Is there a way to tie files together in windows?

[Micro_Voidster]

What I'm looking to do is to Have a single Notepad file on my desktop where I locally update it frequently. Is there a way to have that file update the other files on 2 other drives on my PC. These drives are always connected and I'd like to have them update automatically instead of me having to manually do it every week or so. 

 

I've heard this was a thing with very thorough server solutions, just curious if its possible with Windows, MacOS, Linux, or just at all I suppose. 
Thanks

[Samfisher]

So you just want to copy a file to 2 separate drives automatically when any update is done?

[porina]

I think OneDrive can do this but I'm not familiar with its availability on non-MS OSes. You might have to do a little work, for example, set up a synced area, and use a shortcut on your desktop to that instead. Other solutions like Google Drive might also work similarly but I haven't tried using it in that way. I only know OneDrive does it as we have to use it at work.

[WkdPaul]

Schedule task that copies the file over would be simple and quick to implement ... no need for 3rd party applications or complicated stuff.

[Kisai]

5 hours ago, Micro_Voidster said:

What I'm looking to do is to Have a single Notepad file on my desktop where I locally update it frequently. Is there a way to have that file update the other files on 2 other drives on my PC. These drives are always connected and I'd like to have them update automatically instead of me having to manually do it every week or so. 

 

I've heard this was a thing with very thorough server solutions, just curious if its possible with Windows, MacOS, Linux, or just at all I suppose. 
Thanks

You can create "junction" (aka symlink in *nix-land) so that one file IS the other file, but generally if you want one to be a backup of the other you need to create a scheduled process, figure which one is newer and copy the newer one over the older one. (or in some ways you can just go "if file A newer than B, overwrite B with A. If file B newer than A, over write B with A, do not copy if the same"

 

The other option is creating something like onedrive/dropbox/googledrive and have them on each drive. But then you're relying on a cloud service. 

 

Like it's possible to do a few different ways. On Linux/MacOS you'd just rsync the file on a cron job. On windows you can do the same with Robocopy. Just FYI, there is still an implicit One-way ness to rsync or robocopy, in that if you don't tell it to only copy a newer file, it can overwrite a newer file with an older one.

 

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/1073.robocopy-and-a-few-examples.aspx

[BecauseICanTBH]

Not sure that this is what you're looking for but FWIW, I use a program called DSynchronize. It's ancient (early 2000s?), but it's super simple and just works. It may do what you want. It does have a scheduled sync function, although I prefer to do it manually.

 

I've been using it for years to sync my storage drives and I love it.

 

[Loote]

16 hours ago, BecauseICanTBH said:

I've been using it for years to sync my storage drives and I love it.

I used it once and can confirm it works.

Also, Syncthing exists, it synchronises files/folders between machines, Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, you name it. it's not needed here because

Quote

These drives are always connected

but if OP would want to synchronise between different machines which are connected to the Internet ho could use it, it's also a way to have a copy of your important files, ask a friend to share his disk with you and vice versa, the limit is your disks and network(plus you'd have to hide the contents probably)

[Micro_Voidster]

On 2/20/2020 at 9:51 AM, Kisai said:

You can create "junction" (aka symlink in *nix-land) so that one file IS the other file, but generally if you want one to be a backup of the other you need to create a scheduled process, figure which one is newer and copy the newer one over the older one. (or in some ways you can just go "if file A newer than B, overwrite B with A. If file B newer than A, over write B with A, do not copy if the same"

 

The other option is creating something like onedrive/dropbox/googledrive and have them on each drive. But then you're relying on a cloud service. 

 

Like it's possible to do a few different ways. On Linux/MacOS you'd just rsync the file on a cron job. On windows you can do the same with Robocopy. Just FYI, there is still an implicit One-way ness to rsync or robocopy, in that if you don't tell it to only copy a newer file, it can overwrite a newer file with an older one.

 

https://social.technet.microsoft.com/wiki/contents/articles/1073.robocopy-and-a-few-examples.aspx

Ideally the robocopy thing would be ideal. Since its a direct windows feature, could u explain how to do it a bit more. The article u gave is PRETTY HEAVY and not simple at all. 

Also I'm now realizing there might be a risk of losing the master file along with the older slave files. Is there a way to have a redundant copy of each so in essence I would the 3 main ones and then a copy of each somewhere that gets updated at the same time. 

Or is this tool safe and rarely ever corrupts files or just shits itself and doesn't do what its told??

 

[Micro_Voidster]

On 2/20/2020 at 10:50 AM, BecauseICanTBH said:

Not sure that this is what you're looking for but FWIW, I use a program called DSynchronize. It's ancient (early 2000s?), but it's super simple and just works. It may do what you want. It does have a scheduled sync function, although I prefer to do it manually.

 

I've been using it for years to sync my storage drives and I love it.

 

 

It sounds perfect but I would really like a stock windows feature if possible will update post sorry bout that. But if I can't figure out the Robocopy method Kisai mentioned I might have to go with that. 

Just wish there was something that u could set and it would run when its updated and thats it no fiddling with commands after u set it up. :((

[BecauseICanTBH]

3 hours ago, Micro_Voidster said:

It sounds perfect but I would really like a stock windows feature if possible will update post sorry bout that. But if I can't figure out the Robocopy method Kisai mentioned I might have to go with that. 

Just wish there was something that u could set and it would run when its updated and thats it no fiddling with commands after u set it up. :((

Just check "Realtime sync", it'll run in the background and sync every time something updates.

[Kisai]

5 hours ago, Micro_Voidster said:

Ideally the robocopy thing would be ideal. Since its a direct windows feature, could u explain how to do it a bit more. The article u gave is PRETTY HEAVY and not simple at all. 

Also I'm now realizing there might be a risk of losing the master file along with the older slave files. Is there a way to have a redundant copy of each so in essence I would the 3 main ones and then a copy of each somewhere that gets updated at the same time. 

Or is this tool safe and rarely ever corrupts files or just shits itself and doesn't do what its told??

 

Robocopy basically a threaded xcopy and rsync-like copy tool.

 

At the basics, you just have robocopy (source) (target) /MIR /xjd , but MIR can completely bork your target since it will also delete things. This is why you have to make sure that your drive letters are always correct before you start.