Backup by synchronizing

[Richard In Va.]

Trevor,

I've been out of town for the past few days. Brother wanted me to help on
his farm down in North Carolina over the weekend. Nothing like alittle hard
labor now and again!

Looks like you've been hard at it too... So you got xxcopy installed, thanks
for the copy-and-paste. The /CLONE switch is probably the first thing that
caught my eye when I first visited xxcopy.com. I think it will delete files
off the destination drive that no longer exist on the source drive. It's
been about a week since I read through the xxcopy web page so I might not
recall all the details. But if it does, that might solve the problem you
have with renaming a bunch of pictures just to wind up with duplicate
backups of files with different names.

Somewhere within the xxcopy zip file you downloaded, the are several *.txt
or *.doc files that explain how to install and also what can be deleted
after installation. If I remember, it suggest to unzip the files in your
temp folder. During install, it puts the files it needs where it wants them.
leaving the remnant files in the temp folder to be cleaned the next time you
clean out the temp folders. Once again, I probably ought to read through
this one more time, it's been a few days.

No, I have not tried xxcopy yet, but I have downloaded it.

Thanks for the information...

Richard In Va.
+++++++++++++++

Richard,

Yes, I have it mind to do.

I downloaded xxcopy today and installed it (which writes a few files to
C:\Windows\system32, making it available from the command prompt.)
I am hoping that I can now delete the installation files from
C:\Downloads.

Here is the text produced by xxcopy /?
XXCOPY == Freeware == Ver 2.92.6 (c)1995-2005 Pixelab, Inc.

XXCOPY src [ dst ] [ options... ]
src specifies the source file(s) or directory to copy
dst specifies the destination directory (no file names)

Option switches start with a slash (/) immediately followed by letter(s).
XXCOPY supports most XCOPY switches (/A/M/P/S/E/T/W/C/I/F/L/H/R/U/K/Y/N).
/S Copies subdirectories /K Keeps file attibutes as in src
/H Copies hidden files also /U Updates files that exist in dst

/CLONE Duplicates a directory (or entire volume) as incremental backup.
/BACKUP Backs up the directory without deleting extra files.
/SG Gathers files from subdirectories into one directory.
/SX Flattens subdirectories into a one-level directory.
/SZ:-<n> Copies files whose size is <n> bytes or less.
/Z Deletes extra files/dirs in the destination (/ZY, without prompt).
/DA:<date> (/DB:<date>) Copies files made on/after (before) the date.
/X<fspec> Excludes file(s) which match <fspec> pattern (wildcard OK).
/Y No prompt on file overwrite (/YY Suppreses nearly all prompts).
/HELP Displays a full help text, (/HELPA in alphabetical order).
/? Displays a focused help text with the switch(es) you specify.
Over 160 switches in all (visit http://www.xxcopy.com for details).

While there are more switches than these, it looks like the /Z switch may
be useful for updatng "My Pictures" on the backup after files have beed
moved and/or renamed on the C: drive.

I don't know whether I dare try it. Of course, I could copy the "My
Pictures" backup to something else, try xxcopy with this switch and
compare the results.

/X<fspec> seems to do the same job as xcopy's /EXCLUDE:excl.txt (which
needs an extra file)

So have you tried xxcopy ?

BTW, the different switches we use in xcopy are
Used by you and not by me:
/W Prompts you to press a key before copying
(I handle this in the batch file - it may easier not to)

Used by me and not by you:
/C Continues copying even if errors occur
(This allows the batch file to keep going)
/Q Does not dislplay filenames when copying
(I handle this in the batch file - again it may be easier not to)
/H Copies hidden and system files also
(This is a matter of choice)