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?

--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

On 6/15/2023 9:21 PM, Steve Hayes 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?

Windows 7 Ultimate SP1 x64
Robocopy 5.1.10.1027 (inherent in Windows 7)
RoboCopy GUI 3.1.2.0 (downloaded in 2016, archived along with documentation)

I have no problem using robocopy to copy 16Gb encrypted backup files
from my PC's hard drive to a portable drive for remote storage.

Instead of using RoboCopy GUI, I created a script that copies only one
file per execution. The script checks whether there is an encrypted
file (extension .pgp) and then whether the portable drive is present.
If both are okay, the script then executes
C:\Windows\system32\robocopy source-path destination-path *.pgp
/COPY:DT /V /NP /R:10 /W:30 /Tee
/Log+:logs\log_logname.atxt
Having three hard drives -- each with its own encrypted backup -- I have
three such scripts, where "source-path", "destination-path", and
"logname" are specific to one of those drives. The extension .atxt I
created via Nirsoft's FileTypesMan for use on what are actually .txt
files that open in Wordpad instead of Notepad. After copying, the
script pauses with a request to delete the source encripted file from
its hard drive.

NOTE: Followup-To set to alt.windows7.general.

--
David E. Ross
<http://www.rossde.com/>

For 30 years, I was a software test engineer, testing the
software used by the U.S. military to operate its space
satellites. The missions of most of those satellites were
highly classified, so I had a very high security clearance.
If I were convicted of what Donald Trump has been accused,
I would have been sentenced to decades in prison. Thus, I
indeed support the concept of equal treatment under the law.

Steve Hayes wrote:
> 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?

Could it be a problem with the flash drive itself? Have you tried a
second flash drive or a disk drive in a USB adapter?

On 6/16/2023 12:21 AM, Steve Hayes 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?

Would the Rootsmagic V7 data file (sqlite), currently be open
by the program ? Does any part of the program run, even when
the GUI is not visible ?

Sometimes a service, or even some sort of license enforcement, may
be meddling with the file.

If you boot any other OS on the machine, you may be able to
make a copy from there, because at that point, any tricky
Rootsmagic protections will be "at rest".

If you boot the Win7 installer DVD, use the Troubleshooting section,
then Command Prompt, there may be a copy of "robocopy" in there.
On an OS like WinXP, you had to install Robocopy XP026 yourself.
But later OSes, the utility became "supported" and issued on
the system partition.

*******

You have the option of creating "duff" files for test.

fsutil can create files, but they are "sparse" on NTFS and
don't take space on the source drive.

On other OSes, they had a "mkfile" utility which I liked for this.

On Windows, we can use a third party tool. When the window appears, wait
about 15 seconds, and the 200KB file will download.

http://www.chrysocome.net/downloads/dd-0.6beta3.zip

The thing is portable and does not install. Just unpack "dd.exe" for usage.
I just copied mine to my scratch partition which is D:

D:
md results # Make a place to examine the results of the copy test.

dd.exe --list # This is how you discover the names of partitions
# for usage when crafting commands. We are just working with
# a single file, so do not need this info right now. The
# existence of virtual device "/dev/zero" will be listed there.

dd.exe if=/dev/zero of=zeroes.bin bs=1M count=1024 # Make a 1GB file of zeroes
dd.exe if=/dev/zero of=zeroes.bin bs=1M count=100 # Make a 100MB file of zeroes

dd.exe if=/dev/random of=rand.bin bs=1M count=100 # Make a 100MB file of random data

sha1sum zeroes.bin # record the checksum of a test file, which will be copied
sha1sum rand.bin # record the checksum of a test file, which will be copied

copy zeroes.bin K:\zeroes.bin # copy to the USB drive
copy K:\zeroes.bin D:\results\zeroes.bin # copy back to a system disk
sha1sum D:\results\zeroes.bin # compare checksum to original

That's just to illustrate a quick way to make files. The "dd.exe"
can make files as fast as the storage can go (about 2.5GB/sec). This
run took four seconds. The random file would take eight seconds.

