Ext drive FAT32/NTFS formatting question.

[Pelikal]

I have an external drive, 232Gb capacity, single partition, formatted FAT32. (I was using this for Mac and Windows file back-up). There is 167Gb of free space on the drive.

I wish to write a Win 7 System Image to this drive but the format needs to be NTFS. Is it possible to create a second partition formatted NTFS on this drive without disturbing the existing FAT32, or is the option for creating two partitions formatted differently only available when formatting from scratch? (I think I'm right that a drive can be formatted this way).

The only tool I have is the standard MS Disk Management. I don't have any spare capacity to write the external data to another drive and reformat the external as I would like it and write the data back to the external.

I believe it is possible to convert the format from FAT32 to NTFS without affecting the data, not sure how reliable this is. I realise I'll lose the Mac usability. Best option is buy another external to use purely for System Images. I suppose I've answered my own question!

The C: drive has about 73 Gb of stuff on it (close to capacity), just wondered how large the System Image is likely to be (to judge how large to make any partitions).

Thanks.

[mixture]

Peliwotsit,

A few thoughts :

- FAT32 is generally regarded as yuk. Not one of Microsoft's finest moments.

- I've never used it, but a company called Paragon makes something called "NTFS for Mac" which is supposed to do what it says on the tin.

- Have you got spare unformatted space on the drive, or is it all formatted as SPLAT32 ?

- Make sure you've got a backup, but then you're a good boy and doing regular backups anyway aren't you ? :E


P.S. If you're in the market for a new backup drive, take a look at the Seagate Nearline Archive 8TB, probably the lowest $/GB in the industry at the moment. Not the fastest drive in the world (a mere 5900rpm !) , not to be used as a high-workload day-to-day system drive, the words "nearline archive" in its name hints as to what its designed for (lots of space, cheaply, but maintaining decent reliability). I've only got one so far, but given they're so cheap I'm thinking of buying a few more to replace other older backup disks where I'm running out of capacity.

(Just remember, the Seagte mentioned above is SMR, so DO NOT use in RAID arrays unless you enjoy Russian Roulette)

[Bushfiva]

Pelikal, there are a bunch of free tools that will let you do this: Easeus, Paragon Partition Manager, Aobai and others all look and function similarly. You can shrink the existing partition to make space at the beginning or the end of the drive, add a new partition and format it as NTFS or whatever you need to do.


If you do feel the need to move away from FAT32, exFAT is a reasonable alternative for both Mac and Windows.

[Mike-Bracknell]

Every time i've used 'convert' to convert a FAT partition to NTFS it's done the task seamlessly with no loss of data. :ok:

[Pelikal]

Thanks all for replies, I feel I have the info I need regarding the formatting. However, is there any to approximate the System Image size based on the C: drive usage?

Mixture, as regards to Peliwotsit, I guess I'll just have to change my user name.:E:E:E

[mixture]

However, is there any to approximate the System Image size based on the C: drive usage?

The disk space used number perhaps ? Or have I misunderstood your question ?

as regards to Peliwotsit, I guess I'll just have to change my user name.

Well, if you survive your disk repartitioning endeavours, I'll consider granting you permission to change your name to PeliCAN. :E

[Keef]

If all your stuff is on Drive C, then a partition a bit larger than the "Used" space on C will be enough... for now.

But I'm with mixturikal about FAT32, and also about the new superlarge backup drives.

If you have more than one hard drive in your system then you may find the System Image software will decide it wants to include some random drives. Mine insists on doing C (correct), I (internet downloads and junk) and S (the hidden anti-burglar backup). It ignores drive D - my documents drive. Everything is backed up weekly onto a series of external drives anyway, so all I want in the System Image is the operating system on drive C. But since it saves to a 2TB external drive, I don't much care

[Pelikal]

Keef, thanks. mixturikal not sure that's going to go down well...:eek:

[Keef]

Keef, thanks. mixturikal not sure that's going to go down well...:eek:


50:50 with Peliwotsit, innit. :\

[mixture]

mixturikal not sure that's going to go down well...

Well, I perhaps naively interpreted it as per Keef's later post ... i.e a mashup of Pelikal and Mixture. I thought it was quite good, within the context of this thread.

But if I was wrong, I suggest Keef goes beg his deity of choice for forgiveness. :cool:

[Pelikal]

Job done. I used Minitool Partition Wizard. System Image now on separate partition, NTFS. Other stuff in shrinked partition still FAT32, no bother at this point.

