File Mirror Software?

Le_Petit_Lapin · 1 Feb 2007 at 14:25

Hi,

Is there any software that will automatically mirror a network shared folder or indeed entire drive to another drive elsewhere on the network, and can be set to automatically run in the middle of the night every night?

Files can already be copied between the drives manually, but its a bit tedious when they're weighing in at a few hundred GB each drive.

Basically I'm looking for a software version of RAID 1 that works across network shares. All its for is to send a whack of info to the server, which then backs that up to Ext. HDd or Tape an hour or so later.

So...does anyone here recommend anything?

The_KiD · 1 Feb 2007 at 14:33

http://www.techsoftpl.com/backup/

Dr_Evil · 1 Feb 2007 at 14:40

Create a batch file that synchronizes the files/folders on the drive with a network share location, then schedule this in windows to run overnight.

Le_Petit_Lapin · 1 Feb 2007 at 15:22

Dr_Evil said:
Create a batch file that synchronizes the files/folders on the drive with a network share location, then schedule this in windows to run overnight.

Sounds like what I'm looking for, also sounds free!

Got a guide for that?

Dr_Evil · 1 Feb 2007 at 15:27

Le_Petit_Lapin said:
Sounds like what I'm looking for, also sounds free!

Got a guide for that?

use the "XCopy" command and use either a UNC or Mapped Drive letter for your shared network folder destination.

Use the /Y parameter to suppress prompting to overrice
Use the /Z parameter to resume copying over the network, if you connection drops and reconnects

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/xcopy.mspx

Le_Petit_Lapin · 2 Feb 2007 at 09:35

Dr_Evil said:
use the "XCopy" command and use either a UNC or Mapped Drive letter for your shared network folder destination.

Use the /Y parameter to suppress prompting to overrice
Use the /Z parameter to resume copying over the network, if you connection drops and reconnects

http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/xcopy.mspx

er...

I really don't get it. I can see that XCopy will do what I want, and that its reasonably simple, but I don't know how to make a file that can be opened by Task Scheduler.

joey1211 · 2 Feb 2007 at 09:46

Write the commands into notepad, save as a bat file (change the extension to *.bat) and use task scheduler to open the bat file and run at a certain time.

Set up a test file first to see if it does what you want. Here's one I made earlier

del "C:\Documents and Settings\*** ***\Desktop\delete test\*.jpg" /s /q

Dr_Evil · 2 Feb 2007 at 10:02

Le_Petit_Lapin said:
I really don't get it. I can see that XCopy will do what I want, and that its reasonably simple, but I don't know how to make a file that can be opened by Task Scheduler.

1. Create a batch file (e.g. test.bat) that will copy your files over to your shared network drive, using the correct parameters /y /z and maybe some more to skip files already there and only copy updated/new files.

2. Make a new scheduled task to run this batch file every xx days at xx:xx:xx. http://support.microsoft.com/kb/308569

joey1211 said:
del "C:\Documents and Settings\*** ***\Desktop\delete test\*.jpg" /s /q

what's that supposed to do, delete your test files?

joey1211 · 2 Feb 2007 at 10:11

Yes. It's used to delete postscript files from job folders before backing up every night. I couldn't get users to manually delete them. They were taking gigs of space on the network and filling the tapes with useless files.

Is there anything wrong with it?

joey1211 · 2 Feb 2007 at 10:13

Also try downloading xxcopy (note the extra x). Has a useful switch, /clone, and other extra features.

Dr_Evil · 2 Feb 2007 at 10:29

I think you can also set up "synchronized folders" but have no experience in doing this... maybe someone else can enlighten us?