Robocopy

L

leapyear

Hi everyone,

1. I am using Windows XP Home. I'm trying to use Robocopy for Backing-up "My
Documents" (8.9 GB) to an external USB 2 Drive .
I use switches : /MIR /V /COPYALL /PURGE /ZB /NP /LOG:"C:\TEMP\my.log" /XF
*.txt *.bak /R:3 /W:5
Everything is going smoothly exept that 3 folders - "My Pictures" , "My
Videos" and "My Music" Folder Names (only the backed-up Folders) are
changing to "my_name's Pictures" , "my_name's Video" and "my_name's Music"
in the external Backup directory. The data in the folders remain's intact.

2. Why this 3 specific folders ? are they spcial in any way ?

3. Is there any technical article One can read about ?

Please , Can any expert comment on this issue ?
Thanks
 
P

Panic

Have you tried simply using Windows Explore? Highlight your My Documents
folder, right click and choose Copy. On your external hard drive highlight
the root drive letter, right click and choose Paste. (or choose any other
folder on your USB drive that you want. You could make a folder called
Backup and paste it there.)
 
L

leapyear

Thank you Panic,
Yes I have tried using Windows Explorer & Copy and it's working, but using
Robocopy for Backing-up "My Documents" is only half of the story.
If it will work for me I intend to use it for a full Backup of my 3 computers.
Windows Explorer & Copy would not help me there. If I would not have faced
the odd problem (Name change of those 3 folders while using Robocopy) which I
described in my 1'st question I could proceed with my work with robocopy
without asking any questions in the forum.
The odd behavior of Robocopy in my 1'st test forced me to look for an answer
before proceeding.
I will be very thankful if I could get an answer to my 3 questions regarding
the odd (or unexplained) Behavior of Robocopy as described in my 1'st
question.
 
P

Pegasus \(MVP\)

leapyear said:
Hi everyone,

1. I am using Windows XP Home. I'm trying to use Robocopy for Backing-up
"My
Documents" (8.9 GB) to an external USB 2 Drive .
I use switches : /MIR /V /COPYALL /PURGE /ZB /NP /LOG:"C:\TEMP\my.log"
/XF
*.txt *.bak /R:3 /W:5
Everything is going smoothly exept that 3 folders - "My Pictures" , "My
Videos" and "My Music" Folder Names (only the backed-up Folders) are
changing to "my_name's Pictures" , "my_name's Video" and "my_name's
Music"
in the external Backup directory. The data in the folders remain's intact.

2. Why this 3 specific folders ? are they spcial in any way ?

3. Is there any technical article One can read about ?

Please , Can any expert comment on this issue ?
Thanks
Click to expand...

A couple of things:
- Let' see the full robocopy command, not just the switches.
- Do this for a little test:
1. Click Start / Run / cmd {OK}
2. Type these commands verbatim:
dir "%UserProfile%" /s /ad | find /i "Video" > c:\test.txt{Enter}
notepad c:\test.txt{Enter}
3. Paste the text into your reply.
 
R

Richard in AZ

What do you find on the Robocopy web site support?
Have you called their tech support?
 
L

leapyear

Thank you Pegasus for your help,

Here are the details:
The command is:
robocopy "D:\My Documents" "M:\Documents Backup" /MIR /COPYALL /PURGE /V /NP
/LOG:"C:\TEMP\work.log" /XF *.txt *.bak /ZB /R:3 /W:5

The text.txt is:
01/26/2008 07:07 AM <DIR> Any Video Converter
Directory of C:\Documents and Settings\LD\Application Data\Any Video
Converter
02/08/2008 09:49 AM <DIR> video.google.com
02/08/2008 09:49 AM <DIR> www.livevideo.com
Directory of C:\Documents and Settings\LD\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash
Player\#SharedObjects\SAXBA99K\video.google.com
Directory of C:\Documents and Settings\LD\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash
Player\#SharedObjects\SAXBA99K\video.google.com\googleplayer.swf
Directory of C:\Documents and Settings\LD\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash
Player\#SharedObjects\SAXBA99K\www.livevideo.com
Directory of C:\Documents and Settings\LD\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash
Player\#SharedObjects\SAXBA99K\www.livevideo.com\flvplayer
Directory of C:\Documents and Settings\LD\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash
Player\#SharedObjects\SAXBA99K\www.livevideo.com\flvplayer\flvplayer.swf
03/06/2007 10:00 AM <DIR> #video.google.com
02/08/2008 09:49 AM <DIR> #www.livevideo.com
Directory of C:\Documents and Settings\LD\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash
Player\macromedia.com\support\flashplayer\sys\#video.google.com
Directory of C:\Documents and Settings\LD\Application Data\Macromedia\Flash
Player\macromedia.com\support\flashplayer\sys\#www.livevideo.com
09/08/2007 11:23 AM <DIR> FLV to Video
Directory of C:\Documents and Settings\LD\Application Data\Moyea\FLV to Video
08/11/2007 11:34 AM <DIR> My Videos
Directory of C:\Documents and Settings\LD\My Documents\My Videos
09/08/2007 10:32 AM <DIR> Any Video Converter
Directory of C:\Documents and Settings\LD\Start Menu\Programs\Additional
Accessories\Any Video Converter

Thank you again.
 
