What exactly are are "My music", "My Pictures" and "My videos"

Try3 · 14 Oct 2020

Snake,

SnakeRiverPlace said:

My original problem came up during my backup script using "robocopy". So I backed up C:\Users\<Username>\Music and C:\Users\<Username>\Videos (so far, so good), but then I also backed up C:\Users\<Username>\Documents. That's where the problem came in because I not only got all my "Documents" directory files and folders, but also got another copy of all "My Music" and "My Videos".
...
So for now I'm going to remove C:\Users\<Username>\Music and Videos from my robocopy commands and let Windows do its thing to grab those directories through the <JUNCTION> names in C:\Users\<Username>\Documents when I back up "Documents".

Bree's suggestion [the /XJD switch] is the sensible way of dealing with this issue. The /XJ switches are explained in

RoboCopy Help [robocopy /? -in a command window]

and in

Robocopy - SS64

I do it differently.

I first set up my RoboCopy backup the way you did. I ran into the problems you reported and I also had the problem of unintentionally backing up subfolders full of rubbish that arrogant & sloppy applications had put inside my Documents folder.

There aren't as many of these sloppy applications nowadays but I still have some unwanted subfolders [Fax, Scanned documents, Sound recordings, VideoReDo] and a couple of others made by fifteen year old application versions [Cyberlink & DVDSmith] but that is my own fault for not getting newer versions.

So I set my RoboCopy up using my Documents subfolders instead -

Code:

08/06/2019  15:52    <DIR>          Work
08/06/2019  16:03    <DIR>          Mutual
23/10/2018  17:31    <DIR>          Home
27/08/2020  16:33    <DIR>          IT
19/04/2018  14:32    <DIR>          Private
31/07/2020  16:41    <DIR>          Maintenance
11/10/2020  23:30    <DIR>          Studies
07/10/2020  17:41    <DIR>          Supplies

which adds a few more lines to my RoboCopy batch file but that is simple enough to do.
This method of approaching the problem allows me to RoboCopy my music & video folders separately.

SnakeRiverPlace said:

Nothing showed up for "My Videos" or "My Music" under C:\Users\<Username>\Documents but thanks to this thread I found that both directories are not only "Hidden" but also "System" files.
...
I did find out that "My Videos" and "My Music" are <JUNCTION> files under C:\Users\<Username>\Documents so I can now see why that happened:

Just to reduce the chances of misunderstandings later on, what you have found are not "directories" but shortcuts [albeit a special type of shortcut called, as you know, a Junction] created by Windows to assist the working of applications that are probably not in use any longer.
If you ever have a need to refer to them again, I urge you to call them shortcuts or, if you want to be more precise, Junctions.

All the best,
Denis

SnakeRiverPlace · 14 Oct 2020

Thanks! I found the /XJD also and gave that a try. It worked fine for the robocopy backup. However, my robocopy to restore the files on my other computer had a problem. Since my Documents backup had no symbolic link directories for Music, Pictures, or Video, the robocopy happily deleted all my Pictures, Music, and Videos (including the My Pictures, My Music, and My Videos <JUNCTION> points in C:\Users\<Username>\Documents) - - because I was using the /MIR option (Mirror).

Funny that it was able to delete the contents of the Pictures, Music, and Videos folders from C:\Users\<Username> through the My Pictures, My Music, and My Videos symbolic links in C:\Users\<Username>\Documents - - the same symbolic link directories (OK, <JUNCTION> points") that were Hidden "System Files" that gave me Access Denied when I tried to look at them in Windows Explorer... Maybe that has to do with being able to "Traverse" through these <JUNCTION> points (I assume by a program)?

Since everything was backed up and I was just restoring to a different computer it was no big deal (but it sure takes longer to copy back than it did to delete..!).

I started to redo my robocopy backups script using /SL (copy symbolic link instead of target), but during testing the /SL seemed to be totally ignored (it still copied everything), so I abandoned that approach before even trying it with my robocopy restore script.

So after some gnashing of teeth, I left the /XJD on the backup script, and for the restore robocopy I found that the /XD option worked, but I had to list *ALL* the "excluded" directories since I wasn't sure if it was looking at Music, Pictures, and Videos, or My Music, My Pictures, and My Videos, or both, so I just excluded them all. I also read an article about /XD that said you had to use the full path to the file AND that it was safest to exclude both the source directories and the target directories (in case one or the other didn't exist, unexpected results could occur). So kind of a long command string but it got the job done. I could have experimented a little more to maybe narrow it down, but by that time I just wanted to get it working!

