SyncToy 2.0 'Check file contents' feature not working

[Herschel Purvis]

Apparently, the 'Check file contents' feature does not work for all files. If
so, there's no mention of this in the help file. Otherwise, this is a bug.

In this case, the file in question is a TrueCrypt v4.3 "container" file (a
so-called "file-hosted volume") on a NTFS partition. According to the
TrueCrypt user manual, a file-hosted volume is a "normal" file (with regard
to NTFS). The user can rename the file and assign any file extension desired
(or none). In this case, I use .pdf for the file extension.

The TC file resides alone in a folder (no other files in the folder) on my
internal hard drive. I created a brand-new folder on an external drive which
was empty. I then created the SyncToy folder pair specifying the folder
mentioned above (on my internal drive) on the "left-side" and the brand-new
empty folder on my external drive on the "right-side". I specified the
'Contribute' action and checked the 'Check file contents' option. I then
clicked 'Run' - results were as expected - the folder and file were copied
left-to-right.

I then made some updates to the TC file (on the left-side) followed by a
Synctoy 'Preview' on the folder pair (again, with 'Check file contents'
checked). To my surprise, the total bytes to copy was zero! So, Synctoy
determined that no file changes existed even though I had just made changes
to the file on the "left-side"!

This can't be right. Am I missing something? Or is this a bug? Anyone here
encountered this problem? Any ideas or comments are welcomed.

TIA, Purv

 

[Herschel Purvis]

I forgot to mention that I obtained a MD5 check sum for each file (the
"left-side" file and the "right-side" file) before and after I made updates
to the "left-side" file. The "before" check sums matched and the "after"
check sums did NOT match. That confirms the file contents were in fact
different.

So the questions remains: Why doesn't the SyncToy 2.0 Beta 'Check file
contents' feature determine that these file's contents are different?

 

[Herschel Purvis]

Update - I have concluded that this problem has nothing to do with TrueCrypt
files. Rather, it is a problem using SyncToy 2.0 with FAT32 partitions.

When I created a new folder pair specifying an NTFS partition on both the
left and right side, this problem resolved ("went-away"). Previously, the
right-side folder resided on a FAT32 partition.

Conclusion: the 'Check file contents' feature may not function correctly if
either the left or right folder(s) reside on a FAT32 partition - caveat
emptor!

 

[Ashish]

Herschel,

Thanks for reporting this problems and narrowing it down. We will look into
this and determine where the bug is. Just to confirm - what I understand from
above is that the change that wasn't detected, it was made on the NTFS
partition. Let us know if it was actually made on the FAT32 partition.

Ashish Shah
SyncToy Development

 

[Herschel Purvis]

Ashish, thanks for your reply.

Yes, that's correct, the file that changed was on NTFS partition (left side).

Since I changed the right-side to NTFS (from Fat32) I have had no problem.

Let me know if I can provide any further info,

Regards, Rob