06/16/2023 06:00 AM 10,737,418,240 zeroes.bin

7ZIP has a context menu and SHA1 and SHA256 sums are offered.

Name: zeroes.bin
Size: 10737418240 bytes (10 GiB)
SHA1: A0B6E2CA4E28360A929943E8EB966F703A69DC44

Now if I copy that file around, I can check for corruption by
running the SHA1SUM again.

Even MD5SUM is sufficient for checking for file corruption
(any sort of hash like that can be used as a signature). If
all you had, was an ancient copy of MD5SUM.exe, that's OK as
a tool for corruption testing as well. The only algo which is
too weak, is "sum.exe", which is an arithmetic sum of all bytes.

You can disable system write caching on individual devices
(such as a USB stick). I could not find the setting to
disable it for the entire W7 computer.

But first, I want to see you copy a representative test file,
one which RootsMagic will not have open.

I don't think this is a write caching issue. That particular
file is affected, because some executable has the file open
and has not told you that. The Sysinternals utility "handle.exe"
or Process Explorer has a copy of Handle inside, these can be
used to detect an executable has a file open. I'm not recommending
that as a first step at the moment, because I just want to test
your USB stick is working OK with benign test files. It is sometimes
hard to get handle.exe working properly.

Paul

On 16/06/2023 05:21, Steve Hayes 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.

I'm not going to try to help out with the problem you actually face, but
suggest an alternative method. Why not use sync software over a
network? Others may also suggest other software, but I use DeltaCopy to
copy data between Win7 and XP machines without too much difficulty,
although there are some gotchas, the two most important being:

1) DeltaCopy is a Linux program that in Windows runs in the CygWin
environment, and at the time I downloaded DeltaCopy, many years ago now,
CygWin didn't handle filenames with accented characters properly.
However, someone had compiled an alternative cygwin1.dll that fixed this
problem, though it may well be that more modern versions of CygWin don't
need this patch.

2) You might have to reset permissions on any files or folders copied.
I do this by just re-applying the parent folders settings all the way
down through the heirarchy - all my data is kept on the D: partition
outside the normal Windows User directories, so this is perfectly safe.
On Win7, I have a BATch file to do it, but it doesn't work in XP -
seemingly because my Administrator accounts have been renamed to
something else as a security measure - so there I do it from the
normal File Manager, Properties GUI. I can give further details of both
methods if requested.

Beside copying over the network between PCs and for backing up to my
NAS, I also use DeltaCopy to back up to a USB drive.

I originally downloaded DeltaCopy so long ago that now I can't remember
where from, however, remembering the usual caveats about download
sources, I would hope Softpedia would be pukka:

https://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Back-Up-and-Recovery/DeltaCopy.shtml

For the replacement DLL, as previously stated, it may be that more
recent versions of CygWin do not require it. Today I can only find
these two links about it, but the link given in the first neither finds
anything, nor, long as I waited, even a 404. The second is a more
complicated read which I don't have time for right now, as I'm on my way
out.

https://wiki.slimdevices.com/index.php/Backing_up_Your_Music.html#Part_3b:_Install_cygwin_patch_for_correct_file_name_translation
https://josephlo.wordpress.com/2011/05/08/rsync-and-buffalo-linkstation-quad-pro-ls-qvlr5/

For reference, my version of cygwin1.dll has the following details:
1,834KB, 2008-11-18 06:24
File Description: Cygwin POSIX? emulation DLL
File Version: 1005.25.0.0
Product Name: Cygwin
Product Version: 1.5.25
Copyright: Copyright ? Red Hat Inc 1996-2003
Size: 1.79MB
Date Modified: 2008-11-18 06:24 (ISO format to avoid ambiguity)

Note: ? were probably meant to be trade or copyright marks, but they
don't display properly.

I can make this available if requested, but, if possible, you'd do
better to find the most up-to-date versions of the original Red Hat
programs.

