Keeping 2 drives synchronized

d4005

New Member
Hi,

I'm wondering if anyone knows of any software that will allow me to keep two drives synchronized. In my PC (running XP) I have a data drive which I'll regularly add files to, change files on and delete files from. I'd like to once a week plug in an identical sized drive (I have a SATA bay on the front) and I'd like to tell some program to synchronize the drives, and choose which of them is the source. Then it'll see, for example, that I deleted x number of files in various folders, which it will then delete from the 2nd drive too. Same goes with new files and modified files. When it's done, the second drive will be identical and I can remove it. This way, if I do this once a week, I'll always have a backup drive that's ready to plug and play at a moment's notice.

I currently achieve this using Acronis True Image Home with it's "Clone Disk" procedure, but that's copying the whole of the 500GB drive each time and takes 3 hours. With a simpler synchronize tool I expect it would be all done in 5 minutes.

I've investigated XP Briefcase, but it's not what I'm looking for. I want something that examines my whole drive and compares it with another whole drive.
 

patrickv

Active Member
yeah that briefcase sucks, i used briefcase on pendrives cause the sync nees to be done manually
anyway as for your question i suggest you try ALLWAY SYNC, not sure if it will work for you,since its for pc to pc, check if u can sync drives to drives,
i haven't tested it but u can always try
 

kof2000

New Member
Last edited:

d4005

New Member
i suggest you try ALLWAY SYNC, not sure if it will work for you,since its for pc to pc, check if u can sync drives to drives,
i haven't tested it but u can always try
Thanks Patrick, that looked like it would do the job. I think it needed to store databases and have services running and stuff. If the other reply with Robocopy hadn't come up, I definitely would have tried this.

windows nt robust copying is what you need. completely free and easy to use. it detects files updates and updates to the other drive accordingly and also extra files on drive b not on drive a will be deleted. it does everything you planned.

the only problem is when you plan to do a run documents you want synced are running at the time.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robocopy

That looks ideal, and I like the idea that it gathers all the information it needs at execution time. I've installed it but haven't tried it yet, but reading that technet page it sounds like exactly what I need.

Thanks guys !!
 
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