Is There A Way To Automate Hard Drive Organization?

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  1. Posts : 71
    Windows 10 Home 64
       #1

    Is There A Way To Automate Hard Drive Organization?


    I use to use Windows SyncToy a lot to mirror drive content as well as some duplicate file finders. I'm wanting to know if those two features can be combined.

    I have crazy amounts of data for various projects, backups, etc on a few 4 & 5 Tb HDD. I would like to organize that data between the drives. Is there something that can analyze drives and find duplicates using name, dates and size and sync the drives?

    I was thinking I could sync 2 drives at a time, then rotate the drives in this process until everything is synced and enormous amounts of free space being the reward.

    Windows 10 Professional
      My Computers


  2. Posts : 23,014
    Win 10 Home ♦♦♦19045.4239 (x64) [22H2]
       #2

    @ryevick


    There's a great program called Karen's Replicator. You can set up a schedule to do a lot of things...
    I use it to copy only the newly added files from my working drive to my storage drive.
    Karen's Replicator the Backup Utility for Windows v3.7.6 Released May 25, 2020 | Karen's Power Tools


    As for finding duplicate files, there are many programs that can do that.
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  3. Posts : 71
    Windows 10 Home 64
    Thread Starter
       #3

    Ghot said:
    @ryevick


    There's a great program called Karen's Replicator. You can set up a schedule to do a lot of things...
    I use it to copy only the newly added files from my working drive to my storage drive.
    Karen's Replicator the Backup Utility for Windows v3.7.6 Released May 25, 2020 | Karen's Power Tools


    As for finding duplicate files, there are many programs that can do that.
    Thanks for the reply. I'll look into it. I want to plug 2, 5 Tb USB HDD into my W10 Professional PC activate the program and walk away. When I return I want to have zero duplicate files and everything sorted, automatically. Hopefully it can do that.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Yeah, this just appears to be backup software.
      My Computers


  4. Posts : 23,014
    Win 10 Home ♦♦♦19045.4239 (x64) [22H2]
       #4

    ryevick said:
    Thanks for the reply. I'll look into it. I want to plug 2, 5 Tb USB HDD into my W10 Professional PC activate the program and walk away. When I return I want to have zero duplicate files and everything sorted, automatically. Hopefully it can do that.

    - - - Updated - - -

    Yeah, this just appears to be backup software.
    I used it for it's backup abilities... sort of like RAID without the RAID.
    But I think you will need to run some duplicate finder software on the drives... one time anyway.

    After you are assured the duplicates are gone...then just set a schedule on Karen's and only use one of those drives as a working drive (that you save to or delete from), and Karen's will take care of the other.



    For exactly what you want, I think you should be looking for a batch file, that you could set up in Task Scheduler.
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  5. Posts : 13,896
    Win10 Version 22H2 Pro and Home, Win11 Pro and Home
       #5

    A tip about dupe finders such as EDF, never run on file names, use the other choices such as for content. The issue is no folder can contain 2 or more files of the exact same name, always need at least one character difference so find by file name shouldn't/doesn't get results. Sorting on content or other choices will take longer.
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  6. Posts : 71
    Windows 10 Home 64
    Thread Starter
       #6

    Berton said:
    A tip about dupe finders such as EDF, never run on file names, use the other choices such as for content. The issue is no folder can contain 2 or more files of the exact same name, always need at least one character difference so find by file name shouldn't/doesn't get results. Sorting on content or other choices will take longer.
    Yeah I would only find & sort by date and size
      My Computers


  7. Posts : 271
    Win 10 Pro 21H2 (OS Build 19045.3636)
       #7

    Thinking about your use of Synctoy. I've used it for ages (most recent version) in Echo mode (so the destination drive becomes a mirror of the source folder) and trusted it to do its job.

    Then, a few days ago, using both WinDirStat and TreeSize Free I compared the size of a top level folder, many sub-folders, on the source drive with that on the destination drive. The first was nearly twice the size of the latter. Reran SyncToy to make sure. Still the same.

    Deleted much of the contents of the destination folder and reran SyncToy, it copied a few files over but didn't make any significant difference.

    It would seem it wasn't properly navigating the folder hierarchy.

    Might be worth you checking source and destination to make sure SyncToy is actually replicating your files as you think it is.

    Started Googling and it seems I wasn't the only one seeing such oddities. Various suggestions for alternative apps and chose to try FreeFileSync. After trying it and getting used to the way it works I've deleted SyncToy. FreeFileSync is doing all I want. Also it's much more informative about what it's doing and where it's got to, especially helpful with multi-GB synchronisations.
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  8. Posts : 16,781
    Windows 10 Home x64 Version 22H2 Build 19045.4170
       #8

    tpriest said:
    Then, a few days ago, using both WinDirStat and TreeSize Free I compared the size of a top level folder, many sub-folders, on the source drive with that on the destination drive. The first was nearly twice the size of the latter. Reran SyncToy to make sure. Still the same.
    SyncToy has always had a reputation for skipping folders/files without necessarily generating error messages.
    - I have a vague recollection that one cause of skipping without notification was in the case of paths-filenames containing what it regarded as awkward characters [but that Windows explorer & File explorer are happy with]. Apostrophes were, I think, a case in point.

    Denis
      My Computer


  9. Posts : 1,750
    Windows 10 Pro
       #9

    Try3 said:
    SyncToy has always had a reputation for skipping folders/files without necessarily generating error messages.
    - I have a vague recollection that one cause of skipping without notification was in the case of paths-filenames containing what it regarded as awkward characters [but that Windows explorer & File explorer are happy with]. Apostrophes were, I think, a case in point.

    Denis
    On top of what @Try3 is saying, SyncToy sometimes creates a duplicate file with ".1" after the original file name. There are better free alternatives, and there is the commercial Goodsync, Key Features of GoodSync, which is worth every nickel I paid for it. I use it on a daily basis.
      My Computers


  10. Posts : 2,487
    Windows 10 Home, 64-bit
       #10

    Another good mirroring app: SyncBackFree.

    Never had a problem with it or with FreeFileSync, but I like the former's interface better.

    Re finding duplicates AND mirroring:

    I'd be afraid of getting in a confused jam if I tried to do that in one step.

    I'd instead get rid of dupes as best I could and only then do the mirroring.

    The dupe detectors aren't perfect if you are attempting to identify matching pairs by their content....inexplicably. Some won't be caught when you'd expect that they would be.

    I have no idea how well sorting by date or size works.
      My Computer


 

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