Solved is there an app that will compare 2 drives and duplicate differences

[iknowjohnny]

What i mean to say is, an app that will allow you to pick 2 drives and tell it to compare them and any files that drive 2 does not have that drive 1 does, add them to drive 2. If thats not clear let m explain. I have to very large drives for storage with many gigs of files. They are meant to be storage for important files and the seconds of the 2 drives is there only for backup in case drive 1 dies. So it needs to have all the same files as drive one. But i'm constantly adding new files to drive one and unless i also add them to drive 2 i will lose files if 1 dies. Of course the simple solution would be every time i add files to 1, add them to 2 as well. Problem is, i often forget to do that so 2 is always missing some files that i have saved on 1. So i want an app that i can use every so often to evaluate both drives and allow me the option to have it copy any files it sees on 1 but not on 2 to 2. It would evaluate them by name and files size and if both match exactly it would copy. I there a app that will do this exactly? I know i could copy all files, but trust me i've tried and the computer can't handle doing that and usually freezes or something always happens to screw things up, not to mention it takes forever.

 

[wanchoo]

Well, you can try to do the syncing with Sync Toy 2.1. It is free, it is from Microsoft and it can be downloaded from Download: SyncToy 2.1 - Microsoft Download Center - Download Details.

Trust this was helpful.

 

[iknowjohnny]

Seemed like the perfect app, thanks. But i say seemed because used the echo function which seemed to be what i wanted, and when it was done it said done with errors and showed that it didn't copy any files. Unfortunately thats all it told me so i have no idea what the errors are. Any idea?

 

[louwin]

You could consider creating a RAID mirror then anything you add or delete to/from drive 1 will automatically be applied to drive 2. In fact, drive 2 won't be visible at all, the computer will see drive 2 only as a mirror of drive 1

I have 3 RAID mirrors on my system - 6 drives that look like 3. In fact I have had 2 drives fail over time. When this happened the system just informed me of the failure, I bought a new drive, replaced the dead drive and the system rebuilt the new drive, all automatically.

Now THAT's security AND convenience....

 

[iknowjohnny]

I really don't want to go to any trouble. I just want the same files on the 2 drives.

Now i just ran it again and it did nothing, no changes. And this time no error. So i guess the first time it didn't work due to some error then decided to consider them synced even tho they are not. So i ran it a 3rd time only this time I created a new file on drive one and sure enough it copied it to drive 2. So does this mean that the app needs to initially be run with the 2 folders already 100% identical and then will only work after that?

EDIT: ok, now i'm more puzzled. I started looking at the 2 drives and it appears it DID work because i have a folder that i'm positive i've added files to without adding them to the same folder on drive 2. Yet the properties show the same amount of files and same size. So that folder is apparently synced which i assume means the rest of the filles and folders are also synced. But here are the 2 things that have me puzzled....1- when i look in my computer and compared the 2 drives, one shows 87 GB free and the other shows 76 GB frees. Whats even odder is it's the #2 drive which is the one i alway forget to add files to that says 76 GB free, meaning it's more full than drive 1 ! And remember, drive 2 is just a copy of 1 and it should have less files because i forget to add to it when i add to #1. Makes no sense ! 2-the folders appear to automatically sync now...if i delete a file from one, that delete happens to the other. Thats great and what i want.....but how does this happen without the synctoys app even running? is it that you only have to run it once after you select the folders and after that they are automatically synced and therefore the app is no longer needed unless you want to use it to sync other folders?

 

[profdlp]

Seemed like the perfect app, thanks. But i say seemed because used the echo function which seemed to be what i wanted, and when it was done it said done with errors and showed that it didn't copy any files. Unfortunately thats all it told me so i have no idea what the errors are. Any idea?

Most likely you've got some file name which are too long.

Click on the See Error thing, which is cleverly designed to look like plain text.

I've been using this for several months and it has been quite reliable. I did rename a few folders to reduce the 255+ character path limit.

 

[iknowjohnny]

I did click on it but all it did was show what you have posted there but with zero everything....nothing showed successful or failed or anything. Just all zeros.
What do you mean by "255+ character path limit" ?

 

[profdlp]

You can't have a path to a file longer than 255 characters, for example:

C:\Folder\A Subfolder\another subfolder\picture.jpg

can't exceed 255 characters in length. The example I listed is about 50 characters long.

