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Gloor

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 19, 2007
788
293
Hi, I have a problem that I'm sure has a simple solution.
I often do manual backups on my external drive (simply because I want to choose what to back up) as well as time machine on a second internal drive.
Well, time machine works fine so I will not talk about that.

Problem:

When I copy a folder to my external harddrive and then 2 weeks later I take the same folder and want to copy it again (with some new files in the folder) it gives me a message saying that the folder exist and if I want to replace or stop. Well, the thing is that I only want to replace files, that are newer or new so I don't want to replace everything as it takes ages because it starts from the scratch so I was wondering if there is a modification I could do in Leopard to change the way the copy works.

Anyone knows?
 

bpasker

macrumors member
Sep 15, 2008
43
0
Minnesota
Hi, I have a problem that I'm sure has a simple solution.
I often do manual backups on my external drive (simply because I want to choose what to back up) as well as time machine on a second internal drive.
Well, time machine works fine so I will not talk about that.

Problem:

When I copy a folder to my external harddrive and then 2 weeks later I take the same folder and want to copy it again (with some new files in the folder) it gives me a message saying that the folder exist and if I want to replace or stop. Well, the thing is that I only want to replace files, that are newer or new so I don't want to replace everything as it takes ages because it starts from the scratch so I was wondering if there is a modification I could do in Leopard to change the way the copy works.

Anyone knows?

Give this little application a try.


http://scriptbuilders.net/files/mergefolders1.0.1.html
 

HawaiiMacAddict

macrumors 6502a
Dec 28, 2006
904
0
On one of my Macs of course
Aloha Gloor,

All you need do is open the folder you want to copy and select the contents, then copy to the destination folder. If you copy the contents of the folder, you will be presented with a window asking for your desired action - overwrite, ignore, or cancel. I do this all the time. If you copy the folder, it will be replaced, but if you copy the contents, you can tell the OS what you wish to do. The really cool thing is that, unlike Windows, you can apply that same action to all duplicate files.

HawaiiMacAddict
 

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Gloor

macrumors 6502a
Original poster
Apr 19, 2007
788
293
thank you guys!
I was hoping for better answer but this will do too :)))
 

mike505

macrumors newbie
Jan 31, 2014
3
0
Copy changed files only

I sort the 'from' folder from new to old and then drag only the top files to the 'to' folder. It's basic but effective.
 

Gregg2

macrumors 604
May 22, 2008
7,168
1,161
Milwaukee, WI
What OS version do you have? I think Lion and beyond have a merge folders ability which might do exactly what you want. Since I haven't upgraded to Lion, I can't tell you how it's done.
 

patspahr9

macrumors newbie
Apr 14, 2014
2
0
Aloha Gloor,

All you need do is ....

HawaiiMacAddict

Sorry but this does not work for me. I need to make a copy of a folder that contains dozens of sub-folders and hundreds of files. It is almost 900GB and takes me 3 hours to copy from my RAID to an external HD that has an older copy already on it. I only want any new or changed files copied only. But my only option (OSX 10.9.2) is to replace or quit. This stinks. I will kick off the copy and go to bed. sigh...
 

BrianBaughn

macrumors G3
Feb 13, 2011
9,615
2,392
Baltimore, Maryland
You can use Carbon Copy Cloner to do this...and I think the older, shareware version 3.4.7 would probably work. Once you have the task set up you can schedule automatic backups or do it manually with a couple of clicks.
 

ScoobyMcDoo

macrumors 65816
Nov 26, 2007
1,188
37
Austin, TX
Sorry but this does not work for me. I need to make a copy of a folder that contains dozens of sub-folders and hundreds of files. It is almost 900GB and takes me 3 hours to copy from my RAID to an external HD that has an older copy already on it. I only want any new or changed files copied only. But my only option (OSX 10.9.2) is to replace or quit. This stinks. I will kick off the copy and go to bed. sigh...

If you are not opposed to using the command line, the rsync program would do what you want.
 
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