 

[dpwoodpecker]

If its tutorials you want, you can also try SyncToy:

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/278866-synctoy-backup-user-data.html

Hi Golden - I've also been looking through the forums for other possible solutions to my problem and read your tutorial on ROBOCOPY. Could you take a look at my posts #234 & #237 on that thread?

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/187346-robocopy-create-backup-script-24.html

Many thanks! ---dpwoodpecker

 

[SIW2]

Didn't I post up about Karen's replicator earlier?

Karen's Replicator

Her GUI is very easy.

I suppose you could use this GUI also, but it is more complicated:SH-Soft - Tools -- RoboCopy Gui

 

[dpwoodpecker]

Just tried SyncToy....no luck....will download Karen's Replicator to try next...keeping fingers crossed!