Newbie Needs Some Help

[swezey]

So I am new to FFS and have the Donation Edition because this seems like a good tool that I would be willing to pay for and I appreciate the efforts of the author. Here is what I am trying to do and am kind of struggling with.

We have two file servers let's call them A and B. A is fast and small and B is slow and big. Every day we create thousands of files on A with a complex folder structure. At night, I want to copy ALL new files IN THEIR SAME FOLDER STRUCTURE from A to B. I do not need to scan B because if the file is dated YESTERDAY (assume I run FFS at12:01, one minute past midnight), I know they are not on B yet. I NEVER want FFS to delete anything from A or B. If the same file exists on A and B and A is newer it should just overwrite the file already on B. I am basically making a backup of all new files from A to B.

I want it to run automatically every night, find files on A that were created the previous day, and copy them to B in their same structure. Can FFS do that? I am having trouble figuring out how.

Thanks to everyone in advance for their help!

Bill

[xCSxXenon]

https://freefilesync.org/manual.php

[swezey]

xCSxXenon,

Thanks for your quick reply. I did go through the directions and either I am not getting it or FFS can not do what I want. I was hoping someone else had a similar situation and could enlighten me with their experience. Specifically:

1) FFS only need look at the SOURCE DRIVE FILE DATE to decide if a file should be copied.
2) FFS NEVER needs to look at the TARGET DRIVE contents at all. (NEVER)
3) FFS copies ALL files from the previous day to the target drive preserving the folder structure. Older files of the same name in the same folder on the TARGET are OVERWRITTEN.
4) FFS runs unattended once a day.

Yes, this seems like a simple thing to do but I am not sure if FFS was designed this way or can be setup to work this way. Thus, my ask for some advice. Thanks!

Bill

[xCSxXenon]

You will set up a mirror batch job configuration and then set up a scheduled task to run it daily

[swezey]

OK thanks. I will try again to figure it out. I'm not an IT person, I just play one on TV. ;-)

[swezey]

OK honestly I can't figure it out after a few hours of messing around. No matter what I try FFS INSISTS on scanning the target drive... Am I doing something wrong or does it ALWAYS scan the target drive? My target drive is my backup and will keep getting larger and larger (already with over 70 million files) which is why I want to exclude it from ever being scanned. There is no need to scan it. If there is a way to do it with FFS, it certainly is NOT obvious in the directions, the tutorials, the examples or the F.A.Q.s. Either that or I am a complete moron. Which I am not completely ruling out but I have made it in life so good thus far so...

[xCSxXenon]

Well it has to scan the target to know what to do with the source

[swezey]

No, it does not (well maybe FFS does because that is the only way it works but I mean in my scenario the target does not need scanned). I want to move all new files created yesterday to the target, keeping the same folder structure as the source and overwriting any existing file on the target (there should be no conflicts but if there is, it is acceptable to overwrite). Should I come to the conclusion that FFS can not do this? If so, that's fine and I will find something else but I want to make sure I am not overlooking something or misunderstanding the theory of operation. Since I am new to the product and can't figure out how to do what I want, I figured folks with more experience could quickly say A) No it doesn't work that way you can't do what you want or B) Yes it can do it and here's how. There is no need to scan the 70 million files on the target because I know that I am only moving new files that were created yesterday and definitely are NOT on the target drive.

[xCSxXenon]

FFS can't do that. You should just use xcopy or robocopy for something so menial

[swezey]

OK thanks. This is the conclusion I was slowly coming to by myself.