in message
Is there a way to automatically copy the contents of one or more
folders to
another folder? Here is what I am trying to accomplish ... My users
keep 3
different folders:
Sue\Docs
Wendy\Docs
David\Docs
I want to create a folder called simply:
\Docs
So that anytime someone adds information to either of the three user
folders
listed earlier, then Windows will automatically copy or create
shortcuts to
all of the documents within those three folders into the \Docs
folder.
Is this possible?
http://support.microsoft.com/kb/205524/en-us
Windows includes no tools to create/modify/delete junction points.
You need to get Microsoft's Resource Kit.
http://www.rekenwonder.com/linkmagic.htm
It's been awhile since I played with junctions. Try making
<user>\docs as the junction to \docs. It might work; however, it will
have a side effect that you probably don't want. For example, if I
create the following folders:
d:\test\sue\docs
d:\test\wendy\docs
d:\test\david\docs
and a target folder to contain their documents at:
d:\testdocs
then creating the following junctions:
d:\test\sue\docs --> d:\testdocs
d:\test\wendy\docs --> d:\testdocs
d:\test\david\docs --> d:\testdocs
will result in any file created under the docs subdirectory under sue,
wendy, or david to actually be stored at \testdocs. Sounds like what
you want until you realize that the doc are actually under \testdocs
and each of those junctions from sue, wendy, and david will be using
\testdocs. That means a doc named, say, sue-report.txt created under
\test\sue\docs will be actually under \testdocs which is also where
the wendy and david junctions point, so you'll see the same
sue-report.txt under \test\wendy\docs and under \test\david\docs.
There are 3 separate junction points but all 3 are pointing to the
same destination. It's like having vanes on the top of the bucket
where sue, wendy, and david each slide their apples, oranges, or
grapes through a different slot at the top but all of them are still
looking down into the same bucket. They are all sharing the same
destination. If you ever delete the junctions, the files will be
under the destination because that's where you told the junction to
put them. In this example, deleting the junctions from
\test\<user>\docs to \testdocs results in the files disappearing from
\test\<user>\docs (because they were never there) and just showing up
at \testdocs (because that's where they really got created).
If instead of sharing you merely want to keep a wholly separate copy
of each user's docs in some global repository, look at using
Microsoft's SyncToy powertoy for Windows XP (using the "Echo" option).
You then define a scheduled event in Task Scheduler to periodically
run "synctoy.exe -r". It does not run continuously as an NT service.
Decide how often to run the scheduled task.
