On Fri, 28 Jul 2023 08:23:47 +0200, Steve Hayes
<hayesstw@telkomsa.net> wrote in soc.genealogy.computing:

>How easy is it to get 7Zip to work from a batch file?

"C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z" a -r target.zip C:\...source\*.*

using the relevant place where is the 7z.exe software,
source to be zipped and result file.

"" required because my 7z.exe is in a directory with a
blank in its name.

Denis

--
Denis Beauregard - généalogiste émérite (FQSG)
Les Français d'Amérique du Nord - http://www.francogene.com/gfan/gfan/998/
French in North America before 1722 - http://www.francogene.com/gfna/gfna/998/
Sur cédérom/DVD/USB à 1790 - On CD-ROM/DVD/USB to 1790

Op 28-07-2023 om 08:46 schreef Steve Hayes:

> I use a thing called AllwaySync, which as far as I can see does much
> the same thing. I use it to back up certain directories to an external
> hard drive.
>
> I'm not sure how well it would work for copying working files from one
> computer to another and back again.

I'm not either, but I do know that FreeFileSync does that quite well,
even between Linux and Windows, using external drives, or Google Drive,
and maybe some other cloud services too.

I like it, because it has the same UI on Linux and Windows, and because
the free version has no limits on the amount of files or GB's that you
can synchronize. This means that you know what it can handle before you
decide to donate.

I have more than 70,000 files in my home folder, and the program can
handle those easily.

Regards,

Enno

In message <ua0b10$286oe$1@dont-email.me> at Fri, 28 Jul 2023 14:06:56,
Enno Borgsteede <ennoborg@gmail.com> writes
>>> Don't see the OP but +1 for FreeFileSync
>>>
>>> Using it for years to back up to external USB HDDs.
>>>
>> Thanks for the recommendation. (I was initially put off by the
[]
>> It looks good: any thoughts (ideally from people who've used both)
>>on how it varies - for mirror mode use, i. e. ending up with an exact
>>copy, including deletions and renames - from the old Microsoft
>>(Russinovitch, I think) SyncToy? (Which I now see is no longer
[]
>I've used SyncToy but at that time my external drives were much
>smaller, and I don't remember whether it gave me a full preview of the
>files that it planned to sync. It was also Windows only, so I had to
>abandon it at the moment that I migrated my tree to Gramps running in
>Linux.
[]
Thanks all for the recommendation. I did suspect SyncToy wasn't always
copying everything (I haven't installed either on this machine yet -
I've just been using explorer, and copying everything). I've had a look
at the FreeFileSync website, and it _looks_ somewhat more informative
than SyncToy, so I'll give it a go next time I do a backup. (Obviously
it won't save any time the first time.)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

I admire you British: when things get tough, you reach for humour. Not
firearms. - Sigourney (Susan) Weaver, RT 2017/11/4-10

On Fri, 28 Jul 2023 11:20:18 +0200, john
<john1@s145802280.onlinehome.fr> wrote:

>On 28/07/2023 08:23, Steve Hayes wrote:
>> On Thu, 27 Jul 2023 13:50:29 +0200, john
>> <john1@s145802280.onlinehome.fr> wrote:
>>
>>> On 27/07/2023 08:21, Steve Hayes wrote:
>>>> I do that with a lot of the files, all in the same batch files. But
>>>> for those I use MS DOS PkZip or ARJ from the command line, and they
>>>> can only cope with 8:3 file names. The RootsMagic data file has a
>>>> four-letter extension, and so won't copy or compress like that.
>>
>>> Why not use the modern free archive program 7-Zip which does not have
>>> those filename limitations. It allows splitting the archive
>>> automatically into volumes of 10Mb, which should copy without the
>>> problems you have noticed, and then to put them back together when you
>>> open the archive.
>>
>> How easy is it to get 7Zip to work from a batch file?
>
>plenty of help and examples on the internet e.g.
>https://www.dotnetperls.com/7-zip-examples
>https://www.get-itsolutions.com/script-to-zip-file-using-cmd-batch-file/
>https://7ziphelp.com/7zip-command-line

Thank you!

--
Steve Hayes
Web: http://hayesgreene.wordpress.com/
http://hayesgreene.blogspot.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/afgen/

On Fri, 16 Jun 2023 06:21:27 +0200, Steve Hayes
<hayesstw@telkomsa.net> wrote:

>I use a USB flash drive to transfer my working data files between by
>dsktop computer (running Windows XP) and my laptop computer (running
>Windows 7.
>
>I used to do most of this this using Dropbox, but Dropbox stopped
>working on Windows XP, so I've done it with a flash drive since then.
>
>Recently, however, one of my data files, for the Rootsmagic genealogy
>program, started getting corrupted in the transfer.
>
>This is the command I use to transfer it from the flash drive to the
>desktop computer (which runs WinXP):
>
>XXCOPY J:\Dropbox\*.* G:\Stevedoc\Dropbox\ /BN /s /y
>
>Where J: is the flash drive and G: is a hard drive on my computer.
>
>That command is part of a batch file which I run every time I need to
>transfer the files. I use similar commands copy files to the flash
>drive.
>
>When the Rootsmagic V7 data file reached 100 Mb, however, it started
>being corrupted.
>
>It seems to be corrupted only when copying from the flash drive to the
>hard drive, on both computers. It does not seem to be corrupted when
>copying from the hard drive to the flash drive. When I notice it is
>corrupted, I copy it manually, using FlashCommander, and that seems to
>copy the file without corruption.
>
>Does anyone know of any limitation of both XXCOPY and ROBOCOPY that
>would cause them to produce errors when copying files over 100 Mb?
>
>Or could the problem be in the use of the command in a batch file, so
>that the batch file tries to run the next command before the computer
>has finished copying the file to the hard drive? If so, is there way
>of delaying it until the copying is finished?

