Network Attached Storage Drive Contents
All,
I have recently bought myself a network Attached Storage (NAS) Drive and have it setup on my home network.
All devices can now see it and I have got password protected users all configured so am now in the process of transferring files from a hard drive on a desktop PC to the NAS drive.
Unfortunately, I had to do this over WiFi because I did not have a cable long enough to reach from desktop to router to NAS and the desktop PC would not recognise the NAS when I connected it directly to the PC with an ethernet cable. So WiFi it was and set the Copy process running for each of the various folders being transferred; about 300Gb of data in total including music, pictures, videos and documents.
I set the process running and the various Windows Explorer windows were showing varying estimated times of 2 hours to 12 hours so I left it to it and went to bed. Next morning still running with decreased times so figured it was running successfully and went off to work.
Got home from work to discover that we'd had a power cut so the PC had been switched off and I don't know what stage the copy process had reached.
I do recall a method in DOS whereby you can create a list of files and folders for a drive as a text file. I guess I could do that on both drives and do a comparison in Excel; my Excel skills would be sufficient to compare the two files but wonder if there is another way??
Any suggestions for checking the contents of the two drives greatly appreciated.
While the copy was working its magic, some of the copy windows completed so I was able to do a bit of file management on the NAS, there were some files that weren't properly sorted in folders so I did that after the copy to the NAS; maybe I should have done that before the copy; hindsight 20:20!!
The reason why I mention that last point is that I assume if I were to just do the copy again (with a long cable if I get one rather than WiFi) folders would merge and I could set it to ignore all conflicts but the files that I had already moved again wouldn't give conflict warning so would end up with multiple copies which is one of the points of me using the NAS so that I don't have multiple copies on multiple devices as well as all the other advantages.
Thanks
Rob H
I have recently bought myself a network Attached Storage (NAS) Drive and have it setup on my home network.
All devices can now see it and I have got password protected users all configured so am now in the process of transferring files from a hard drive on a desktop PC to the NAS drive.
Unfortunately, I had to do this over WiFi because I did not have a cable long enough to reach from desktop to router to NAS and the desktop PC would not recognise the NAS when I connected it directly to the PC with an ethernet cable. So WiFi it was and set the Copy process running for each of the various folders being transferred; about 300Gb of data in total including music, pictures, videos and documents.
I set the process running and the various Windows Explorer windows were showing varying estimated times of 2 hours to 12 hours so I left it to it and went to bed. Next morning still running with decreased times so figured it was running successfully and went off to work.
Got home from work to discover that we'd had a power cut so the PC had been switched off and I don't know what stage the copy process had reached.
I do recall a method in DOS whereby you can create a list of files and folders for a drive as a text file. I guess I could do that on both drives and do a comparison in Excel; my Excel skills would be sufficient to compare the two files but wonder if there is another way??
Any suggestions for checking the contents of the two drives greatly appreciated.
While the copy was working its magic, some of the copy windows completed so I was able to do a bit of file management on the NAS, there were some files that weren't properly sorted in folders so I did that after the copy to the NAS; maybe I should have done that before the copy; hindsight 20:20!!
The reason why I mention that last point is that I assume if I were to just do the copy again (with a long cable if I get one rather than WiFi) folders would merge and I could set it to ignore all conflicts but the files that I had already moved again wouldn't give conflict warning so would end up with multiple copies which is one of the points of me using the NAS so that I don't have multiple copies on multiple devices as well as all the other advantages.
Thanks
Rob H
So..... basically you are looking to compare the directory structure of your PC HDD and the NAS?
If so, you should just run a directory listing command on each and pipe it to a notepad file. I would then use Notepad++ (Free) (Download Here) to compare the two docs and only copy whats needed.
Command Line: (If needed)
Open Command Prompt
Navigate to the directory you want to compare
Use: dir > filename.txt (where filename.txt is the name such as drivelisting.txt)
If you want to send the file to a specific place just put the filepath in front of it.
Ex. dir C:\Users\<username>\Deskto
Then do the same for your NAS and compare the files in Notepad++
If so, you should just run a directory listing command on each and pipe it to a notepad file. I would then use Notepad++ (Free) (Download Here) to compare the two docs and only copy whats needed.
Command Line: (If needed)
Open Command Prompt
Navigate to the directory you want to compare
Use: dir > filename.txt (where filename.txt is the name such as drivelisting.txt)
If you want to send the file to a specific place just put the filepath in front of it.
Ex. dir C:\Users\<username>\Deskto
Then do the same for your NAS and compare the files in Notepad++
ASKER
Joe
Don't know anything about robocopy unfortunately.
itguy
Thanks for the reminder on the DOS command, I recall there being a "/s" in there as well to catch subfolders and being DOS the filename can only be 8.3 format.
Thanks
Rob
Don't know anything about robocopy unfortunately.
itguy
Thanks for the reminder on the DOS command, I recall there being a "/s" in there as well to catch subfolders and being DOS the filename can only be 8.3 format.
Thanks
Rob
Yes, you are right. I forgot to include that actually... using a /s in the command would include sub directories
Use robocopy and choose the option to copy files that have changed only. This way, files same on both drives will be excluded.
ASKER CERTIFIED SOLUTION
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ASKER
I have acquired a long cable so I think I will go down the recopy route.
Thanks for all suggestions.
Rob
Thanks for all suggestions.
Rob
ASKER
Apologies for lack of response, I have been away with work so haven't had chance to retry yet.
Thanks
Rob H
Thanks
Rob H
ASKER
Haven't done it yet but will go down the recopy route for reassurance on file integrity for future use.
You could use Microsoft robocopy to redo the copy. If you use the /MIR command it will delete any files in the target that are not in the source.
This way you will have an exact copy on the NAS and the PC.