A little more about XXCopy.
And how I solved a problem by writing you a question.
A year or two ago, I forget the exact problem, something to do with
running XXCopy more than once in the same bat file, and that it made me answer some questions each time, and even though few if any of you use
XXCopy you solved the problem for me. Vanguard or Paul or Carlos iirc,
one of them I think.
So now I'm trying to use it on the laptop and for every xxcopy line in
the bat file it makes me install xxcopy, a multi-step process taking at
least 5 minutes. I don't even know what install means, since I chose
not to copy the files from where I first put them.
So I had to install 6 times two nights ago and was going to have to do
it again 6 times for a full backup and once for every miscellaneous
xxopy I do. Even though in the past I only had to install once per
computer.
I looked in XXCopy Help under install and I googled and I wrote you
a long detailed question, and in doing so figured out the problem.
The answer to the question 2 years ago was to stop using XXCOPY and use XXCopy64SU, which I had just ignored for 20 years. And I see it's not
even found with Search in the long, detailed XXCopy Help file. I think
it was written after the help file was complete.
But I went back and ran plain old xxcopy, and it brought up the big
page, Do you want to let xxcopy change your computer? that means it
will install the program, and after that both it and xxcopySU64 work now without installation. Whoopee.
micky <NONONOmisc07@fmguy.com> wrote:
A little more about XXCopy.
And how I solved a problem by writing you a question.
A year or two ago, I forget the exact problem, something to do with
running XXCopy more than once in the same bat file, and that it made me
answer some questions each time, and even though few if any of you use
XXCopy you solved the problem for me. Vanguard or Paul or Carlos iirc,
one of them I think.
So now I'm trying to use it on the laptop and for every xxcopy line in
the bat file it makes me install xxcopy, a multi-step process taking at
least 5 minutes. I don't even know what install means, since I chose
not to copy the files from where I first put them.
So I had to install 6 times two nights ago and was going to have to do
it again 6 times for a full backup and once for every miscellaneous
xxopy I do. Even though in the past I only had to install once per
computer.
I looked in XXCopy Help under install and I googled and I wrote you
a long detailed question, and in doing so figured out the problem.
The answer to the question 2 years ago was to stop using XXCOPY and use
XXCopy64SU, which I had just ignored for 20 years. And I see it's not
even found with Search in the long, detailed XXCopy Help file. I think
it was written after the help file was complete.
But I went back and ran plain old xxcopy, and it brought up the big
page, Do you want to let xxcopy change your computer? that means it
will install the program, and after that both it and xxcopySU64 work now
without installation. Whoopee.
xcopy is included in Windows, but not xxcopy which is 3rd party
software.
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/xxcopy.html
The hyperlink to the author is no longer valid. Guess the author/owner >dropped xxcopy a while ago. The article above notes "Project has been >abandoned." PixieLab, the owner, went belly up around Jan 2018 (the
owner died). It devolved into commercialware, so maybe your old payware >license for it is no longer valid.
You sure robocopy (included in Windows) won't do what xxcopy did/does?
There's also the free version of SyncBack. There's also FreeFileSync
which I looked only for a few days, and decided to go back to SyncBack. >Syncback (paid) and FreeFileSync can use VSS to operate on open/locked
files. Robocopy doesn't use VSS, but I've read about workarounds where
you use other tools to create the shadow image, and copy from there, and
then delete the shadow. XXcopy didn't use VSS, either. With VSS, if
the copy tool hits an open or locked file, it cannot copy it. With some
copy tools, you can skip just the problematic file instead of aborting
the entire copy operation.
If you decide to go with Robocopy, I would change the retry args. The >defaults will keep retrying on a failed copy for a year, and that's on
each failed copy. The default retry count is 1 million, and the retry >interval is 30 seconds (347 days). This is to allow a chance for the
file to eventually close, so robocopy can then copy it. But the default >retry args mean retrying for 30 million seconds before giving up. I'd
change them to /r:100 and /w:5. If the file hasn't unlocked or closed
in 500 seconds (~8 minutes), it likely won't even after 30 million
seconds, plus you don't want to keep waiting on copies of files that
generate errors, especially if there are many of them. Because of
robocopy's lack of support for VSS (Volume Shadow copy Service), I
remember going to TeraCopy (https://www.codesector.com/teracopy) which
has a free version (I didn't need the features in the paid Pro version).
Like FreeFileSync, TeraCopy Free can use VSS to copy locked files while >SyncBack required a payware version to add VSS support. I don't
remember if TeraCopy had a CLI (Command Line Interface) to let you run
it from the command line. Ah, I just found:
https://help.codesector.com/knowledge-bases/2/articles/398-command-line
If anyone wants a copy of XXCopy, let me know and I'll send one.
I looked at [Robocopy] once and I didn't see any point to changing.
IIRC it has a gui, but I'm not interested in that anyhow.
Another problem with NTFS and File Explorer, is the user visually
identifying what files are there. Things with the Hidden attribute set.
The file copying utilities don't have a problem with those attributes,
but the human operator may not visually verify all items got copied.
And then, you don't know.
On Sun, 29 Jan 2023 15:07:10 -0500, Paul wrote:
Another problem with NTFS and File Explorer, is the user visually
identifying what files are there. Things with the Hidden attribute set.
The file copying utilities don't have a problem with those attributes,
but the human operator may not visually verify all items got copied.
And then, you don't know.
In Robocopy, you can control that with the /IA and /XA options.
xcopy is included in Windows, but not xxcopy which is 3rd party
software.
You sure robocopy (included in Windows) won't do what xxcopy did/does? There's also the free version of SyncBack. There's also FreeFileSync
which I looked only for a few days, and decided to go back to SyncBack. Syncback (paid) and FreeFileSync can use VSS to operate on open/locked
files. Robocopy doesn't use VSS, but I've read about workarounds where
you use other tools to create the shadow image, and copy from there, and
then delete the shadow. XXcopy didn't use VSS, either. With VSS, if
the copy tool hits an open or locked file, it cannot copy it. With some
copy tools, you can skip just the problematic file instead of aborting
the entire copy operation.
For basic backup, robocopy is fine. Here is an example:
robocopy c:\users\haha t:\backup /l /mt:1 /mir /xjd /xd $RECYCLE.BIN
For basic backup, robocopy is fine. Here is an example:
robocopy c:\users\haha t:\backup /l /mt:1 /mir /xjd /xd $RECYCLE.BIN
with /MIR, any files or
folders that exist in the destination or subfolders, but not in the
source or the same subfolders, will be deleted.
That may be what you want in some situations, but it was quite a
surprise to me because I hadn't reviewed the documentation carefully.
Stan Brown wrote:
with /MIR, any files or
folders that exist in the destination or subfolders, but not in the
source or the same subfolders, will be deleted.
That may be what you want in some situations, but it was quite a
surprise to me because I hadn't reviewed the documentation carefully.
Yes, that's the worst feature of robocopy for catching the unwary,
it does have its uses too, turns out robocopy is a much better deletion utility than delete ...
robocopy C:\EmptyFolder D:\ThatHugeTreeOfFoldersYouWantGone /MIR
Poof! gone, no questions asked.
| Sysop: | Keyop |
|---|---|
| Location: | Huddersfield, West Yorkshire, UK |
| Users: | 297 |
| Nodes: | 16 (2 / 14) |
| Uptime: | 07:25:56 |
| Calls: | 6,666 |
| Files: | 12,213 |
| Messages: | 5,336,116 |