Uploading to two simultaneous hard drives

[ELYeti]

I have cloned external hard drives. One of course is my backup. My question is can I keep adding files and such but to both devices at the same time? I want to keep uploading my DVD and CD collection without having to drag and drop from source to backup.

 

[sdifox]

So just copy to both? I am not sure I understand your question.

 

[IronWing]

Sounds like you might want a RAID 1 setup.

Edit: Further reading has convinced me that this a bad idea for the use case.

 

[Red Squirrel]

I would just do raid 1, but if you want a true backup (raid does not really replace needing backups) then just setup a rsync job to run nightly to mirror the drive to the backup one.

 

[mindless1]

If one is a backup then I'd keep it offline, disconnected, then when I plug it in, have RealTimeSync/FreeFileSync synchronize that drive to the other. Except instead of plugging, I have a hub with an on/off button.

RealTimeSync runs in the background and launches FreeFileSync when it detects the drive, scans for differences and copies over the files.

 

[dlerious]

Sounds like you might want a RAID 1 setup.

can you RAID external drives? I mean single drives, not in an external enclosure like a NAS.

 

[IronWing]

can you RAID external drives? I mean single drives, not in an external enclosure like a NAS.

You can but the general consensus is that it is a bad idea for a variety of reasons so I withdraw the idea.

I use Microsoft's free SyncToy program for what the OP is doing. It still has to be run manually but it looks for changes so the user doesn't have to remember which files are new or changed. Is offers three different copying modes for uni-directional or bidirectional copying.

 

[Viper1j]

I have cloned external hard drives. One of course is my backup. My question is can I keep adding files and such but to both devices at the same time? I want to keep uploading my DVD and CD collection without having to drag and drop from source to backup.

You can push to multiple systems/hard drives with a simple copy/paste through your network.
I copy all my new movies to both my EMBY server, and an external hard drive all the time.

 

[mindless1]

^ I suspect that was exactly what was wished to be avoided, including keeping track of which things that would (vs wouldn't) need to be copied over to the other. I might be misunderstanding what you mean.

 

[MtnMan]

You can but the general consensus is that it is a bad idea for a variety of reasons so I withdraw the idea.

I use Microsoft's free SyncToy program for what the OP is doing. It still has to be run manually but it looks for changes so the user doesn't have to remember which files are new or changed. Is offers three different copying modes for uni-directional or bidirectional copying.

Sync Toy is a great tool for backing up files. It's not real-time, but it can be scheduled (see Sync Toy Help files) to back up files however often you choose. Only backs up new or changed files, renames files that have been renamed, and deletes (moves to recycle bin) deleted files.

And free, no nag-ware, no limitations.

 

[compcons]

There are programs that do a synch every time a file is created or changed. Not sure if there is a free one, but I am not aware of one that does simultaneous writes. Typically, the programs use an algorithm to ensure that the file is synced without error. That can't occur during the write process. I can imagine something like a modern SAN can do something like this, but that is an entirely different level of technology.

 

[manly]

I've used it sparingly, but you can check out SyncBackFree:

SyncBack Free - backup software for Windows - 100% free

The best free backup software for Windows, used by millions worldwide. Zero cost, no strings attached, and no registration required, why wait? Download today!

www.2brightsparks.com

 

[sdifox]

It's media content so worm duty, copy and paste each tome he adds new media files is fine.