So here's the "restore" command that worked:
robocopy J:\<Username>\Documents C:\Users\<Username>\Documents * /MIR /R:3 /W:1 /XD "J:\<Username>\Documents\My Music" "J:\<Username>\Documents\Music" "J:\<Username>\Documents\My Pictures" "J:\<Username>\Documents\Pictures" "J:\<Username>\Documents\My Videos" "J:\<Username>\Documents\Videos" "C:\Users\<Username>\Documents\My Music" "C:\Users\<Username>\Documents\Music" "C:\Users\<Username>\Documents\My Pictures" "C:\Users\BobPam\Documents\Pictures" "C:\Users\BobPam\Documents\My Videos" "C:\Users\<Username>\Documents\Videos"

Like I said, I needed to get this done so I didn't take the time to make sure that I really needed all those exclusions, so it might not need to be this long of a command string.

Things like this are kinda fun to wrestle with - - at least I didn't run into your "loop"! ;-) And the added benefit is that it reminds me of exactly why I retired!!

Thanks for your help! So far I'm enjoying this group, fun reading posts from people who are having similar issues to mine (and solving them)!

Ztruker · 14 Oct 2020

I don't like using /MIR for exactly the reason you ran into, you can end up losing data.

I use /E /DCOPY:T /COPY:T /TS /FP /XO /XJD

SnakeRiverPlace · 14 Oct 2020

Thanks, Ztruker! Interesting options that let you see exactly what's going on. The reason I'm using /MIR is because I use one computer at home through the winter and a different computer at our vacation place for the summer. Usually at least once or twice during the season I "rearrange" things with my directory structure so it makes more sense, or I just get rid of old outdated files, etc. So, for example, I robocopy "backup" from the PC at my home to my external hard drive, then take it to the cabin and robocopy from the external hard drive to my other PC there. I don't want to have everything I deleted at my home still existing on the cabin PC after the "restore" robocopy (or visa-versa). That can really make a mess, especially if I moved the contents of a few directories around (hopefully to someplace that makes more sense!).

That's why the /MIR works well for me. I looked at the options/switches that you use and I didn't see where it would help much with the scenario I described in paragraph above. I might incorporate some of them just because it would be good to see that type of info when the job runs (and making sure timestamps aren't changing is a good thing, too)! I just have to get used to some of the Windows "magic" going on...!

Or else forget about copying back and forth and just take a laptop back and forth instead. Backups are a good thing too, so I'll still end up doing these robocopy scripts anyway...

Thanks!

Try3 · 14 Oct 2020

Snake,

This is my RoboCopy backup script
- If you want to play with it you'll want to alter the folder paths & set the backup drive letter.
- The /MT:32 is a simplification. I experimented with /MT:1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128 until I found a value that worked without errors for the particular equipment concerned. The only awkward equipment was a tablet-with-keyboard so, for the proper computers you are talking about, I think /MT:32 will be fine. The right /MT vaue can make the RoboCopy complete in a quarter of the time. The biggest /MT value is not always the fastest setting.
- I am going to change from the log making steps in this script to using RoboCopy's /Log switch instead because I think its output is a bit neater.

Code:

