Can it do this? (Backup from 2 different sources)

juniopp101 · Post by **juniopp101** » Thu Apr 12, 2018 6:13 pm

I know the software can be setup to backup from multiple sources, Buuttt when you do this, during the run of the 2nd Profile, any folder/files not part of that profile get deleted on the destination. I know you can set toggles to prevent the deletion but than I just end up with a bunch of extra files on the destination I may not have wanted. I would like to have the backup mirror my source(s).

So is it possible:
To have more than one source -
Backup to one destination. (Or maybe a better word is Synchronize??)

To further clarify:
I have one drive with Photos that backup's to a myPassport. This drive is getting full so I added a 2nd drive with more photos. This also backup's to the myPassport but I notice every time I run the 2nd profile, it just deletes whatever the 1st profile wrote. I can turn the toggle to not delete folder/files but than the profiles will no longer match drives 1 and 2. I'll just have a bunch of extra files on the destination I don't actually want.

Any ideas?

Swapna · Post by **Swapna** » Fri Apr 13, 2018 3:10 am

Hi,

Sorry, not supported in SyncBackFree, but you can use either SyncBack Touch or AllDrives location script with SyncBackPro to achieve this. Please refer to this forum post for additional details:

viewtopic.php?f=15&t=12221&p=46872#p46872

If you do not own a copy of SyncBackPro and wish to test its functions, you are welcome to try our fully functional SyncBackPro, which we offer a free 30-day evaluation.

http://www.2brightsparks.com/assets/sof ... _Setup.exe

If you do decide to purchase, the serial number will convert the 'trial' to the 'registered' version.

Thank you.

juniopp101 · Post by **juniopp101** » Wed Apr 18, 2018 1:19 pm

Thank you for responding.
I'll probably go ahead and make the purchase. Good piece of software.

juniopp101 · Post by **juniopp101** » Wed Apr 18, 2018 1:28 pm

Ok, I have the SyncBackPro Version. And I installed the script. I was able to choose All Drive Locations.

But....

Now I don't get what to do next. I can choose the folder icon next to Script, but it just gives me a bunch of letters. (which I assume correspond to my hard drives. But I can't select more than one. And if I choose one, hit ok, and come back, nothing appears to happen. I'm not entirely sure what to do next.

cliffhanger · Post by **cliffhanger** » Wed Apr 18, 2018 5:13 pm

Hi, if you read Swapna's quoted post 46872 (link supplied in Swapna's reply of 13 Apr 2018) you will see it explained thus

Swapna wrote:...

3. A Profile setup window is displayed, where you have [to] enter \ under the Source path (script) and configure the Destination path according to your requirement.

4. Click on the "Choose sub-directories and files" settings page to select/de-select files/folders from multiple drives.

IOW, the script (with Source set to a single backslash character) enables you to use Choose Subdirectories & Files to also select from one level 'higher' than folders (that is, from drives) as though they were folders. A little thought at this point suggests certain caveats apply, for example

take care to de-select all the drives you do not want or your backup might require a lot of space
make sure you do not create a backup which is recursive, for example if you are storing your backup on drive X as Destination, X will also be listed under Source, and you should make sure to de-select X in the Source tree
if you add a new drive that was not present when you designed the profile, it will automatically be added to the Source tree next time it runs, and by default will be pre-selected; make sure to edit/de-select the new drive if unwanted

juniopp101 · Post by **juniopp101** » Fri Apr 20, 2018 2:03 pm

Nah... it's still not working.
I'm pretty sure I've done everything correctly but currently it wants to move all 400+ gigs over. So... something isn't right.

I've tried multiple different configurations but every simulated run tries to copy the entire contents over. Even though everything has already been backed up at the destination. Kind of at a loss here as to what to do....

juniopp101 · Post by **juniopp101** » Fri Apr 20, 2018 2:42 pm

• If I only put a \ in that field, I can select what drives I want to backup but it doesn't compare correctly. It wants to move EVERYTHING all over again.
• If I put a drive letter in the source field \G\ it works for that particular drive. It doesn't attempt to copy everything over. BUT I can't link up the other drive then.
• I tried putting \G\P\ but that didn't work.

I feel like I'm almost there.. but I'm just not doing something correctly.

juniopp101 · Post by **juniopp101** » Fri Apr 20, 2018 3:11 pm

Bah, I give up.

I've tried every configuration I can think of. I've swapped both destination and source just to see if it was a bug. No matter what I do, it just refuses to compare correctly. If I only pick one drive, it works fine. But the moment I add a second drive, it breaks down.

Thanks for everyone trying to help anyway.

cliffhanger · Post by **cliffhanger** » Fri Apr 20, 2018 6:01 pm

HI, works for me (exactly as I described, using single backslash in Source textbox). But, I just realised Swapna didn't mention (maybe she didn't notice the linked articles didn't, either...) that using the AllDrives script will enforce the insertion (prepend) of segregating folders (based on the 'origin' drive letters) on the target drive (your Passport?). For example, if you were copying \Photos\ folders from drives D & E to drive X, the paths on X would show as

\D\Photos\...
\E\Photos\...

If you run a Simulation again, look closely at the paths\filenames shown in the Differences window that the profile proposes to create on the target and you'll see they start with folders representing your origin drive letters. As I understand it, this is mainly so that if necessary to run a Restore, the profile will know what drives each set of files needs copying back to (see below* for another possible reason). Naturally, your current 'there already' backup files have paths that start at the root of the target drive, so the paths are different, thus not the same path\file combinations as the AllDrives profile will generate. Thus, the profile proposes to create (extra) sets with drive identifiers...

IIRC, there is no way of preventing these drive-ID folders from being used. If you wanted (understandably) to store only one copy of each file in each set on your target drive, you would need to wipe the original backup (with no drive-ID) and re-create it using the AllDrives script to create a backup that remembers where the files originally came from...

A quick test here shows the same principle (appending of folders representing origin-drives) applies if you use SyncBack Touch for Windows to access multiple drives (at the same time) on your PC.

So, AFAICS, there is no way of 'blending' two drives into one file-set (without drive-IDs) except by using 2 or more profiles with a shared Destination.

* But then you have the potential risk of same path\file/folder-name collisions occurring. Using same example as above but using two profiles, if you had file Self-Portrait.jpg on the root of drives D & E, they would collide on drive X and likely one would overwrite the other, or similar. You could get around this by setting the Destinations of the two profiles as X:\D\... and X:\E\... which is in effect what an AllDrives profile or Touch profile will do for you automatically...

2BrightSparks

Can it do this? (Backup from 2 different sources)

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