"Follow Symbolic Links" effect on copying/moving...

[tbessie]

Hey all...

I was wondering - the documentation for "Follow Symbolic Links" describes some behavior for that setting, but I wanted to be sure - if I'm copying, for example, a copy of the Windows C: drive to another drive, and then copying it around or comparing it to other C: drive copies, will the huge number of "special files" and symbolic links used by Windows ever cause any copying into/out-of the actual Windows hierarchy and/or C: drive (since the symbolic links point back there)?

If I don't have "Follow Symbolic Links" enabled, the above oughtn't to happen, correct?

If it *is* enabled, will that cause things pointed to by the links to be overwritten?

- Tim

[Aaron]

Hello,

This would depend on the actions you are taking on the selection. If you are copying files around, and have sufficient privileges to copy from or into Windows directories, it is possible for the targets to have protected files or the links to the files. With the option enabled, we would find the target of a selected symlink, and act on it instead (copying the file, viewing the file, etc). This would be similar to Explorer, when you interact with My Documents on newer versions of Windows it takes you to Documents. With the Follow Symbolic Links option disabled, we would act on the link itself, copying it and not its target. Whether the link can still point at it's original target as a valid target would depend on the destination location.

When dealing with system directories, please be careful about removing/moving any files, or copying into another location, as this could make either side unstable. This is similar to using Explorer to copy files into or moving out of these locations. If you do not need to backup the full C:\Windows directory, you could use our File Name filters to exclude this folder, preventing it from being included in any copies or sync actions.

[tbessie]

Thanks Aaron - I guess what I want is to make sure that when copying - even system folders - a copied link to a system folder does mean that files existing in the source are copied to the ACTIVE system folder (as opposed to the copied link). I don't enable "Follow Symbolic Links" so I would assume that wouldn't be the case, and I'm safe, correct?

The reason I'm copying all of C:\Windows is for backup purposes, and I want to copy the whole thing, but I want symbolic links to be copied AS symbolics links, and not descended into for writing during the backup.

- Tim

[Aaron]

We will copy them as symbolic links, but are you copying a Windows directory that is actively in use? If so, it is likely BC (or any other program) won't have full access to all of the files if they are currently running. Most commonly, a full drive back up software is needed if you need to back up and restore Windows. These programs boot and run, and then allow you to clone a whole drive while it isn't active.