Set BackupDrive=G:
Set RoboCopyLog=%BackupDrive%\RoboCopy.log
RoboCopy "D:\Desktop" "%BackupDrive%\Desktop" /S /R:10 /MT:32 /DCOPY:DAT /XA:SH /MIR >%RoboCopyLog%
RoboCopy "D:\Documents\Work" "%BackupDrive%\Documents\Work" /S /R:10 /MT:32 /DCOPY:DAT /XA:SH /MIR >>%RoboCopyLog%
RoboCopy "D:\Documents\Home" "%BackupDrive%\Documents\Home" /S /R:10 /MT:32 /DCOPY:DAT /XA:SH /MIR >>%RoboCopyLog%
RoboCopy "D:\Documents\Cooking" "%BackupDrive%\Documents\Cooking" /S /R:10 /MT:32 /DCOPY:DAT /XA:SH /MIR >>%RoboCopyLog%
RoboCopy "D:\Documents\Friends" "%BackupDrive%\Documents\Friends" /S /R:10 /MT:32 /DCOPY:DAT /XA:SH /MIR >>%RoboCopyLog%
RoboCopy "D:\Documents\House" "%BackupDrive%\Documents\House" /S /R:10 /MT:32 /DCOPY:DAT /XA:SH /MIR >>%RoboCopyLog%
RoboCopy "D:\Documents\Odds N Sods" "%BackupDrive%\Documents\Odds N Sods" /S /R:10 /MT:32 /DCOPY:DAT /XA:SH /MIR >>%RoboCopyLog%
RoboCopy "D:\Documents\Suppliers" "%BackupDrive%\Documents\Suppliers" /S /R:10 /MT:32 /DCOPY:DAT /XA:SH /MIR >>%RoboCopyLog%
RoboCopy "D:\Music" "%BackupDrive%\Music" /S /R:10 /MT:32 /DCOPY:DAT /XA:SH /MIR >>%RoboCopyLog%
Pause to look at the results until you are confident in the file.  This line makes the batch file stay open when it has finished its job.
∷ Put two colons in front of Pause after you decide you no longer want it to remain open when it has finished.  Or just delete the Pause line and this line.

The same overall pattern would be used for a reverse RoboCopy to restore from the backup drive to a computer.

Denis

SnakeRiverPlace · 14 Oct 2020

Thanks, Denis! The way I set up directories in Documents I'd be afraid that I'd add a new one and forget to add a robocopy for it. But I do need to parameterized things a bit - for some reason my external hard drive becomes J: on one computer and D: on all the others. Also, the <Username> is different on one of them.

I still like the /MIR even though it's a little dangerous until you get it figured out. It's only slow the first time you run it because if you update over the same file structure it skips all the files that match and haven't changed. So it just copies new or newer files and deletes what isn't in your backup (for me that would be stuff I deleted and don't want, or stuff I moved around - so in that case it should show up as "New" in a different directory). At any rate, it just FLIES after the first time. No /MT necessary.

Thanks again for the tips!

Bob (or "Snake" is OK, too)!

Try3 · 15 Oct 2020

Bob,

I don't know if you are interested enough to want to refine your robocopy batch file much further but here are my comments on your last post -
1 You can use the varable %UserName% in batch files instead of hard coding in a UserName.
2 If you don't want to list your subfolders by name then that's fine as you can use the /XJD switch instead.
3 If you don't tell it otherwise by using the /MT switch, RoboCopy defaults to /MT:8 behaviour. I posted some sample results in my ditty - Using RoboCopy threading [post #10] - TenForums
4 I have a batch file subroutine that searches out drives by their label and returns their drive letter. So it does not matter what drive letter has been allocated to Bertie ["Bertie the Backup"], my batch files can find it and work with it correctly. See my script [#3] - StateDriveLabel-getDriveLetter - TenForums In that thread, I presented the script as a separate file but it can be used as a subroutine instead.

Denis

DontBlnkBadWolf · 05 Aug 2021

Bringing this back up from the dead since it is still relevant.

This has become my issue when trying to manage folder backup in OneDrive. Since it's not actually a shortcut but the actual folder, how can I take care of this? I can't delete it, and since it's a system folder, it's not wise to move it either.

Try3 · 05 Aug 2021

My Music [within the C:\Users\%UserName%\Documents folder] is, as the error message said, not a folder [despite the icon it uses].

If you turn off the viewing of hidden & system files you will not see it & cannot make such mistakes.

Denis

DontBlnkBadWolf · 06 Aug 2021

Try3 said:

My Music [within the C:\Users\%UserName%\Documents folder] is, as the error message said, not a folder [despite the icon it uses].

If you turn off the viewing of hidden & system files you will not see it & cannot make such mistakes.

Denis

That, I know. But, that is not what the error message is. It's saying that I can't backup my OneDrive because there is a Directory Junction or Symlink. Which is My Music (System Hidden) inside My Documents and I need to move or delete. I can't do that because of what that folder actually is, the My Music folder itself.

If there is a way to bypass that in order to backup my OneDrive, great. But, I actually think it's going to be something that can't be fixed. I'm not an expert and it's only my thoughts that is saying that.