Synchronize files in different folder-foldertrees

Hello to you,

On drive X I have a backup of many files. The folder-tree is diferent from the original source folders on drive Y.
Consequently there are many duplicate files. It might take days to compare the files, delete the duplicates.

I wud like to:
compare the source (Y) files with what is on drive X,
in case of duplicates, then the files on X shd be deleted,
this irrespective the folder tree.

Any suggestions as to how to accomplish this?

brgds

Right now I'd say the most simple way to do this is to copy the files from source to destination, then run Opus's Duplicate File Finder (it's in the Tools menu) on the destination folder. There's a "Delete Mode" checkbox which lets you check the duplicates you want to delete.

If you want to keep some duplicates but not others then the sort order is important. In delete mode the first duplicate will be kept and the others deleted, and which is first depends on how the lister is sorted. (If you change the sort order you have to re-run the duplicate check, although it's usually quite fast the second time around.)

So if you want the files you copy over to be left and any duplicates in different places to be deleted one way to get that done is to copy the source into a sub-directory called "!" (so it sorts at the top), then run the duplicate check. Assuming your Duplicate Files are sorted by Name, then Location, then the files in "!" will be left while the others will be deleted.

I think you may need to save a folder format for Duplicate Files, else it will inherit the default Collection format which doesn't sort by "Name then Location".

You can sort by multiple columns by clicking the first column, then clicking additional columns while holding Shift. This works both in the lister, when clicking the column headers, and in the Folder Formats dialog's Columns tab.

Maybe you can also use the Select command to change which duplicates are checked for deletion, but I can't remember how to make that work in checkbox mode and have to run. Sorry!

Thank you for your elaborate reply, really it is much appreciated.
I read a couple of times, but I honestly have to confess somewhere I lost track. I am sorry, I am sure it is a good solution.

Maybe I shd simplify my 'problem':
I have: X:\DOC
and hv Y:\OldStuff\DOC

both folders have a different subsequent folder-trees, i.e. a lot of
what is in \OldStuff\DOC\folder\folder is also in X:\DOC in a different folder though.

I want to compare X:\DOC with Y:\OldStuff\DOC
If duplicate files are found, then.. the files in OldStuff shd be tagged for deletion.

I can run duplicate file finder and it will tag files, but I need to check
one by one the location of the files and decide which one shd be deleted.
Note: files might even be there 3 times (don't ask why, too long a story).

What do you think?

I am not familiar with setting a folder format, sorry. Cud you give me hint as to how to do that. Is that in the Help file?

tks a lot

It's in the manual, not the help file. But even better, Leo typed up a FAQ on it. Scroll up and look at Leo's signature, there's a link to it there.

It's in the manual, not the help file. But even better, Leo typed up a FAQ on it. Scroll up and look at Leo's signature, there's a link to it there.[/quote]

ahum... :blush: :blush:

With this you mean to say that (in my case) I would sort on folder
then delete all duplicates in "Y:\OldStuff\DOC " only.

i.e. I cannot leave the \oldstuff duplicates marked and unmark the duplicate files that are stored in other folders.

brgds

Call the folder that you want to keep ! so it sorts to the top, sort by the Location column (which you might have to add) and re-run the duplicate finder with Delete Mode turned on. Opus should automatically select all duplicates for deletion, except those in !.

(My other idea about using Select doesn't seem to work at the moment, but I think is on the list of things to fix in the next version, so this process will be a bit easier in the future.)

I am sorry, but I regret I can't get it down.... :cry:
Have tried various possibilities...

Have copied X:\Doc to TmpDoc and renamed that to "I", so X:\I
Have copied the oldbackup files to BackUpOld.
I moved that folder to X:\I
So I have X:\I\Doc\subfolders\docfiles
X:\I\BackUpOld\subfolders\docfiles

I only want the files in BackUpOld being tagged for deletion, but
whatever I do, also \doc\ files are being tagged.
(to be honest I am not really interested in paying for commercial software for just a one-off thing). Guess I need to wait for an solution from DO somwhere in the future, that wud enable me to shift-select a list of file that shd be marked and unmarking the files that has not been selected)

brgds

Not I (letter-eye) but ! (exclamation mark).

If you still have problems please post a screenshot to show what's happening.

[quote="nudel"]Not I (letter-eye) but ! (exclamation mark).

If you still have problems please post a screenshot to show what's happening.[/quote]

Sorry for the confusion, the with "I" above, I meant "!" ...

So I had:
X:!\Doc\subfolders\docfiles
X:!\BackUpOld\subfolders\docfiles

Had, because I went on with the help of free utilities from the Internet to do the job, so actually - sorry to say - but I think I have found a way to solve the problem... :wink:

Would like to thank you for your support though!!

Maybe the duplicate file finder within DO will be expanded a bit in future, like
-enabling to tag 2 (or more) folders and compare them
-Shift-Select files, mark those and unmark the rest
-after found the duplicates, select a folder and delete only the duplicates in that folder

Tried to find a way to do the above, but if there is one, it is not an easy solution.

Meanwhile, when copying / moving files over existing ones replace all (shift replace) will not compare the dates and times, i.e. a possible newer file will be overwritten by an older fileor vv.
Alternatively, the user shd decide one by one if a replace is justified.

Maybe the replace all shd only work for files that are 100% identical, filename, date/time, crc.
The rest shd be then be decided upon by the user, file by file.

brgds

[quote="mrwul"]So I had:
X:!\Doc\subfolders\docfiles
X:!\BackUpOld\subfolders\docfiles[/quote]
Only the files you want to keep should have been below !, the other should have been in some other folder, so they are always sorted after the ones below !, and thus selected for deletion while the files in ! are left.

Hopefully we'll see this soon.

You can do this already. If you did a duplicate search with Delete Mode turned off then you can select and delete files normally. If Delete Mode was on then the lister will be in Checkbox Mode, in which case you can check/uncheck items to change which will be deleted. While in Checkbox Mode you can also (shift-)select ranges of items in the normal way and then change the checkbox state of those items by pressing Space (toggles checkboxes), + (checks all selected items) or - (unchecks all selected items).

You should be able to do this in the next version, using the Select dialog in advanced mode. (In the current version the Select dialog can't select things by location but this problem was raised a little while ago and I expect will be fixed soon.)

You can use the UpdateAll / UpdateExisting modes of the Copy command to do that automatically. See the manual for full details.