After more playing around with this, it seems that the problem may not
lie with the copying programs, but with RootsMagic itself.

So here is a restatement of the problem:

I frequently have to copy my RM data file from my desktop computer
(running Windows XP) and my laptop computer (running Windows 7).

A while back the file reached the size of 100 Mb, and I began to have
problems with the copying, which I do with XXCOPY on the XP machine
and Robocopy on the Win 7 machine.

I copy the files to a USB flash drive, along with several other files,
using a batch file. But when the data file is copies from the flash
drive to the XP computer, when I try to open it, it reports that the
data file is malformed.

When I look at it with the File Commander program (which compares
files in different directories and allows one to copy them etc) it
shows that the data file has been truncated to 100Mb on the XP
machine, but on the flash drive it is shown as the original size. I
manually copy it again, using File Commander, and then RM 6 or RM 7
opens it OK.

At first I thought the problem was with the copying programs, but it
appears that it is not. The file is copied just fine, but the first
time I try to open it RM (6 or 7) on the XP computer it seems to
truncate it to 100Mb and then reports it as malformed. But when I
manually copy it a second time, it seems to open it correctly.

Any suggestions about what might be causing such a problem, and how to
overcome it?

(Follow-ups reset)

--
Steve Hayes
Web: http://hayesgreene.wordpress.com/
http://hayesgreene.blogspot.com
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/afgen/

Op 29-07-2023 om 04:08 schreef J. P. Gilliver:

> Thanks all for the recommendation. I did suspect SyncToy wasn't always
> copying everything (I haven't installed either on this machine yet -
> I've just been using explorer, and copying everything). I've had a look
> at the FreeFileSync website, and it _looks_ somewhat more informative
> than SyncToy, so I'll give it a go next time I do a backup. (Obviously
> it won't save any time the first time.)

Well, I think that it will, if you copied everything with explorer. And
that is, because at its 1st run, it will compare timestamps and sizes,
and assume that all files with equal sizes and timestamps are the same,
and also assume that files with newer timestamps should overwrite older
ones. It will also assume that files that don't exist on either side
need to be copied from the other (in two-way mode).

When synchronization is done, names, sizes, and timestamps are saved in
a hidden database file, so that the program can detect deletions, and
files that have changed on both sides between sessions.

Note that timestamps may differ when you have a FAT file system on one
side, because that doesn't know anything about daylight savings. In such
a case you may see lots of files with a 1 hour difference, and if you
want, the program can correct for that too.

Regards,

Enno

In message <ua36sm$2kmit$1@dont-email.me> at Sat, 29 Jul 2023 16:14:46,
Enno Borgsteede <ennoborg@gmail.com> writes
>Op 29-07-2023 om 04:08 schreef J. P. Gilliver:
>
>> Thanks all for the recommendation. I did suspect SyncToy wasn't
>>always copying everything (I haven't installed either on this machine
>>yet - I've just been using explorer, and copying everything). I've
>>had a look at the FreeFileSync website, and it _looks_ somewhat more
>>informative than SyncToy, so I'll give it a go next time I do a
>>backup. (Obviously it won't save any time the first time.)
>
>Well, I think that it will, if you copied everything with explorer. And
>that is, because at its 1st run, it will compare timestamps and sizes,
>and assume that all files with equal sizes and timestamps are the same,
>and also assume that files with newer timestamps should overwrite older
>ones. It will also assume that files that don't exist on either side

The first time, there won't be anything in the destination.

>need to be copied from the other (in two-way mode).

You're worrying me talking about "either side" and "two-way mode" - but
I think probably unnecessarily. I just want a copy, with no chance of
anything changing the source side. But I think selecting mirror mode
will do that.
>
>When synchronization is done, names, sizes, and timestamps are saved in
>a hidden database file, so that the program can detect deletions, and
>files that have changed on both sides between sessions.

That will certainly change things on the second and subsequent backups.
>
>Note that timestamps may differ when you have a FAT file system on one
>side, because that doesn't know anything about daylight savings. In
>such a case you may see lots of files with a 1 hour difference, and if
>you want, the program can correct for that too.

Useful to know. I _think_ I have NTFS on both my internal and external
HDs. (Certainly on the internal, as "Everything" works well, and IIRR it
either doesn't work at all, or works very slowly, on FAT.)
[]
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

Where [other presenters] tackle the world with a box of watercolours, he
takes a spanner. - David Butcher (on Guy Martin), RT 2015/1/31-2/6