However, I would like to ask about the copying over of date created, date modified and date accessed timestamps for this program (please skip to my MAIN POINT at the bottom if you do not want to read all of this).
I am well aware of the existing discussion on the forum (viewtopic.php?t=8905) where Robocopy is used as a workaround, but I found that after trying out as many command/flag combinations as possible, I could not get it to change date accessed for copied over folders. Note that what I am describing is within the context of NTFS drives and more timestamp problems happen when I use a virtual FUSE drive that is created from a program called Cryptomator.
The best option I have found so far is SafeCopy Free by Elwinsoft: (https://www.elwinsoft.com/safecopy-free.html, included screenshot is taken from their website) which allows for the copying over of date created, date modified and date accessed when copying both files and folders to another place. My main inquiry here is if this sort of functionality can be implemented into FFS. SafeCopy Free's copying over of these timestamps is given as an optional choice, and I would think that doing so would also be fitting for FFS. According to its website, it can also be ran from the command line.
However, some very minor limitations/issues of this program I found is concerning the base folder directory in "Source" where I need to check "Include the folder itself" and set the "Copy to" folder as one directory above for the date created and date modified timestamps to work for the base folder. No matter what I try, date accessed does not transfer over to the copy of the base folder in the second drive, but at least the files/folders inside do get the source sub-content's timestamps. I also will admit that sometimes date accessed does not transfer over when "Existing Files" are set to "Skip" instead of "Overwrite", but obviously "Skip" is still preferred as it still changes timestamps without completely overwriting which takes a long time for large files.
Here are some further notes from my timestamp testing with different drives and programs.
NTFS Drives
Robocopy (after trying as many command/flag combinations as possible) for files: date created, date modified, date accessed
Robocopy for folders: date created, dated modified
Safecopy Free for files: date created, date modified, date accessed
Safecopy Free for folders: date created, date modified, date accessed (not for base folder)
FUSE Drives (virtual one created by Cryptomator)
Robocopy for files: dated modified only
Robocopy for folders: date modified, date accessed (only worked sometimes)
Safecopy Free for files: date modified only
Safecopy Free for folders: date modified, date accessed (only worked sometimes)
Attribute Changer (https://www.petges.lu/download/)
This is a program that allows you to change file and folder attributes including the timestamps I mentioned which I used in addition to just waiting sometime so that the file/folders would have different timestamps. This program was quite helpful for testing before and after timestamp changes. I found it to be buggy sometimes and not able to change date access for files/folders, and before someone suggests to use the "fsutil behavior set disablelastaccess", sometimes the change did work. Another potential variable to this buggy behavior may depend on how many sub-directories a file/folder was nested inside the base folder. On the FUSE drives, the changing of date accessed sometimes failed and changing date created flat out refused to work while date modified worked. During the times that the timestamps refused to change with Attribute Changer, they also did not copy over when using Robocopy or SafeCopy Free.
I will admit that my testing is rather limited and not necessarily to be seen as expected performance for all scenarios, and there is a chance that I might be wrong about some individual details.
MAIN POINT: I am wondering if the date accessed, date created, and date modified timestamps can be optionally copied over in FFS, just like how a free but closed source program called SafeCopy Free does it.
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