Network Hard Drive

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rmiller818

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Got a network hard drive setup now. I want to know if it is possible to setup the windows synchronization so that anytime I save a file to the hard drive of one of my desktops on the network, it will automatically save a copy of that file to the network hard drive. Is this possible in Windows XP without using software? I really don't want software running in the background all the time.
 

bezking

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I do not believe this to be possible out of the box with XP. The technology you are referring to is called "Shadow Copy," which is available only for the Windows Server System.
 

lgentle

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Run a nightly task

net use <drive:>
copy or xcopy using parameters for incremental copies
net use <drive:> /delete

This would only work if you kept your PCs on, though.

Remapping your My Documents is a good idea. I do this for one of my accounts, so unless they specfically save to the desktop, everything goes to the server.

Maybe Offline Files (synchronization)? This never really worked good in XP, however. I've always seen it hang at logoff/shutdown after a while for some ridiculous error.
 

rmiller818

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why don't you just save to the network hard drive? you can remap your "My Documents" to point to another location.

I could, but would rather it be in both places and done automatically.

Is it possible to map "My Documents" to point to 2 locations at once? The hard drive of the PC I am on and the network hard drive?

I tried setting up the synchronization in XP but you have to edit and save the file in the Work Offline folder (which is only on the network HD from my understanding ). If I edit the same file on my PC's hard drive and synchronize it does nothing to the one on the network hard drive.
 

mike_s104

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I could, but would rather it be in both places and done automatically.

Is it possible to map "My Documents" to point to 2 locations at once? The hard drive of the PC I am on and the network hard drive?

I tried setting up the synchronization in XP but you have to edit and save the file in the Work Offline folder (which is only on the network HD from my understanding ). If I edit the same file on my PC's hard drive and synchronize it does nothing to the one on the network hard drive.

once I get to work tomorrow, I can find a VBS that will copy my documents and desktop to a mapped drive. I can package it as an EXE and you can make a scheduled task or run it manually.
 

rmiller818

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once I get to work tomorrow, I can find a VBS that will copy my documents and desktop to a mapped drive. I can package it as an EXE and you can make a scheduled task or run it manually.

So basically I would continue to save to my hard drive as usual and then set this to run at a specified time at which it would copy all the files to the network hard drive?
 

mike_s104

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So basically I would continue to save to my hard drive as usual and then set this to run at a specified time at which it would copy all the files to the network hard drive?

Correct, as long as those files were in the locations mentioned above and the user that's logged in has rights to the network attached drive.

You can also try the below out. I've used it in the past and it works pretty well.

SimpleTech Consumer Support - StorageSync Backup Software Download
 

n5ims

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Got a network hard drive setup now. I want to know if it is possible to setup the windows synchronization so that anytime I save a file to the hard drive of one of my desktops on the network, it will automatically save a copy of that file to the network hard drive. Is this possible in Windows XP without using software? I really don't want software running in the background all the time.

Make sure that this is actually what you're wanting to do. For example, you make several changes to "the wrong" document and save it locally. You then realize that this wasn't what you wanted to do. With the files copied automatically, you've lost your copy on the shared drive too. If these were copied using a scheduled task, you could recover the original file up until this scheduled task ran.

There are also tools that will save several versions of a file so you can go back to an older version if necessary. These are designed for server use and some are quite expensive, but you may find some open source software that will do what you need along these lines as well. I believe that they are called "journaling software".
 

mike_s104

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So basically I would continue to save to my hard drive as usual and then set this to run at a specified time at which it would copy all the files to the network hard drive?

before I spend time do this, is this something you will use in the method I suggested?

If anyone wants to modify the below or doanything else, pelase feel free. You WILL need to modify for Vista or Windows 7. Please replace "USERNAME" with the account you are wanting to backup and "X" for whichever drive letter you are mapping the drive/share to.

@echo off
cls
c:
cd\
echo.
echo.
echo.

echo Copying files from "My Documents" Please wait....
xcopy "c:\documents and settings\USERNAME\desktop\*.*" "x:\desktop\" /e /v /i /y /r /k /q /h
echo.

echo Copying files from "My Documents" Please wait....
xcopy "c:\documents and settings\USERNAME\my documents\*.*" "x:\my documents\" /e /v /i /y /r /k /q /h
echo.

echo Copying "Internet Favorites" Please wait....
xcopy "c:\documents and settings\USERNAME\Favorites\*.*" "x:\Favorites\" /e /v /i /y /r /k /q /h
echo.
cls

echo.
echo.
echo.
echo File copy completed


cls
exit
 
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iMONITOR

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It does look pretty cool. I think I may try it out...in reverse to get stuff from the network to my PC at work in case (like this morning) the SAN was down.

What I like about IdleBackup is that is keeps folders and files in their native Windows form, so you have total access to everything backed up, even without using IdleBackup. Many of the backup utilities use proprietary formats that make it impossible to recover your backups without their application.
 

mike_s104

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What I like about IdleBackup is that is keeps folders and files in their native Windows form, so you have total access to everything backed up, even without using IdleBackup. Many of the backup utilities use proprietary formats that make it impossible to recover your backups without their application.

Yep...the app I mentioned does the same thing as well as the batch file I posted.
 

brandon

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IdleBackup looks awesome!

Another nice utility that I use is called Windows Live Sync
Perfect to have access to your files from another computer and automatically synchronize any changes. It's low on resources compared to similar utilities such as Dropbox or Live Mesh.
 
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