Copying Problems

[LunarMist]

Are there any utility applications that allow efficient copying from one drive to any two target drives simultaneously? Of course two concurrent Windows copying operations from one source drive are uselessly slow. Thanks.

 

[time]

How about Kopimaster? It appears to support multiple jobs and speed seemed okay when I tried a single copy just now.

I'm sure there are many solutions that are faster than Windows Copy.

 

[LunarMist]

Thanks, I tried it but copies are conmsecutive like ohter utilites. maybe I am hopless since all use Windows undernetath.

 

[time]

Perhaps we could help more if we understood what it is you are trying to achieve. For example, will this be an ongoing automated process? Why do you need to copy to two targets? And in particular, why do the copies need to be concurrent?

 

[LunarMist]

Well, the backup strategy is a little complicated. I want to copy from the internal drive to two external USB drives simultaneously. The objective is to same time and battery power, which are both limitations.

 

[P5-133XL]

I doubt that you will save time or energy with simultanous copying on external USB drives. The USB BW is a shared comodity that if you simultanously use will cause each to run at aprox 1/2 speed. There just isn't enough surplus BW to give you a speed increase. Since the copies will take twice as long, both drives have to be connected longer and thus the energy drain will also be greater.

 

[LunarMist]

I would use a separate port for each USB drive.

 

[Handruin]

Not sure if it is possible, but what if you created a mirrored device (RAID1) between the two, copied your files, then split the volume? Sounds like that might be more work than you want.

 

[LunarMist]

OK, but how would I do that? There does not seem to be the option in Disk Management. Is it possible with USB drives?

 

[Pradeep]

You can't do RAID with external drives with Windows (at least not without hacking I believe). Plus you need a server flavour to get RAID 1 or RAID 5.

 

[sechs]

I would use a separate port for each USB drive.

This doesn't solve the bandwidth issue. Two ports on the same bus still share bandwidth.

 

[LunarMist]

Are the two USB 2.0 ports on all notebooks like that?

 

[sechs]

Generally, but not necessarily.

Just check and see if you have two USB host controllers.

 

[P5-133XL]

The issue is whether the machine has multiple USB controllers or simply a hub. Hub's are cheaper so it is more likely.

 

[LunarMist]

 

[LunarMist]

Does it have two ports?

 

[mubs]

Looks like it, LM, based on the two entries for Universal Host Controller - 24C4. But methinks two simultaneous copies would be done asynchronously (two independent, unrelated jobs), not saving time but actually slowing you down from disk contention on the source drive. You'd need an intelligent copy program that does a single read and two writes from that single read. A job for a Windows programmer.

 

[LunarMist]

You'd need an intelligent copy program that does a single read and two writes from that single read. A job for a Windows programmer.

Exactly. I wish I had learned how to write programs and such.

 

[mubs]

Try to get hold of CAS. He wrote that special program to fix part of the "XP SCSI bug" and released it to the other place (SR). AFAIK, he has since disappeared. A PM to him might work, though. I believe he posted here a few times as well.

 

[LunarMist]

I hope MS did not make him disappear. :eekers:

 

[Bozo]

Would XXCOPY work?

http://www.xxcopy.com/index.htm

Bozo :mrgrn:

 

[Handruin]

Also, what about Second Copy 2000? They state it is multi-threaded. Just set the priority within the application to a high value. Make two backup locations, one to drive "A" and the other to drive "B" and tell it to run. They offer a demo of their application, otherwise a licensed copy is $30 USD.

 

[time]

I'd just like to take a moment to warn people off 2nd Copy 2000. We were having difficulties getting 2nd Copy 97 to run from the Windows Scheduler on one site, so downloaded the 2000 version in the belief that it must surely be a huge improvement. It does have a couple of extra features, but the basic concept remains brain dead, i.e. it has a lot of scheduling functions, yet doesn't run as a service. This means a PC has to be logged in with the correct user at the right time for it to work. :evil: Running from the Windows Scheduler, I found it was even worse than the 97 version; despite applying the registry patches suggested on the website, I had to specify Administrator as the user to get reliable operation.

Looking for alternatives, I came across Cobian Backup 6, a freebie that runs as a service. Worth a look for anyone who's interested.

The Cobian website has a development history that includes this gem:

Version 4 introduced events: before backup and after backup. The program became fully multithreaded, which was a big error, fixed in future versions. You see, if you had 20 tasks and you clicked Backup all, then 20 threads where created and began zipping, copying etc at the same time. Pathetic! This version was released in October 2002.

I believe that version 4 does what Lunar is after. It's still available for download here. Let us know how you go.

 

[P5-133XL]

What about using firedaemon to run 2nd copy as a service?

 

[mubs]

What is it you really need? Backup or file sync (maintaining same data in multiple places)?

 

[LunarMist]

I am synchronizing the files one way.

 

[mubs]

I use the freeware SyncBack to "backup" my data every night to another drive. Actually, it is a one-way sync. You can set up profiles (individual syncs) and if you wish, group them as well. If you run the group, everything in it will run. Simple but powerful. Since it's a sync and not a complete backup, the very first run takes a while, but subsequent runs work like an "incremental backup" and are very fast.

This will be a true sync if you're syncing to the same destination everytime, of course. If you're using different external drives each time, it will sync the entire source, acting more like a full backup and taking time.

If it is true syncing you need, then perhaps your original problem can be easily solved by using the same 2 targets each time and a good syncing program like Syncback. Since only the newly created or changed files in the source will be copied to the destination (after the very first run), the process should be quite quick.

I apologize if I'm telling more than I should; I'd rather be explicit than mis-communicate.

 

[LunarMist]

Thanks for everything, but I would like to synchronize (or copy) from source drive to both external drives at the same time. I use Fileback PC and it will work if I create two backup jobs, but they are consecutive. I think that SyncBack is the same as I only see one destination option in a profile.