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SyncToy no longer recreates renamed destination folders :-( RRS feed

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    Been using SyncToy for years to backup my data to an external drive.  Due to re-installing Windows XP and moving from SyncToy 1.2 to 2.0, I've noticed a problem which means SyncToy is no longer a good solution for me.

     

    I've tried uninstalling V2.0 and installing V1.2 but it causes a dll error that I can't find a fix for on Google.  Can you help me (please) to find a solution using V2.0.

     

    Here's the (simplified) way I had it set up with V1.2:

    The left folder was My Documents.  The right folder was a subfolder on my external drive named 'Current Backup'. 

    Every couple of days I would run SyncToy on Echo. 

    Once a month I would archive the 'Current Backup' folder by renaming in with a date (say "2008-11-04  Current Backup").

     

    After the rename, next time SyncToy would run it would see that the destination folder no longer exists and create it again, and copy all the contents of My Documents to the newly created folder.  It copied all the files, even ones that had not changed in the last month.  This three-click process allowed me to keep archive copies of the backups very easily.

     

    Now, in V2.0, when I rename the "Current Backup" folder on the destination drive and run SyncToy, it reports "Failed to execute folder pair [folder pair name]. Could not locate folder H:\Current Backup".

     

    I thought I could work-around this by manually creating the folder "Current Backup" but no.  Although the error above no longer appears, SyncToy doesn't copy all the files to the new folder, it only copies files that have changed since that folder pair was last run.  I think that it may also try to delete the files from the left folder that no longer exist in the right folder, effectively deleting all my unchanged data.  Good job I was paying attention and using Preview!  Usually I would just click Run and go for tea.

     

    It seems that V2.0 is only part of the program it once was, with some of the 'options' missing too.

     

    So, any solutions to this please?

     

    Colin.

    Tuesday, November 4, 2008 11:29 PM

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    Hi Colin -

     

    I am sorry that you are having difficulty recreating your previous scenario. While we do recommend using "Echo" for backup scenarios - we are just finding that people are using Echo in a way that was not intended and non-documented.

     

    First, if your synchronization option was set to "Echo" under no circumstance will SyncToy try to delete files on the left. I am not sure what you saw in Preview and if it looked like that it must be bug in reporting but I assure you that the deletes on the left are impossible.

     

    To make this work like before, after you rename your Backup folder to archive take a look at the name of a hidden file that we have created in the folder called "SyncToy_*.dat". You will find the exact same named file under %appdata%\Microsoft\SyncToy\2.0. You should delete that file - it will essentially make this a new sync to start over with.

     

    Hope this helps

    Deepa

    Wednesday, November 5, 2008 1:04 AM

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    Hi Colin -

     

    I am sorry that you are having difficulty recreating your previous scenario. While we do recommend using "Echo" for backup scenarios - we are just finding that people are using Echo in a way that was not intended and non-documented.

     

    First, if your synchronization option was set to "Echo" under no circumstance will SyncToy try to delete files on the left. I am not sure what you saw in Preview and if it looked like that it must be bug in reporting but I assure you that the deletes on the left are impossible.

     

    To make this work like before, after you rename your Backup folder to archive take a look at the name of a hidden file that we have created in the folder called "SyncToy_*.dat". You will find the exact same named file under %appdata%\Microsoft\SyncToy\2.0. You should delete that file - it will essentially make this a new sync to start over with.

     

    Hope this helps

    Deepa

    Wednesday, November 5, 2008 1:04 AM
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    Thank you for your reply.

     

    I will try your suggestion tomorrow and report what happens.  Hope that's the solution, as that would be great.

     

    Thanks again.

     

    Colin.

     

    Wednesday, November 5, 2008 2:29 AM
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     Deepa Choundappan - MSFT wrote:

    ...

    First, if your synchronization option was set to "Echo" under no circumstance will SyncToy try to delete files on the left. I am not sure what you saw in Preview and if it looked like that it must be bug in reporting but I assure you that the deletes on the left are impossible.

    ...

     

    You are right, I was mistaken, it does not delete the files in the left folder.

     

     Deepa Choundappan - MSFT wrote:

    ...

    To make this work like before, after you rename your Backup folder to archive take a look at the name of a hidden file that we have created in the folder called "SyncToy_*.dat". You will find the exact same named file under %appdata%\Microsoft\SyncToy\2.0. You should delete that file - it will essentially make this a new sync to start over with.

     

    Hope this helps

    Deepa

     

    Yes, it does work thank you.

     

    My problem is that I'm syncing four hard drives in three PCs over a network to two external hard disks.  That's eight folder pairs.  While your suggestion works, it's now quite difficult to locate the correct files to delete, then remake the destination folder each time.  In V1.2, all I had to do was select the correct folder pair(s) in SyncToy and it would do all that for me.

     

    I would like to uninstall V2.0 and go back to V1.2 (which I have an installer package for).  Last time I tried this I was getting a missing dll error (which I couldn't find an answer for on Google).  Maybe I won't get that error this time, but before I try, do you have any advice on how to do a full uninstall of V2.0 without causing any dll problems please.

    Wednesday, November 5, 2008 11:00 AM
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    Just doing a uninstall from Add/Remove programs should uninstall everything cleanly for you.

     

    Another solution would be whenever you want to create a back called "Backup _<data>" - create the folder and copy all the files from the other folder. You do not really waste any extra time on this because anyway under your previous solution, you were copying all files from the left to the right.

     

    Thanks

    Deepa

     

    Friday, November 7, 2008 12:30 AM