Automatic directory creation on mirror drive

[CraigG58]

Hello! New user here, thanks for a most excellent program!

I can’t seem to find an answer to this specific question, so please pardon me if I’ve missed it...

I’m testing the mirror option, with the following path configuration:

Source:
C:\Users\craig\temp-2
Mirror:
[BACKUP AUX]\
(by drive label)

Is there any way for FFS to create the source directory itself on the mirror drive automatically?

The only way I’ve found is to create it manually and point the mirror directly to it, before running the sync. Otherwise, everything from the source directory winds up in the root directory on the mirror drive.

Thanks in advance for any advice!

[CraigG58]

Ah, I’ve found a much better workaround... Copying the source directory path (naturally without the drive letter), then pasting it at the end of the mirror path.

As in:
Source:
C:\Users\craig\temp-2
Mirror:
[BACKUP AUX]\Users\craig\temp-2

FFS then creates those directories as part of the sync, if they don’t already exist.

Yes, it’s an extra step, but still much less hassle than manually creating the required directories on the mirror hdisk. Still, unless I’m missing something, I wish there was an option to handle this automatically.

[xCSxXenon]

Yes, FFS will automatically create sub-directories, but not what you were wanting. FFS makes the two locations a mirror copy of one another. So you told FFS to make "[BACKUP AUX]\" an exact copy of "C:\Users\craig\temp-2", which you confirmed that it did when you said the source's contents ended up in the root of the destination. To do what you want, you would have to set the source as "C:\' and change the include filter from "*" to "\Users\craig\temp-2", and it would do what you were expecting. The consequence being you have to manually include each location you want to mirror. It may be easier to keep "*" as the include and look into excluding instead, but this depends on the specific data structure you are working with.

[CraigG58]

@xCSxXenon: Thanks for the reply!

Wow, looks like configuring things that way would be extremely cumbersome. Actually, what I described in my last post accomplishes exactly what I want, with no filters involved.

I’ve created two configuration files, and have attached FFS screenshots of each:

“Library Directories.ffs_gui”
For all default Windows Libraries, in my case a huge amount of data.

“Non-Library Directories.ffs_gui”
Much smaller odds and ends directories that aren’t contained within the default Windows Libraries.

The last screenshot is Windows File Explorer displaying the resulting root directory on the mirror drive. The first time I ran a sync, FFS created them as expected along with all sub-directories and files under them, identical to the source drive. Naturally you can’t see those in that screenshot, but trust me, I’ve checked and all have been mirrored.

Depending on how many directories you want to mirror, of course this takes a bit of time to configure (particularly the “Non-Library Directories” job, which contains 14 source paths). That's certainly no biggie as it's obviously a one-time thing to set up, then I’m good to go forever.

P. S. I’ve never attached files here before, hopefully this forum software can enlarge them if they can’t be clearly viewed. Just in case, here’s a link to all the screenshot files on my Google Drive:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1ws_QoaOAx-i6cxHxkHmvPL2g16zLaYoC?usp=sharing

[xCSxXenon]

Yep! So for you, the solution you found works best. Just wanted to chime in as different people prefer different solutions. Glad you got something that works for you!

[CraigG58]

It's absolutely perfect for my needs, thanks much once again for the reply!