Syncing PST files efficiently

[paulonolan]

One of Outlook's annoying habits (well, also X1 also which I use for indexing) is updating the filestamp when the contents have not changed. It makes syncing based on time and datestamps a pointlessly protracted process (with a risk of corrupting old files).

Here's a script I use to ensure that only PST files whose contents have changed get copied. It's one of the scripts called by a batch file executed as part of my backup routine.

Am interested to see what else people do solve this. I know there are some commercial tools, like pstsync, but I've not bothered with any as I'm just looking for the fastest backup, not a way of keeping two systems in sync.

Comments?

# Beyond Compare script
#
# Save as pstsync.txt
#
# Script to sync PST date and time stamps on files of the same size; run with c:\"program files"\"beyond compare 3"\bcompare "@pstsync.txt"
#
# Turn logging on
log verbose "D:\Backup\Synclog.txt"
criteria size
# Load the base folders
load "D:\Paul\Exchange" "Z:\Paul\Exchange"
# include only PST files
filter "*.pst"
# uncomment next line expand to affect subfolders and files
#expand all
# select files of the same size
select left.exact.files
# uncomment next line for optional report; change display-matches to display-mismatches to see what will be backed up
#folder-report layout:side-by-side options:display-matches title:"PST files touched to prevent redundant backup" output-to:d:\backup\report.html output-options:html-color
# Touch files on the right (assumed: same size = no change)
touch left->right
#
# files are now resynchronized except for those in source directory that are larger; sync now using bigger not "newer"

[Aaron]

Hello,

You could also try to use a Binary criteria instead of size, which would give a more accurate method of verifying if the file has changed but Outlook may also be updating an internal timestamp (causing these files to then appear different every time.)