P

Pegasus \(MVP\)

My previous question was based on the assumption that the
folder "My Documents" resides inside your profile folder on
drive C:. This is obviously not the case - it resides on drive D:.
I now need to ask you to repeat the previous test in a slightly
different way:

1. Click Start / Run / cmd {OK}
2. Type these commands verbatim:
dir "d:\My Documents" /s /ad | find /i "Video" > c:\test.txt{Enter}
notepad c:\test.txt{Enter}
3. Paste the text into your reply
 
L

leapyear

Here is the new test.txt :

01/26/2008 06:34 AM <DIR> Any Video Converter
09/17/2006 02:15 PM <DIR> Music for Video
02/03/2008 07:18 PM <DIR> My Videos
Directory of d:\My Documents\Any Video Converter
Directory of d:\My Documents\Any Video Converter\WMV
Directory of d:\My Documents\Any Video Converter\YouTube
Directory of d:\My Documents\Music for Video
02/08/2008 02:28 PM <DIR> Nero6_Photo_Video_chm_tut_eng
Directory of d:\My Documents\My Downloads\For Nero & Lightscrube
Downloads\Nero6_Photo_Video_chm_tut_eng
02/10/2008 05:54 PM <DIR> Video for Check
Directory of d:\My Documents\My Pictures\Video for Check
Directory of d:\My Documents\My Videos
02/16/2007 01:05 PM <DIR> CapturedVideo
02/16/2007 01:05 PM <DIR> ExportedVideo
02/16/2007 01:05 PM <DIR> ImportedVideo
Directory of d:\My Documents\NeroVision\CapturedVideo
Directory of d:\My Documents\NeroVision\ExportedVideo
Directory of d:\My Documents\NeroVision\ImportedVideo

Thank you.
 
P

Pegasus \(MVP\)

I can find no ready explanation why the folders you mention should
be picked up by robocopy. If this happened on my machine then
I would have to poke about a bit in order to find out what's going
on. I suspect that the issue is not related to robocopy.exe but rather
to your file system, and that it would appear with xcopy.exe as well.
Perhaps you have a dynamic disk and perhaps you have some drive
C: folders mounted on drive D:. I don't use dynamic volumes, hence
I know next to nothing about them.

Is this a serious problem or merely a nuisance?
 
L

leapyear

To my opinion, at this stage of my work, the "Name change issue" is not a
very big problem, But I hope the outcome of my work will enable me to make a
full backup of my 3 computers to an external drive with the aid of Robocopy.

But, as you wrote, I would love to understand, before I'll jump to the next
stage, and find out what's going on.

I did some digging as you recommended. Here are some results:

1. The computer's name is "my_name" exactly as the changed name of the 3
folder's
("my_name's Pictures" etc.).
2. When I change (myself) the names of the three folders (in "My Documents")
before
Backing-up, to "Pictures", "Music" & "Video" (dropping the word "My")
and backing-
up afterwards, there is no Name Change of those folders in the external
Backup
directory. Conclusion: the word "My", as a part of the folders name, is
responsible, in
an odd way, (which I do not understand) to the "Name change issue".
3. I did the same backup with xcopy.exe – the issue dose not happens. My
Conclusion: It
Has something to do with Robocopy.

I don't want to bother you with this issue. And it's merely a nuisance at
this stage.
But I'll appreciate and be very thankful to have an explanation (or a Link
to an article) about this odd phenomenon.
 
P

Pegasus \(MVP\)

See below.

leapyear said:
To my opinion, at this stage of my work, the "Name change issue" is not a
very big problem, But I hope the outcome of my work will enable me to make
a
full backup of my 3 computers to an external drive with the aid of
Robocopy.
Click to expand...

*** The word "hope" is inappropriate for backups. Either you have
*** done a full test recovery of your backups, in which case you
*** "know" that it works, or you haven't, in which case your backup
*** is close to worthless.
But, as you wrote, I would love to understand, before I'll jump to the
next
stage, and find out what's going on.

I did some digging as you recommended. Here are some results:

1. The computer's name is "my_name" exactly as the changed name of the 3
folder's
("my_name's Pictures" etc.).
2. When I change (myself) the names of the three folders (in "My
Documents")
before
Backing-up, to "Pictures", "Music" & "Video" (dropping the word "My")
and backing-
up afterwards, there is no Name Change of those folders in the external
Backup
directory. Conclusion: the word "My", as a part of the folders name, is
responsible, in
an odd way, (which I do not understand) to the "Name change issue".
3. I did the same backup with xcopy.exe - the issue dose not happens. My
Conclusion: It
Has something to do with Robocopy.
Click to expand...

*** I was obviously wrong with my guess. However, this is good
*** news for you because you can now use xcopy.exe for your backups.
I don't want to bother you with this issue. And it's merely a nuisance at
this stage.
But I'll appreciate and be very thankful to have an explanation (or a Link
to an article) about this odd phenomenon.
Click to expand...

*** Since I have never seen or hear about this phenomenon, I cannot
*** offer an explanation.
 
L

leapyear

Thank you Pegasus,

I'll continue to poke about this odd issue and I hope that someone did bump
into this phenomenon and will offer an explanation.
 

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