KVR Audio

Nonplus · Post by **Nonplus** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 7:57 pm

i love all the aforementioned utils -- but xxcopy (two X's) is wonderful -- BUT why bother? SyncToy is much simpler -- especially when one is trying to help a friend or client.

http://www.xxcopy.com/
http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/usin ... nctoy.mspx

nocompromise · Post by **nocompromise** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 8:02 pm

aMUSEd wrote:Do these utilities overcome the significant problems with Windows way of copying files and folders. many times when I have copied a large folder Windows has suddenly decided part of the way in that one file (out of maybe thousands) it doesn't want to copy - either it's locked (why that should affect a copy, not move or cut, operation feck knows!) or the filename isn't right or something stupid - and so it stops the whole process leaving you not knowing which files are still to copy and what is not and unable to skip and resume even. Stupid MS!

i get round this by using a dual boot system (well actually i got 6 OSes in one particular machine but lets not get into all that

) when I'm in one OS i can copy the other OS(es) with no (file in use) probs.

ermi · Post by **ermi** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 8:19 pm

Nonplus wrote:BUT why bother? SyncToy is much simpler --

System requirements: Microsoft .NET Framework v2.0

Other than that I don't know anything about it, tho. It may be a nice app.

But robocopy (or xcopy...) does the job fine, for what I need it. I put a shortcut in Quick launch and backuping a folder has never been so fast.
Rather simple as well, tho for an average user a GUI will probably be nicer. (BTW you can get a GUI for robocopy, like this one.)

cleverr1 · Post by **cleverr1** » Mon Aug 13, 2007 8:31 pm

james0tucson wrote:Such things work until they let you down.

I would recommend installing cygwin and learning (really learning, taking some time to get a solid understanding of) the find, tar, and dd commands.

If you're not just trolling then this has got to be the most irrelevant post ever. Just to be totally clear about this; Installing and learning a Wintel UNIX emu like CYGWIN to back up files in a Windows DAW environment is so totally not the way to go. I take off my hat to the OP of this thread for trying to get musos replicating their files to avoid losing creative data in the event of a disk failure. So the best possible outcome is that people take notice and get a working replication process in place ASAP. The best advice in this case is "Keep It Simple Stupid".

DevonB · Post by **DevonB** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 12:43 am

james0tucson wrote:Such things work until they let you down.

I would recommend installing cygwin and learning (really learning, taking some time to get a solid understanding of) the find, tar, and dd commands.

This is your idea of a backup solution? If anything, Robocopy has let me down the least out of any backup or file transfer utility that cost significantly more.

So James, how many Windows boxes have you migrated with Robocopy? Let me guess? None?

Devon

DevonB · Post by **DevonB** » Tue Aug 14, 2007 12:51 am

ermi wrote:Please correct me if I'm wrong and/or suggest me some other switch that would be useful.
Should I include /zb as well?

BTW, I couldn't find a MS page with the list of switches... the only one with many of them was this one and a .doc that came in the .zip file.

Yes, include /zb. I use that with the /copyall switch, so all attributes and permissions go with it. More applicable in a enterprise domain environment, so not all that necessary for you.

The page you found is really enough. If you don't understand a particular switch, just ask.

One thing I do do is I turn on logging so I can see if anything didn't copy just in case. For example, getting Outlook .pst files while people have them open can be a big pain. I've had to use other (expensive) utilities to get locked files to copy over perfectly, regardless if the file is open (like replicating SQL databases, for example.)

Devon

cleverr1 · Post by **cleverr1** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 9:17 am

Just out of interest:

Has anyone actually put in place a file copying backup process since reading this thread?

ermi · Post by **ermi** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 12:47 pm

I'll update the first post and add some simple info on how to use robocopy, since it's my favorite now. I cleaned up some old archives with the /mir function really fast.

But I'll ask one more thing that I'm sure can be useful: How to make a batch file/shortcut to copy from/to many different locations? I simply want to use robocopy with /e /zb, nothing fancy. Also (if this is not the default procedure) I'd prefer if the copying processes started one after another, not all of them at the same time.

DevonB · Post by **DevonB** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 4:16 pm

ermi wrote: But I'll ask one more thing that I'm sure can be useful: How to make a batch file/shortcut to copy from/to many different locations? I simply want to use robocopy with /e /zb, nothing fancy. Also (if this is not the default procedure) I'd prefer if the copying processes started one after another, not all of them at the same time.

Robocopy is seqeuntial, so I'm not sure what you're asking? You can stack multiple commands in a .bat / .cmd file and the next one will start after the first one finishes.

Code: Select all

robocopy c:\music\*.* d:\music\*.*
robocopy c:\programs\*.* d:\programs\*.*

That would start the first one and not start the second one until finished. You can start multiple commands in parallel with CALL, START, FOR loops and other creative methods.

Devon

Klemperer · Post by **Klemperer** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 4:37 pm

had no clue about this, thanks for explaining, ermi

ermi · Post by **ermi** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 5:42 pm

DevonB wrote:Robocopy is seqeuntial, so I'm not sure what you're asking? You can stack multiple commands in a .bat / .cmd file and the next one will start after the first one finishes.
Code: Select all
robocopy c:\music\*.* d:\music\*.*
robocopy c:\programs\*.* d:\programs\*.*

Thanks, that's exactly what I was looking for. Copying sequentially. It's really that simple then!

I saw some echo commands and whatnot when googling, but I obviously don't need that.

I'll add this to the first post as well.

chrisharang · Post by **chrisharang** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 10:15 pm

Yeah, so if you're looking to have a little shortcut for doing robocopy with the options you always use, you could do that pretty easily with a one-line batch file. For example, you could create a file called copyit.cmd that looks something like:

robocopy /e /zb %1 %2

And then later, if you did
copyit c:\music d:\music

it would execute
robocopy /e /zb c:\music d:\music

This one isn't even that much of a shortcut, but you get the idea. There is quite a bit you can do along these lines. For example, type in "for /?" and look at the FOR command - it's insanely powerful, if a little bit cryptic at first.

- Chris

cleverr1 · Post by **cleverr1** » Sat Aug 18, 2007 11:06 pm

The best possible outcome of this thread is that everyone that reads it puts in place a simple copy process. The basic syntax is now there so please do it for your own peace of mind. I can't say any more other than don't allow any geeks to unnecessary complicate things at this stage.

chrisharang · Post by **chrisharang** » Sun Aug 19, 2007 6:48 am

cleverr1 wrote:I can't say any more other than don't allow any geeks to unnecessary complicate things at this stage.

Agreed, the last thing we want is for someone to possibly learn something and/or tailor their processes to best suit their situation.

djsubject · Post by **djsubject** » Sun Dec 05, 2010 12:01 pm

so is this the best way for me to backup my "Tunes" folder to my external drive in Win7?

robocopy D:\Tunes H:\Win7_DAW_Stuff\Tunes /e

i want it to copy all files folders & sub files & folders only adding new files & replacing newer files

Subz

Easy backup with XCOPY and Robocopy (Windows)