copying folders and Files from one drive to another

[Jim Stuart]

I have an old drive with multiple partitions, For example: I would like to use Beyond Compare to copy the G:\Folders\SubFolders\MyFiles from the old drive to a partition on a new drive, example destination partition: J:\Folders\SubFolders\MyFiles and keep the original Date and Time stamps for the files.

After all the folders and files are copied from the old drive's G: partition to the new drive's J: partition. Next I want to Beyond Compare to verify (Binary compare) of all the files that have been move from the old drive to the new drive. File types can vary from .txt, .jpg, .png, .ISO and .exe to name a few.

Can Beyond Compare perform both the copy operation (G:\*.*), keep the original date and times stamps for "Date Modified" and "Date Created" and then perform the source to destination verification?

[Aaron]

Hello Jim,

Beyond Compare 4 can easily configure two base folders, then copy from one side to the other, or to a 3rd location. Assuming Windows, we use the same basic copy protocol as Windows, so our timestamp preservation is similar to an Explorer copy. This means for files, Last Modified is usually preserved (depending on the destination device) but Created and Accessed dates are usually reset. Folder timestamps are not preserved. Beyond Compare has two extra tools:
Select a set of files, then right-click and Touch to manually set Last Modified timestamps on files or folders
In the Session Settings, Handling tab, we have an option to preserve the file Creation date during a copy. Depending on the destination, this may be prevented, so please double check.

We support a Binary scan (or CRC or Rules-based) in the Folder Compare. This can be on a selection, or in the Session Settings, Comparison tab to scan both entire base folders. All aligned files are scanned, and the results of the scan are in the center column between files. If you enable the Session Setting before the copy, then the Binary scan is performed as part of this process as well. In the Folder Compare's Session menu -> Session Settings, Comparison tab, the default comparison is Timestamp, Size, and Override Quick Test. I recommend leaving these enabled, then also enable Binary content comparison.

[Jim Stuart]

Thank you for your reply, would have posted back sooner but had two problems.
1st problem was for whatever reason I could not log on to the forum.

2nd is the I have tried using Acronis True Image's "File and folder backup and restore" to backup 1 partition on and restore it to a partition on a new drive as a test. Acronis did not copy every file (excluding System Files) but it did maintain the date and time stamps. So I guess the easiest way to find out what didn't get moved to the new drive as there are more than 250GB of files and locating the missing files is not something I would want to do using Windows Explorer.

Thanks
Jim

[Aaron]

Comparing the Acronis Restore partition to the original partition should show any missed files as Orphans, and you can compare timestamps/size or add a Content scan as well, as long as both locations are accessible via the file system (drive letter, etc)

[Jim Stuart]

Thanks,

One final question (I hope);

“A single user license covers one person using BC on any number of computers”

My account / logon name is deferent on the PC (PC #1) which has the failing drives and the PC (PC #2) which I will use to restore the file and folder backup to the new replacement drive.

After the restore and file comparisons have been completed using PC #2, I would like to install BC “Standard Edition” on PC #1, can I have BC on both computers (My account name and version of Windows 7 are different), as I’m the only user of both computers. Can I do this a still conform to the licensing agreement?

[Zoë]

Yes. The licensing is referring to the physical person, not a computer account.

[Jim Stuart]

Just though you would like to know that Beyond Compare was a complete success in helping me verify the files I moved from my old drive to the new replacement drive were not corrupt. Plan to do a positive write up on my web site.

One suggestion: Have a user interface that including a Basic and Advanced mode. Basic should be a pint and click for validating files on a source partition match what is on the destination drive's partition. Default should be set to a full binary compare. Also include a Start / Go button to start the compare process.