Replies

Yeah, suspected something like that. Really appreciate all your help, Paul. Thanks especially to you, and to all others who responded – was on the point of giving up and seeking out paid help before this thread. Like many folk, not sailing all that well financially in this unsettled time, so glad to have been able to resolve the data migration problems thanks to this great site and the generous contributors here.

Best all, stay safe.
Ross

2 users thanked author for this post.

Elly, Paul T

Fabbo! Indebted.

Final question, and I imagine the answer will be a simple “no”. If I create a “Ross stuff” folder under rossw (ie: C:\Users\rossw\Ross stuff) is there a simple and quick way using Robocopy of transferring all the data I migrated from “Ross everthing 2019” earlier today into “Ross stuff”, rather than manually moving it all? Now that I’ve got a sniff of what’s possible, I might be turning into a Robocopy freak – see what you’ve created, Paul?

Like, would the following work?
robocopy C:\Users\rossw “C:\Users\rossw\Ross stuff” /S /A /NDL /NFL /NP /COPY:DAT /TEE /R:2 /W:1 /log+:%tmp%\Robocopy.log

[RossB]

Success! Thanks a lot, Paul – again – for your invaluable advice and instruction. Seems the transfer was just about faultless, with only 1 skipped file (screenshot attached).

Only thing is, I assumed the source folder itself, “Ross everything 2019” would appear under C:\Users\rossw. However, it is nowhere to be found, with only its contents appearing directly under rossw.

My partner and I want to keep our personal data separate, so when I transfer her data (currently saved in a folder titled “J Everything”), in order to have it accessible within a single folder under rossw, would I first create a folder under rossw like “Jani Stuff” and have Robocopy transfer “J Everything” contents to “Jani Stuff” as the Destination folder?

Would the following achieve that?
robocopy “D:\Jani Everything” C:\Users\rossw\”Jani Stuff” /S /A /NDL /NFL /NP /COPY:DAT /TEE /R:2 /W:1 /log+:%tmp%\Robocopy.log

Cheers

• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by RossB.

After watching some YouTube videos on the use of robocopy I tried again, but again no joy. I think maybe this was closer. The source was D:\Ross everything 2019. The destination was C:\Users\rossw

I’ve attached a snapshot of the CMD screen.

Could the spaces in the title of the source folder be the problem?

Sorry Paul, this must be getting to be a pain. If you have had enough, fair enough. I have to be close though, surely?

Paul, would u mind taking a look at this snapshot of the Command Prompt window?

I opened Command Prompt, copied and pasted the command as per your direction then hit enter. That’s as far as I could get.

I attempted to change the source and destination folder names but couldn’t. The text that’s there refused to be replaced. (I have the external HD connected containing the data saved from the old hard drive).

No doubt I’ve misinterpreted your directions. Can u put me right based on the attached snapshot, pls?

Amazing, Paul! Thanks so much. I’ll now download Robocopy and see if I can figure out/google  how to open a Command Prompt and follow your directions!

Cheers!
Ross

Thanks, Paul. Problem is I don’t think I’m tech savvy enough to use Robocopy. I’ve checked out several tutorials and can’t make head or tail of it. Also, I keep coming across comments that the MS GUI is only appropriate for transferring small numbers of files and folders, and I have a sheisse-load.

Hey folks, one more question please. When I manually backed up all personal data on the old HD, the large folder trees incorporated the R&J profile. Will the fact that I now have a different profile (rossw) muck up the transfer of personal data to the new HD?

I’m thinking of using karens-replicator-backup-utility because it seems the easiest to understand.

[RossB]

Just an addendum to clarify my situation. I became aware of Macrium Reflect through Woody prior to taking out my old HD and replacing it with the new one. I did attempt to back up the old HD with Macrium, but it wouldn’t do it due to the HD being damaged (I’d been receiving notifications on bootup for almost a year that it needed to be replaced).

When Macrium wouldn’t back up the old HD, I resorted to using Win 10 File History, and also did the ‘manual’ backup previously described above to be certain I had done all I could to save all our personal data – at least, that was my thinking.

I will try Macrium to do regular backups of the new HD from now on, and assume it will work this time.

However, I’m still interested in your view on the best way to back up our personal data. I want to keep at least 2 backups on different external HDs.

The last thing I should mention is that when I restored the File History backup I assumed it would be to the new HD, but it restored to OneDrive by default (I closed OneDrive after about 4GB had been restored because it was evident it would take days to do a complete restore). I haven’t tried restoring to the new HD via File History. The File History backup doesn’t include all our personal data anyway, since it comprises only 121GB and the total personal data I saved manually is 269GB.

Well, that’s more than enough. Hope it’s comprehensible.
Cheers

 

• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by RossB.
• This reply was modified 3 years, 4 months ago by RossB.

1 user thanked author for this post.

Elly

Microfix wrote:

I have used (as well as @PKCano) a free utility that has been going for years, and is still maintained and tested.
https://www.karenware.com/powertools/karens-replicator-backup-utility
There is also a write-up on using it : over here
Yes, it works with Windows 10 also 🙂

Thanks, Microfix. Will check it out.

 

geekdom wrote:

How much data are you copying? 5GB? 500GB?

One folder has 231GB in it. The other has 38GB. So, total of 269GB.

 

So guys, since it seems I’ve messed up with my “manual” backup, what’s the best way to back up all personal docs in the future, do you think?

Noel Carboni wrote:

Fortunately in my case I have two very good tools on hand that DON’T stop like this, and will facilitate copying large trees of files, and even taking a copy up where it left off or was stopped: Beyond Compare (a GUI tool for comparing files / folders) and ROBOCOPY (a geeky command line tool with a million switches that can be arranged into “Mirror” or “Incremental Copy” operations between folder trees. Good luck with your restoral.

That word “geeky” scares me. So, ROBOCOPY is not easy for the non-geeky to figure out?

Must

Noel Carboni wrote:

I’ve had mixed results with GUI-based copy operations of large folder trees (e.g., copy/paste or drag or whatever via Explorer). You might get 25% into it and it will just stop, after having copied tens or hundreds of gigabytes. I’ve seen this happen on multiple well-setup Windows 10 systems.

Oh great. I fondly imagined copying and pasting manually like this would be the least complicated possible way of backing up all our docs. Now I’m bracing for catastrophe.

ScotchJohn wrote:

You can rename your user profile.  You don’t like “rossw”; when I installed Windows at first, it assigned me, without the option, a username of the first five characters of the eMail address used for my M$ sign-in.  I WAS able to rename it, but, what a pain!

Ha! Now I see where ‘rossw’ comes from – the first 5 letters of my MS email address. Grrr.

Had enough hassles over the last week, so won’t bother with changing the rossw name. Thanks, Paul.