Was just desperate to get a system backup and, touchwood, a repair disc.

Regards to all.

Peliwhotsit. :E

(and all this on the day when they got the Large Hardon Collider banging ping-pong balls into each other).

[mixture]

A cautious well done to you Peliwhotsit.

Now we need to find you something more challenging. :E

[Mac the Knife]

A few thoughts:

FAT32 isn't a very good file system (as mix says) but because it's so old, pretty much anything can read it (software to back/restore up the vulnerable partition tables can be had for free and and helps a bit). NTFS is a bit better, it just has different failure modes. HFS+ (Apple) is OK, but is getting a bit long in the tooth and just has different failure modes. Same for Ext3, and Ext4 is still not as stable as it should be.

NONE of them prevent bit-rot or ensure data integrity.

I dunno about Paragon NTFS for Mac, but Paragon HFS+ and Paragon ExtFS for Windows work pretty seamlessly - I use Tuxera NTFS Pro to read NTFS for Macs - it is quick and has never given me any trouble.

Yes, there are lots of good apps for resizing HDDs and setting up different filesystems in freed-up parts of the drive - I like EaseUS Partition Master but there are other good (and bad) alternatives. Personally I prefer to have only one filesystem on a single physical drive - it just makes things easier

I really wouldn't buy the sort of huge drive that mix suggests. Yes, it is convenient in a way, but it is a single point of failure and nobody really needs that. Most of the SOHO OSes have problems with drives over 3TB anyway.

Your best and safest and simplest bet is to get a couple of Western Digital Blacks and put 'em in USB3 enclosures (I like NexStar) and use 'em for your backups - one for Windows and one for the Mac.

You wanna be clever, get a big drive as mix suggests, split it into a Windows and and Mac partition and backup your backups to that.

You wanna be cleverer, buy ANOTHER couple of 3TB WD Blacks and another couple of good enclosures and use then to alternate your backups. OSX/Mac is smart, you can tell it to use 2 drives for Time Machine - it'll use number one drive for the first Time Machine image, the number two drive for the 2nd Time Machine image and then back to the number one drive for the next Time Machine image and then the second drive for the third image and so on. You can do the same with Windows but it requires a bit of minor farting around with scripts and cron (I mean PowerShell and Task Scheduler).

And keep spare copies off-site in a secure environment (I use the father/ grandfather/son system)

Finally, consider dropping off most of your local physical junk and using iCloud to backup your Mac and OneDrive to backup your Windows (you DO have all your essential passwords written down twice somewhere findable don't you?) And there are other good services. That's the place we'll all be in a few years in countries with fast cheap broadband connection speeds.

[In my country (South Africa) affordable broadband is horribly slow and the national electricity grid is collapsing, so those who can afford it are falling back onto big batteries/inverters, solar and home generators. I don't know how much longer we'll have our (slow) ADSL before we fall back to POTS and cell-data and eventually (only for the very wealthy elite) satellite only (and it won't be fast)].

Think carefully and you can save yourself some bucks.

And ask yourself just how much your data is worth.

Mac

[now I'll wait for mix to tell me that I have the brains of a mouse, the intelligence of an earthworm and shouldn't even be permitted to ride a tricycle :} ]

FINALLY, a backup of any kind (particularly a system backup) is not a backup UNTIL it has been tested for REAL to reliably restore onto bare metal from a startup CD and your system drivers.

Yes, I know it's a major drag to test but until you have shown it CAN be done successfully then your backup is likely to be just a reassuring delusion.

:sad:

[mixture]

now I'll wait for mix to tell me that I have the brains of a mouse, the intelligence of an earthworm and shouldn't even be permitted to ride a tricycle

Something along those lines. :E

Although having (relatively) recently returned from a holiday in Cape Town and had an enjoyable time along the Garden Route, Plett and Tsitsi I was temporarily distracted by the mention of the location alongside your name tag. Give it a couple of weeks, now I'm back in civilisation, normal service will resume .....

I've yet to fully decipher the waffle in your post, but a few tidbits for starters :

I really wouldn't buy the sort of huge drive that mix suggests. Yes, it is convenient in a way, but it is a single point of failure and nobody really needs that.

Eggs and baskets old chum, no need to teach granny how to suck them either.

