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Robocopy incremental copy feature

Answered Robocopy incremental copy feature

  • Monday, June 08, 2009 2:59 PM
     
     
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    Hi, currently I am looking into Robocopy to perform files migration. I know how to perform the initial copy using the /mir but may I know if there is a way to do incremental copying using Robocopy. I tried a few commands but to no avail.
     

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  • Monday, June 08, 2009 4:24 PM
     
     
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    Hello,

    check  out:

    /M  With that one you copy only files with the Archive attribute and reset it since your last incremental  
    Best regards Meinolf Weber Disclaimer: This posting is provided "AS IS" with no warranties, and confers no rights.
     
  • Tuesday, June 09, 2009 1:11 AM
     
     
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    i made some changes on the source file and performed Robocopy /M, but this did not replicate the changes to the destination file.
     
  • Tuesday, June 09, 2009 1:30 AM
     
     
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    hello please post your entire robocopy syntax you are using

    Isaac Oben MCITP:EA, MCSE
     
  • Tuesday, June 09, 2009 7:03 AM
     
     
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    i was using  syn. Robocopy <source> <destination> /mir /copyall for initial copy. now i found out that /mir is sufficent enough to copy any changes from source to destination. thanks.

     
  • Tuesday, June 09, 2009 10:37 AM
     
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    Hi,

    I would personally consider to use File Server Migration Toolkit from Microsoft. A very cool and free tool, with a userfriendly interface.
    http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/details.aspx?FamilyID=d00e3eae-930a-42b0-b595-66f462f5d87b&DisplayLang=en

    I have used the tool myself at customer sides at lot of times.
    Jens Ole Kragh MCITP, MCTS, MCT http://jensolekragh.spaces.live.com/
     
  • Sunday, November 08, 2009 12:34 AM
     
     
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    /XO :: eXclude Older files.
     
  • Wednesday, May 16, 2012 9:44 AM
     
     
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    Hi Jens,

    I tried microsoft migration tool but when i tried to add the source server name - not able to add it ( This server is n different domain )

    Any advice !

    Thanks,

    karthik

     
  • Sunday, November 04, 2012 10:10 PM
     
     
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    I use Robocopy tool with backup switches, it will copy files in Backup mode (even if they are being used by a system or user) with NTFS permissions as well . First time it copies all files, for the second time it will only do changes that are made in the Source directory to destination folder (Please try it before you use it in production). 

    robocopy D:\Source F:\destination *.* /s /E /COPYALL /ZB /R:3 /W:5 /TEE /LOG:F:\log.txt
    pause

    Please modify the drive letter of source and destination, you can use \\network host also. "R:3" is for retry times "W:5" is for minutes waiting between retry's. F:\log.txt generates the log file. Remove "Pause" if you do not wish to pause the session.

    Hope this help.

    Ladi

    MCSA-2012, MCITP-Entp- Admin, MCSE, MCITP,
    MCSA-2003, MCSA-Messaging, CIW, MCP

    • Proposed As Answer by BobForth Saturday, March 16, 2013 1:57 AM
    • Unproposed As Answer by BobForth Saturday, March 16, 2013 1:57 AM
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  • Saturday, March 16, 2013 2:10 AM
     
     
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    Using the archive bit is conceptually flawed; do all apps set the bit after writing a file?

    Date/time is an absolutely awesome metric for doing backups because whenever the NTFS stack reads or writes a file, the date modified/date created/date accessed are all updated.

    Robocopy has a really nice set of date/time switches, so there's your solution.  You record the start time of the full backup and each incremental backup, then when you perform the backup, exclude files older than those times.

    To make your life easier, Here's the handy dandy batch code for dropping your date/time into a file-name friendly variable:

    [Code]

    @REM Lets get the start date and time for the log file name...
    for /f "delims=" %%a in ('time /t') do @set CurrentTime=%%a
    for /f "delims=" %%a in ('date /t') do @set CurrentDate=%%a
    Set Date=_%CurrentDate:~4,2%-%CurrentDate:~7,2%-%CurrentDate:~10,4%_%currenttime:~0,2%-%currenttime:~3,2%-%currenttime:~6,2%
    @ECHO %DATE%

    [/Code]

    Also, if you need to get exoitic and need to write a variable name into a text file from a batch file, the way you do that is by creating a new text file, putting just the variable name in that, then using a FOR /I Statement to drop the data out of the text document into a variable in the batch script, then when you call the variable, it'll replace it with a string that contains % signs.  This can be used to, for example, create a callable script containing the dates and times.

    As one warning, when you run this sucker as a service, you will want to log the heck out of it and automate the reporting as much as possible.  You will also need to build another service that runs right after it that monitors it and if it sticks, it sendmails you.

    If you need something more exotic or robust, I'd reccomend SynchBackPro which supports Shadow Volume copy.