General Question

cockswain's avatar

How do I update a hard drive to the changes I've made on another one?

Asked by cockswain (15286points) August 29th, 2011

I know I sound fairly computer illiterate asking this, but I’m pretty sure I’m asking how to synchronize drives. Basically I have my music collection on two hard drives, one serving as a backup. I frequently add and delete stuff from the primary hard drive. How do I update the other hard drive to have all the same changes without manually adding and deleting on the backup as well?

I did notice if I go to the properties of the drive, and click on the “tools” tab, then “backup”, that probably accomplishes what I’m looking for. But is that the best/easiest way to do what I’m trying to do? I don’t want it to rewrite the whole drive, just add and remove stuff, leaving the bulk of the data alone. Maybe it doesn’t matter. I don’t know. I need a geek.

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6 Answers

XOIIO's avatar

Copy and paste, but backup will totally clone the drive over.

WestRiverrat's avatar

There are also backup apps available if you want a little more control than just all or nothing.

blueiiznh's avatar

Synctoy is exactly what you need.
I have use it for home and small business use

It will replicate your changes based on a few different selectable modes.
Ensure you don’t replicate deletes from the primary to the secondary or one mistake could wipe out your secondary too.
It has a scheduler so you can automatically have it done or run it when you connect the secondary drive. It also will allow you to run preview to show what it will do before you actually execute it.

cockswain's avatar

Thanks guys.

mattbrowne's avatar

A simple unsophisticated method is using an explorer window, right click on the drive, find, option files changed since…

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