The hint was in the latter part of the post to which you refer, namely :

I'm thinking of buying a few more to replace other older backup disks where I'm running out of capacity.

Remember, RAID (or ZFS if you like) is not the panacea either.... its still a SINGLE logical drive, so you still need backups of that too.

OSX/Mac is smart, you can tell it to use 2 drives for Time Machine

I will give you a sheep **** sized brownie point for that one. :E
I use that trick too.... one of my destination drives is a RAID array on OS X server
You are not limited to two drives either.

father/ grandfather/son system

Yup, that's good. As is tower of hanoi. As is the simpler "three copies of anything critical (excluding the live copy)"

In my country (South Africa) affordable broadband is horribly slow and the national electricity grid is collapsing,

Yes, your broadband is a turd fest. Fortunately I escaped load-shedding as I was staying in half-decent hotels (not sure if brown envelopes were involved, but the electricity stayed on).


That's all for now Mac the Knife, I might come back in due course and update you with a bigger piece of my mind once I have fully reviewed your ramblings. :E

[Alice_Phoebe]

HI,
I just want resize my C: drive and convert FAT to NTFS, where to download the tool? Easeus or Paragon all ok, is it need to pay?

[Pelikal]

Yes, I know it's a major drag to test but until you have shown it CAN be done successfully then your backup is likely to be just a reassuring delusion.It did occur to me that I'm deluding myself that I have a backup which will work when the time eventually comes.

How can the integrity of a system backup be determined by an ordinary user such as myself? Or is it even possible?

Peliwotsit

[mixture]

How can the integrity of a system backup be determined by an ordinary user such as myself? Or is it even possible?

Two words.

Test Restore.

(1) Take Backup Disk
(2) Pick "random" selection of files located on backup disk
(3) Restore said files from backup
(4) Look at files with Mk1 Eyeball
(5) Come to your own conclusions
(6) Rinse and repeat where N = Qty Backup Disks

NEVER use automated processes to check backup integrity. There is no substitute for the human eyeball in fighting stuff like silent corruption or bitrot.

If you want to be really serious about it , you would also store cryptographic hashes of your files on separate storage devices (or even printed on paper). You would then compare the stored hash against the hash of the restored file. This would then give you a guarantee of original and backup being identical, and would also assist when comparing binary files (such as images), where its difficult to review by eye.

[Pelikal]

mixture, I'm quite used to checking backups of visual material (being ex pre-press) but how can one test if a system backup will actually work? That was my point.

Peliwotsit

[mixture]

peliwotsit,

how can one test if a system backup will actually work? That was my point.

Yes, well, my point is that you DO NOT waste backup space (or time) backing up operating systems or software.

Verify the important stuff is getting backed up and don't give a toss about anything else.

[Capn Bloggs]

How can the integrity of a system backup be determined by an ordinary user such as myself? Or is it even possible?
Buy a reputable backup/imaging program and then do a test restore. I use Acronis True Image. Works well.

Yes, well, my point is that you DO NOT waste backup space (or time) backing up operating systems or software.
Imaging your whole system every night does not "waste time" and with the decent-sized hard drives around, space is not an issue either. Last month I had to restore my whole system because Windows Update stuffed it up. This morning I restored my cousin's computer back to "clean Windows + all programs" (image taken 12 months ago) because of an unsolvable Flash player/IE issue. I transferred the outlook PSTs, Picasa Albums, Desktop Favourites and Documents and we had a "new" system within 30 minutes, and I could have rolled forward to the "bad" image if I had wanted to. That was far better than re-installing Windows, Office and the myriad updates, not to mention drivers.

[mixture]

That was far better than re-installing Windows, Office and the myriad updates, not to mention drivers.

For the vast majority of non-technical people who use computers in a personal context, starting fresh from a clean slate after a major event would do them a lot of good !

People accumulate a lot of crap on their computers over the years, and then on top of that, systems like Windows start suffering from registry and profile bloat. You really don't want to be backing that up, and then restoring the same crap onto your computer. And that's before we start to consider the possibility of you backing up viruses that you didn't notice until it was too late.

There is very little point backing up software and operating systems.

[Mac the Knife]

mix

I'm not your "chum".

What you actually need is just an echo chamber for your opinions.

It would be interesting (no, boring actually) to know where your pathological aggression comes from.

