Windows 10: Anyone familair with robocopy?

I knew id be back. Sigh.

Ok heres where I'm at lol.

I'm trying to now find a way to copy all my drives heirarchies individually to my flash drive one at a time. Started with the least destrructive as i mentioned before which IS my flash drive. This is the same folder which works fine if I copy it to desktop.

Using this robocopy U:\ U:\Backups\Hierarchies\U\ /e /xf * /a-:sh /xo /xd "System Volume Information"

It works until it gets to the Hierarchies folder then it repeats itself over n over /BackupsHierarchies/Backups/Hierarchies on and on and on.

Any ideas whats going on?

 

Archive Attribute is a switch that gets turned on each time a file is modified or created. This switch is useful for RoboCopy as you can turn the switch off with RoboCopy for each file that RoboCopy has successfully backed up.

What Bree does, is that for initial FULL backup, he turns this attribute on for ALL his files. When RoboCopy copies the files to the backup location, it in turn turns off this switch for each and every file. Finally when Bree wants to make an incremental backup, only files that has been modified(Windows automatically turns the switch back on for modified files) will be backed up, thus saving a lot of space.

When he wants to restore the backup, he would start by restoring the original full copy, and then process each incremental backup in order, until all backups are restored. (this is if he want to keep historical copies also of modified files, meaning he creates a new base folder each time he makes a new incremental backup)

 

Yes, you must exclude the path "U:\Backup" from your robocopy command when copying within same drive.

Why do you need to make directory structure also of system and hidden files, like "System Volume Information"? directories and files in SVI has no useful information for you at all.

 

cant win. seeems it created a backups/hierarchies repeitition so deep, i cant even delete the file from my USB stick.

unmounted it, moved it to the different port, tried taking ownership... nothing works.

I right click delete, and nothing happens. No error/popup/nothing. I imagine its due to the unimaginably long directory structure. I let it run for ~5mins before i realized what it was doing/stopping it so has to be hundreds of repeititions deep.

The usb stick has over 100gb on it so formatting isnt really an option. FML!

 

I dont need to, i need to omit it. It was giving me issues. the /xd System Volume Information seems to not copy it, otherwise it was copying it by default.

Also thank you for the clarification on Bree's method. I'll probably work up to that point as theres only so much that the cloud/syncing method covers and thats also not infallable. Like they always say, back up to several places which is what im attempting to do at the most rudamentary level atm.

the /xd U:\Backup makestotal sense. Gaurantee that fixes my issue *Smile Thank you!
Just hav eto figure out how to get rid of the infinate backup/hierarchy folder that exists atm now lol

 

Try:

Code: RD /S /Q U:\Backups\Hierarchies[/quote] UPDATE: If this does not work, then we need to create a script that does some magic *Wink

UPDATE: smartdelete.zip contains a batch file that will remove the endless directory structure in your case. Extract the containing batch file to U:\Backups and run it. This batch will remove any existing Backups, U and Hierarchies folders that exist in the folder the script is run in.

HERE IS THE CODE
Code: @echo off :start_process IF EXIST Hierarchies ( IF EXIST Hierarchies\U ( RENAME Hierarchies\U x MOVE Hierarchies\x . > nul RD /S /Q Hierarchies RENAME x U GOTO :start_process ) RD /S /Q Hierarchies GOTO rocess_done ) IF EXIST U ( IF EXIST U\Backups ( RENAME U\Backups x MOVE U\x . > nul RD /S /Q U RENAME x Backups GOTO :start_process ) RD /S /Q U GOTO rocess_done ) IF EXIST Backups ( IF EXIST Backups\Hierarchies ( RENAME Backups\Hierarchies x MOVE Backups\x . > nul RD /S /Q Backups RENAME x Hierarchies GOTO :start_process ) RD /S /Q Backups GOTO rocess_done ) rocess_done echo. echo All Directories removed SUCCESSFULLY! GOTO :eof[/quote]

 

UPDATE: If this does not work, then we need to create a script that does some magic *Wink[/quote] C:\Windows\system32>RD /S /Q U:\Backups\HierarchiesU:\Backups\Hierarchies\editedforfoulnameirenamedfolderinattempttodelete\Backups\Hierarchies\U\Backups\Hierarchies\U\Backups\Hierarchies\U\Backups\Hierarchies\U\Backups\Hie rarchies\U\Backups\Hierarchies\U\Backups\Hierarchies\U\Backups\Hierarchies\U\Backups\Hierarchies\U\B ackups\Hierarchies - The system cannot find the path specified.

Yes its renameable and has a size of 0 aka just folders. Thank you very much for your help as this seems above my pay grade for sure. Have never ran into this before. Permissions issues, sure.. but this is just odd and rarely encountered id bet.

 

OH, you also have the U folder there, hahah...let me rewrite the batch a bit

 

I updated the SCRIPT

 

Hi again

thanks for being so awesome and helping me with this. Unfortunately it didnt work. I extracted the batch file to my U/backups folder and ran it and the cmd window just opened and closed. Figured perhaps it needed to be ran as admin but the result was the same >.<

EDIT to be clear (i barely know what im looking at) but just to make sure.... The U/backups folder has plenty of stuff i need to NOT be deleted in it. Only the hierarchies >going forward has to go.

 

Ha! we have a win!

I had to put it into the hierarchy folder instead of the backup folder. then i was able to delete the hierarchies folder manually.

Thaaaank you. Would have NEVER happened on my own <3

after re reading your post it appears that it woul dhave in fact eradicated my backups folder and i would have died a little inside. Not sure if having all kinds of stuff in there is what saved me, or some fluke.. but regardless moving it down 1 folder gave me a win *Smile

 

so just to be clear, so i dont get myself in trouble again.... two questions.

1) this will work without the aforementioned issue? robocopy U:\ U:\Backups\Hierarchies\U\ /e /xf * /a-:sh /xo /xd "System Volume Information" "U:\Backup\Hierarchies"

2) I shouldnt have to omit anything from other drives unless I was making the backup on the same/parent drive correct? afterwards I can revert to something like robocopy T:\ U:\Backups\Hierarchies\T\ /e /xf * /a-:sh /xo /xd "System Volume Information" ?

3) (bonus question) I assume I can just create a batch and they'll run in succession simply by listing one after the other yes?

The idea is to make a batch referencing all my hard disks (apart from system disk obvsly) and have them create a folder with their drive letter on my flash drive inside the backups/hierarchies folder. After I have them there I'll also toss em in the cloud. As you can imagine I have a bad memory and a lotta years tailoring a lotta data in a very organized fashion courtesy of some excellent OCD.

God forbid I lost anything at least I wouldnt have to remember the whats and wheres, I could grab entire directory trees and "re-fill"

I may move on/graduate to backing up in a legimate way with robocopy similar to what bree does at some point, but at the moment until I buy some 4tb drives, space is at a premium and the relevent big stuff is backed up manually here or there.

For now I simply want the directory structures copied without the files, and the ability to re run it and have it add anything I may have added in the future. (not sure if theres a way to make it remove anything i remove either ala batch? Similar to the way a sync'd folder would work?)

 

This command should work:

Code: robocopy U:\ U:\Backups\Hierarchies\U\ /e /xf * /a-:sh /xo /xd "System Volume Information" "U:\Backups" [/quote]

Copy paste it.

 

it did. I'm finally all set and working. Thus far.

Thank you VERY VERY much for all your time, help, and patience.

TY to everyone else as well. This community rocks!

 

*Thumbs