Local Folder Question

[dricketts]

I'm looking at using some software for backup. It protects important data by backing it up to any USB/Firewire device, local or network location. The backed up data can be either compressed (using standard zip compression) or an exact copy of the original files.

Here's my question. Would it be safe to back up a compressed version of the Trainz "local" folder?

I'd like to get some feedback from anyone who's doing this now or has tried in the past.

 

[Euphod]

I'm assuming the local folder is already compressed, and I wouldn't take the chance on compressing it again. Just my thought.

 

[dricketts]

I'm assuming the local folder is already compressed, and I wouldn't take the chance on compressing it again. Just my thought.

That's something I didn't think of.

Here's my problem. Currently I've got exactly 50 GB in the local folder. Using an external drive with USB 2.0 it takes about 3 hours to back it up. Well that's all good if I could just make a couple of clicks before I go to bed, wake up and everything's good. But... Windows will stop the process several times prompting a response because of the structure of the local folder and all its sub folders and files. I have to get up and check several times in the middle of the night. There's got to be a better way to back up a 50 GB folder and its sub folders.

My thought was using some "backup software". I haven't decided on any yet but it looks as if most have the option to compress the data or not.

I love to hear if anyone is using a better solution.

 

[JCitron]

The idea of using a backup program sounds great at first, but the problem is they don't always report back if there was a failure. I've seen cases where the program reported copying 28 GB of data, but the disk it wrote to as full. So much for a current backup!

In my pursuit of getting around that daft "calculating time", which wastes as much time as it does to copy the files, I found a nice tool called FastCopy.

http://ipmsg.org/tools/fastcopy.html.en

You simply setup your source and destination folders, click copy and let it do its thing. There's no calculating size, no prompts about overwriting, copying, etc. It just works and fairly fast too. I copy 120 GB (my complete Trainz install) in about 2 hours to a second drive.

The program is also free.

John

 

[Retro00064]

Yup, I know about the "discovered XXX items" thing when copying, and it does take time for it to sort through lots of stuff. I will have to try that FastCopy program the next time I have to copy bundles of stuff around (including backing up Treainz, etc., to my USB 2.0 external hard drive, if I ever get around to backing up, that is ). Thanks John!

Regards,

Retro.

 

[RRSignal]

If you're comfortable with the command prompt, my old friend XCOPY never lets me down:

xcopy [source] [dest] /h /e /v /c /o /r

e.g.

xcopy c:\"Program Files (x86)"\Auran\TS2010\*.* k:\TrainzBackups\TS2010 /h /e /v /c /o /r

 

[dricketts]

I found a nice tool called FastCopy.

John

I'll take a look at that John. Does it do any file compression? Have you ever had to do a recovery/install using your Trainz files created with FastCopy?

If you're comfortable with the command prompt, my old friend XCOPY never lets me down:

xcopy [source] [dest] /h /e /v /c /o /r

e.g.

xcopy c:\"Program Files (x86)"\Auran\TS2010\*.* k:\TrainzBackups\TS2010 /h /e /v /c /o /r

Unfortunately I'm not comfortable with it. I'm afraid I'd create more issues.

 

[JCitron]

I'll take a look at that John. Does it do any file compression? Have you ever had to do a recovery/install using your Trainz files created with FastCopy?



Unfortunately I'm not comfortable with it. I'm afraid I'd create more issues.

It does not do any compression. Simply copies quickly from one place to another. It can also move and delete too if you want.

I have used the program to produce a working copy of everything on a backup drive. Remember this was the complete install. I then took the backup drive and ran from that on my laptop. The TS12 ran flawlessly. Nothing was missing since it copied all the subfolders along with the top-level stuff.

The old Xcopy command is a bit dated now, and I don't blame you for using it since the switches can be a bit counter intuitive. There's another one that is also command line, but it's more esoteric to use. The switches are worse I think, so using something like FastCopy, has proven to be the easiest route.

As a suggestion, you might want to try a copy of something else besides Trainz first just to see how the program operates. This is what I did before I went for the real deal.

John

 

[dricketts]

Thanks John. Looks like it will be a valuable tool to add to my computer.

I was playing around with a free utility called "EaseUS Todo Backup" last night. It gives the user the option to compress data or not. Either way backing up any of my data should be a lot easier now. Wish I had Fast Copy a couple of years ago.