Why don't you take your sheep-**** sized brownie and shove it up your ass?

Mac

"For the vast majority of non-technical people who use computers in a personal context, starting fresh from a clean slate after a major event would do them a lot of good !"

But I do have to agree with that. Did it on one machine recently and it felt like a good bowel movement - interesting that it made me think of you though....

:E

[mixture]

Mac,

Simple.

My post to you was a retort to the last line of your post :

[now I'll wait for mix to tell me that I have the brains of a mouse, the intelligence of an earthworm and shouldn't even be permitted to ride a tricycle ]

You asked for it, you got it. :E

Please take it with a pinch of salt, don't read anything into it, because there's nothing there to read into. My posts are generally written hastily, and trying to get the (technically correct) message across with minimal waffle.

And no, I don't have any "pathological aggression", thank you very much. Let's also keep personal insults out of it shall we ?

[Pelikal]

May I divert your attention to post #15 by Alice which we seemed to have missed.⚠

[mixture]

Hello Peliwotsit,

You mean this one ?

I just want resize my C: drive and convert FAT to NTFS, where to download the tool? Easeus or Paragon all ok, is it need to pay?

Well, I thought you were the newfound expert in this area Pelikal ? Sounds a lot like what you just undertook ? Maybe we should leave you to hold Alice's hand ? :E

But if it were me, I would ask Alice (a) if she has a decent backup (b) if she wouldn't rather buy a new drive, set that up as fresh and copy her files across rather than embark on a potentially risky endeavour.

[Capn Bloggs]

For the vast majority of non-technical people who use computers in a personal context, starting fresh from a clean slate after a major event would do them a lot of good !
Rubbish. My XP and Win 7 had/have more stuff on board than some would have on 3 computers; they ran/run happily after years of ops. A wipe and re-install is good, at the appropriate time. But to suggest however, especially to someone non-technical, "oh, just reinstall Windows" in the event of an issue is just plain masochistic.

[Bushfiva]

AP, Easeus & Paragon are free. Similar tools exist. See post #3.

[mixture]

But to suggest however, especially to someone non-technical, "oh, just reinstall Windows" in the event of an issue is just plain masochistic.

Rubbish.

The desktop should always be treated as disposable.

If you look at how things are run in corporate IT, you save your important data to the network servers .... if something happens you don't waste more than a limited amount of time trying to diagnose the issue. If you can't solve it, its wipe clean and start fresh. Wasting time on desktop issues is the most pointless thing known to man kind.

System images are also more hassle then they're worth, they can cause more problems than they solve. The operating system and software being living beasts, the ability to get an inconsistent and troublesome system image is all to easy.

When manufacturers create system images, they do so in controlled environments and with a very strict routine to ensure the image restores correctly.

You simply cannot create an adequate system image of a system full of crud that's been used for the last few years. You're kidding yourself. You think it looks ok, but realistically you're just masking the problems.

[Pelikal]

Alice, (if you are for real) do what mixture suggests. I have no idea why your C:drive is Fat32 in the first instance.

[Capn Bloggs]

If you look at how things are run in corporate IT, you save your important data to the network servers .... if something happens you don't waste more than a limited amount of time trying to diagnose the issue. If you can't solve it, its wipe clean and start fresh. Wasting time on desktop issues is the most pointless thing known to man kind.

Precisely what I have been saying?? Windows update stuffed my system. I did a complete rollback to the previous night's image. I was operational in 30 minutes. You're suggesting that I re-install Windows. You're nuts. :hmm:

[Keef]

Mixture is spot on for the corporate environment, where most PCs will be running a standard setup and all the important stuff is on a central server. If it glitches and the fix isn't easy, wipe and reinstall. When I worked, the Systems folks had all the popular configurations on the main server ready for this (frequent) eventuality.

I disagree for a home PC, where there may be a wide range of software that's been installed over a period of time, and where the originals have been lost (or were downloaded and the URL isn't carefully recorded). Installation codes may not be to hand; personal settings may not be easy to recall...

The last time my PC had an attack of the vapours, it took me a long day to reinstall all the stuff I wanted - I didn't bother with some because life's too short to download dozens of rarely-used large programmes on a slow ADSL connection. (I now keep all downloads on an external drive, which has saved my bacon a few times when software has disappeared from the Internet). Being a tidy bunny, I have all the unlock codes etc stored in an Excel sheet (copies of which are in several places including my iPad).