When I tested it I got this screenshot, though my error was due to the browser (Pale Moon) being open:

 

[iknowjohnny]

I see. Well, there are no subfolders i have deep enough to come anywhere near that many characters.
In any case, they are synced now and i'm good aside from not knowing why the 2 drives show much different total file amounts, one 76 GB free and the other about 80.

 

[iknowjohnny]

Oh geez....it never ends ! Now it is no longer syncing when i delete or add a file to either drive. As i said before, even with the app not running i could do anything to either drive and it would automatically do the same to the other. Now it's no longer doing that. Is this app just buggy or what?:banghead:

 

[seavixen32]

You might want to forget SyncToy and use Windows 7's in-built utility known as Robocopy (Robust Copy).

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

 

[profdlp]

Oh geez....it never ends ! Now it is no longer syncing when i delete or add a file to either drive. As i said before, even with the app not running i could do anything to either drive and it would automatically do the same to the other. Now it's no longer doing that. Is this app just buggy or what?:banghead:

You can have it run automatically through Task Scheduler.

Sync Toy as a scheduled task

 

[wanchoo]

The program is from Microsoft and so it is unlikely that it is buggy. You are taking time to learn on how to use it properly.

There may be a help file available either in the program's environment or on the Net. Please look for it and read it. It shall guide you on what to do.

Oh geez....it never ends ! Now it is no longer syncing when i delete or add a file to either drive. As i said before, even with the app not running i could do anything to either drive and it would automatically do the same to the other. Now it's no longer doing that. Is this app just buggy or what?:banghead:

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Is this app just buggy or what?:banghead:

It's not buggy that I know of, but there are many other apps that can synchronize the contents of two drives.

Here are a few you can find with Google.

Allway Sync
Folder clone
GFI backup home edition
Karen's replicator
Syncback
Synchromagic
Second Copy

Most are free and generally use the same principle. The interfaces would be different.

Try them and use the one you understand.

 

[iknowjohnny]

I admit at first i didn't learn it well, but i think now i understand it pretty fully. But it does seem buggy to me. The one thing i'd really like to understand which i mentioned already is this. At one point i saw that if i deleted or added a file to either one of the drives, that same function would happen to the other. Thats great and all, thats what i wanted, tho i figured you have to use the app to do that. But why did it do that WITH THE APP CLOSED AND NOT RUNNING? Then to add to the weirdness, later on it did NOT do that anymore. Thats the most confusing thing so far. I would love it if the 2 drives were synced in that i never had to duplicate any changes i make to either drive because it would automatically be mirrored on the other, all without having to run the app. That would be fabulous, and it was doing that for a bit then stopped. If thats not buggy then tell me what i'm missing so i can make it do that always. that would be perfect.

If i have to i'll try another app, but i hate to install 10 different apps to find one that works and is easy to learn.

 

[ignatzatsonic]

But why did it do that WITH THE APP CLOSED AND NOT RUNNING?


I would love it if the 2 drives were synced in that i never had to duplicate any changes i make to either drive because it would automatically be mirrored on the other, all without having to run the app.

What????

How would an app do anything if it wasn't running?

These apps generally do the synching when ordered to manually from a menu or according to a schedule that the user configures.

 

[iknowjohnny]

You just have to trust me on this...i closed synctoys and I have both drives open in 2 different windows set the same so i could see duplicate files, then deleted, added, etc, and everything i did to either drive was instantly duplicated on the other. Why do you think i mentioned it being "buggy" and "weird" ! But it's not doing that now. Wish it were ! It would be great to be able to simply choose 2 drives/folders to sync together always with no app running, just a windows feature.

 

[kodi]

I have tried sync toy on three different computers over the last year and have found that it did not work properly on all of them. It is a very buggy software.
I had different problems on all of the computers and in fact I would have lost a lot of data had i Not had it backed up to another drive.
Don't trust it with files you don't want to lose.

 

[iknowjohnny]

Thanks ! I was afraid of that with all the weirdness i experienced. guess i'd toss it and try one of those others. Anyone know of one thats definitely reliable and reasonably simple to learn?

 

[ignatzatsonic]

Thanks ! I was afraid of that with all the weirdness i experienced. guess i'd toss it and try one of those others. Anyone know of one thats definitely reliable and reasonably simple to learn?

Second Copy.

It's been around close to 15 years. I've used it for 10 years with NO problems.

Free 30 day trial.

Then $30, if you want to continue using it.