Feature Request: "Mirrored Folder Compare"

[dickdunbar]

Backup Folders:

I have multiple machines that I keep backed up, including Linux, MacOS, Win.
All install CD's are also backed up (hate looking for those).

To save space on my laptops, I often delete stuff that I know is backed up.

So who's backing up the backup? Lose that backup drive, and potentially
some deleted files from laptops are lost.

Answer: 4-TB of NAS storage, which I keep synchronized with BC3.

Multiple machines produces lots of duplicate files and software,
so I try to keep that stuff organized in my backup drive by merging
duplicate software, pictures, music, etc.

Complications creep in ... if I merge a couple of huge directories on
the backup drive, some folders disappear .... others get organized in
a different high level structure (Win, Linux, MacOS, Music, Install, etc)

So how do I prevent lots of duplicate effort and keep the two mirrors in sync?

Couple of ways of looking at a solution:

1. Journalled activity.
Perform the merge/rearrangement on one disk and create a journal
of the actions performed.
Replay that journal on the mirrored drive.

2. Mirrored BC3 sessions.
Again, perform the logical rearrangement on one drive,
and mimic the same activities on a second BC3 session
on the second drive.

3. Write a script that performs the logical functions, and send
the commands through a BC3 interface to both sessions simultaneously.

4. Ignore BC3 as the driving interface, write some scripts that
logically do what I need:
* Detect the duplication
* Create an organizational structure
* run the script on both drives
* use BC3 to verify the drives are in sync.

Any thoughts? It's become a big problem.

Moving terabytes of data across a Gb network to synchronize isn't a great plan.

[Chris]

Hi Dick,

There isn't an efficient way to do this with BC3. The brute force method would be to reorganize backup #1, then mirror the contents of backup #1 to backup #2 using BC. Since BC3 doesn't detect moves or renames, this wouldn't be as efficient as something that detects moves/renames, but I'm not aware of a sync tool that does that.

Good luck in your search.

[dickdunbar]

What would be convenient ... what I can't do for myself ... is if I could turn on an "action" log for every action I took in BC3. You're executing the commands ... I just want you to log what you did, and I can take it from there.

The problem with organizing one side, and then mirroring to the other ... is the enormous
amount of network traffic required to do that.

When I move a folder from one directory to another ... doesn't matter if it is a local folder or a network folder (even ftp), the action is extremely efficient in BC3; it amounts to a rename, not brute force copying from one place to another.

One thing I've noticed ... BC3 has become so intuitive, I hardly every read the documentation, which is excellent. I keep promising myself I'll "get a round tuit" ... probably what I have to do now.

Perhaps I can just use services like SysInternals "Process Monitor", to log the physical commands being issued, and construct my own log.

Let's keep thinking about this ....

[Chris]

Hi Dick,

You can turn on detailed logging in BC3 that will log every file operation. Select "Tools > Options". Go to the "Folder Views > Log" section. Check "Operation details", then click OK.

This will list the name of every file included in a file operation in the green log pane at the bottom of the Folder Compare window.