If it hiccups, wipe-and-reinstall would be the last resort: it took me weeks last time before all the software was reconfigured to the settings I like. Excel, Word and the like are easy because they use settings files in known locations and which can be backed up. Some stuff probably does, but they don't tell you where those are, and reinstall doesn't pick them up.

Re-install also allows some infuriating software to put stuff where THEY want it, like buried umpteen levels down in the "Users" directory on drive C, when I want it in the top-level directory on drive I (or wherever). Even when they are told to put it on drive I, some of them also create their own "C:\Users\..." folder and put some key stuff in there. Apple and Ancestry are particularly bad at that - my SSD went from 51% full to 80% full before I found that iTunes was ignoring instructions and stuffing a full backup of iPhone and iPad in there every time I plugged them in. I had to be very forceful to persuade it that I'd really meant it when I said "H:\itunesbackups\

If your PC has a basic Windows (or whatever) installation, with a couple of added software items and not much unusual stuff, then reinstalling every year or so might clear things out a bit and gain a tiny performance improvement. If you've got a load of stuff stretching back a few years, think carefully!

[mixture]

Keef,

Funnily enough, a friend of mine has old-ish Apple laptop with a spinning platter drive.

She being a frequent traveller, and spinning platters being what they are, the inevitable occurred and the drive started becoming more and more unhappy.

Her backup regimen having been configured by me, she was running TimeMachine to multiple locations, but explicitly configured NOT to backup user-installed software or system-software.

New drive, OS X install, TimeMachine restore of files, re-download of a handful of apps from the App Store, Adobe stuff from Adobe, Office from Microsoft and a couple of minor utility apps from third-party developer sites ... she was back up and running within a day and a half (would have been quicker, the system and software was ready to go within the space of a few hours, but she had many many gigabytes of of user data... photos and whatnot !).

Quite frankly, even if I had it, I wouldn't have wanted to use a system image. The disk diagnostics were throwing up all sorts of scary messages, and by the time I got my hands on it, the system was running like a right dog. Restoring onto a new drive would have solved the hardware problem, but would highly likely have still left me with unhappy software to contend with.

[Keef]

Indeed. The System Image is very much the last resort - I've never used one yet, although I make one (on a different drive) every so often.

The weekly backup takes between two hours (when it's using the internal SATA backup drives) and twelve hours (on the external USB drives). That would get my "stuff" back, unattended, in around 12 hours. Reinstalling the software...

[Mac the Knife]

I have to say that I agree with Keef here. In a corporate environment mix is quite right - in fact in one big Co. that I've worked with, if a user's PC goes titsup , a PFY turns up with a new preimaged one, plugs it into the network and after a minute or two off they go. The old one just goes in the shredder (after a quick once-over for usable spares). Sorta like the old dumb terminals.

A home PC is another matter. Theoretically mix is right - a wipe/reinstall and data restore from backup is the way to go. I've done it, it works and it takes days of farting around to get things back where you liked it. I use a lot of applications for because one will inevitably do THAT PARTICULAR THING particularly well. Reinstalling even just the ones you really need is incredibly tedious and time-wasting (where DID I put that product key? Is is still valid for the new version?).

Sensibly, I have separate physical drives for my System(C:) and my Data(D:) so I don't have to restore the data, just tell the system where to find it - that saves a lot of time.*

I have't done a system restore for ages though I periodically create images). so after reading Keef's post I though I'd try it. So make fresh Macrium Reflect (not the free one) Rescue DVD, make fresh System Image on external USB3 HDD and take a deep breath.

Rip out System/boot drive and replace with blank one (both WD Velociraptors though not identical - plenty of room though). Boot from Rescue CD which pops up and asks me what image to restore and where to restore it. Give it the answer and chuncha-chunka-chunka. Go to sleep for the night. Wake up and look at system.

Well blow me down! System boots normally, looks normal and behaves normally (tho I haven't tested every last little thing). Yep, I could have got rid of a lot of crap and squeezed a couple of % of speed out of the box but then my weekend would have been down the drain, I'd be missing a pleasant cafe lunch with my friends and I'd have an awful headache.

Things have their uses, different in different situations and although I'd never DEPEND on a system image, if you're lucky it can save you an awful lot of time and hassle - quod erat demonstrandum.

And don't forget to have proper, standard and verified BACKUPS on a rotating basis on and off site.

Mac

*I do this on all the OSes and machines I have - I actually have no idea why people don't do this as standard except in one-drive laptops.

:ouch:

[Capn Bloggs]

Just like I said...

The weekly backup takes between two hours (when it's using the internal SATA backup drives)
TWO HOURS?? Across SATA drives at 5gb per minute? Incremental or Replace Changed? Crikey! What are you backing up? :ooh:

[Keef]

TWO HOURS?? Across SATA drives at 5gb per minute? Incremental or Replace Changed? Crikey! What are you backing up?

I don't think it's the SATA (or USB) speed that's the issue. It's the time the hard drives take to read the stuff and write it. I don't back up in one big lump, but the whole lot, weekly, file-by-file (automated) so that I can go straight to the missing one if I need it.
There are five backup drives, and it cycles round them.

The backup routines look like this (with more lines):
robocopy D:\ A:\NineBU%date:~6,4%%date:~3,2%%date:~0,2%\D\ *.* /s /r:0 /copyall /A-:SH

Here's a SATA-to-SATA log to the slower SATA drive:


Started Full backup to A 12/04/2015 4:00:00.63
- C complete 12/04/2015 5:03:35.31
- D complete 12/04/2015 5:43:30.23
- E complete 12/04/2015 6:09:24.95
- F complete 12/04/2015 6:15:09.06
- G complete 12/04/2015 7:52:35.79
- H complete 12/04/2015 8:13:14.36
- I complete 12/04/2015 8:43:59.82
Finished Full backup to A 12/04/2015 8:43:59.89


SATA-to-USB takes a tad longer:

Started Full backup to R 24/05/2015 4:00:00.22
...
Finished Full backup to R 24/05/2015 15:40:01.27


C backup is only the "User" folder. I back that up because some software still sneaks stuff into there when I'm not looking. It also picks up "My Documents" which are in various other places - I should probably tweak the symlink settings in the backup control file to stop it doing that, but can't be bothered.
D is data - mostly Word and Excel, but a good range of other.
E is photographs - lots of those.
F is church stuff - faculties, website stuff, service books, and allsorts.
G is mostly music - lots of that.
H is odds & ends of all sorts.
I is internetty stuff, e-mails, downloads over the past few years, etc.

Each backup is a whisker over 300GB.

[Pelikal]

Thanks all for the conversations, very informative. Being a masochist from Tring, of which there are many (proof can be provided upon request), I was thinking of wiping my D: drive (document stuff) and load my newly created and treasured System Image onto that and then try and boot from it.

Is this a :ok: or a :(.

This year, Tring is celebrating 700 years as a Market Town, granted by Edward II.

[Bushfiva]

Keef, you might find the /MT:n switch a delightful addition to your command line.

[mixture]

Peliwhotsit,

More like :confused:

Sureley a true masochist from Tring would erase their entire hard drive first so as to give them the most realistic restore experience. :E

[Keef]

Keef, you might find the /MT:n switch a delightful addition to your command line.

THANK YOU! I'd missed that one - sounds a very worthwhile addition. I'll see how well it does next Sunday morning :)

[Keef]

Keef, you might find the /MT:n switch a delightful addition to your command line.

Wow! Yes indeed! Thanks for that.
I set it to do a backup to a drive that used to take 8 hours...

Started Full backup to T 08/06/2015 2:02:05.14
- C complete 08/06/2015 2:08:35.21
- D complete 08/06/2015 2:16:52.94
- E complete 08/06/2015 2:25:13.73
- F complete 08/06/2015 2:27:29.83
- G complete 08/06/2015 2:46:29.13
- H complete 08/06/2015 2:56:26.12
- I complete 08/06/2015 3:06:55.31
Finished Full backup to T 08/06/2015 3:06:55.31

[mixture]

Keef, you might find the /MT:n switch a delightful addition to your command line.

Old dog, new tricks. Shows how long since I've read the help page for robocopy ! I do believe that flag is a fairly new feature.

Admittely though, I don't really do much work with robocopy anymore, so I have not had the need to optimise my backup times.

Worth remembering just in case for the future though.

Tip of the hat to you Bushfiva.

P.S. Not that there's anything wrong with robocopy, infact it would be my first choice of tool on Windows. Just because Windows is not a primary OS for me, so backup routines are minimal.