--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
www.macfh.co.uk

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

>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.

What about reducing the size of the file by zipping it before the
transfer since it is for backuping ?

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

Paul <nospam@needed.invalid> wrote:

> Steve Hayes 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?
>
> Would the Rootsmagic V7 data file (sqlite), currently be open
> by the program ? Does any part of the program run, even when
> the GUI is not visible ?
>
> Sometimes a service, or even some sort of license enforcement, may
> be meddling with the file.
>
> If you boot any other OS on the machine, you may be able to
> make a copy from there, because at that point, any tricky
> Rootsmagic protections will be "at rest".
>
> If you boot the Win7 installer DVD, use the Troubleshooting section,
> then Command Prompt, there may be a copy of "robocopy" in there.
> On an OS like WinXP, you had to install Robocopy XP026 yourself.
> But later OSes, the utility became "supported" and issued on
> the system partition.
>
> *******
>
> You have the option of creating "duff" files for test.
>
> fsutil can create files, but they are "sparse" on NTFS and
> don't take space on the source drive.
>
> On other OSes, they had a "mkfile" utility which I liked for this.
>
> On Windows, we can use a third party tool. When the window appears, wait
> about 15 seconds, and the 200KB file will download.
>
> http://www.chrysocome.net/downloads/dd-0.6beta3.zip
>
> The thing is portable and does not install. Just unpack "dd.exe" for usage.
> I just copied mine to my scratch partition which is D:
>
> D:
> md results # Make a place to examine the results of the copy test.
>
> dd.exe --list # This is how you discover the names of partitions
> # for usage when crafting commands. We are just working with
> # a single file, so do not need this info right now. The
> # existence of virtual device "/dev/zero" will be listed there.
>
> dd.exe if=/dev/zero of=zeroes.bin bs=1M count=1024 # Make a 1GB file of zeroes
> dd.exe if=/dev/zero of=zeroes.bin bs=1M count=100 # Make a 100MB file of zeroes
>
> dd.exe if=/dev/random of=rand.bin bs=1M count=100 # Make a 100MB file of random data
>
> sha1sum zeroes.bin # record the checksum of a test file, which will be copied
> sha1sum rand.bin # record the checksum of a test file, which will be copied
>
> copy zeroes.bin K:\zeroes.bin # copy to the USB drive
> copy K:\zeroes.bin D:\results\zeroes.bin # copy back to a system disk
> sha1sum D:\results\zeroes.bin # compare checksum to original
>
> That's just to illustrate a quick way to make files. The "dd.exe"
> can make files as fast as the storage can go (about 2.5GB/sec). This
> run took four seconds. The random file would take eight seconds.
>
> 06/16/2023 06:00 AM 10,737,418,240 zeroes.bin
>
> 7ZIP has a context menu and SHA1 and SHA256 sums are offered.
>
> Name: zeroes.bin
> Size: 10737418240 bytes (10 GiB)
> SHA1: A0B6E2CA4E28360A929943E8EB966F703A69DC44
>
> Now if I copy that file around, I can check for corruption by
> running the SHA1SUM again.
>
> Even MD5SUM is sufficient for checking for file corruption
> (any sort of hash like that can be used as a signature). If
> all you had, was an ancient copy of MD5SUM.exe, that's OK as
> a tool for corruption testing as well. The only algo which is
> too weak, is "sum.exe", which is an arithmetic sum of all bytes.
>
> You can disable system write caching on individual devices
> (such as a USB stick). I could not find the setting to
> disable it for the entire W7 computer.
>
> But first, I want to see you copy a representative test file,
> one which RootsMagic will not have open.
>
> I don't think this is a write caching issue. That particular
> file is affected, because some executable has the file open
> and has not told you that. The Sysinternals utility "handle.exe"
> or Process Explorer has a copy of Handle inside, these can be
> used to detect an executable has a file open. I'm not recommending
> that as a first step at the moment, because I just want to test
> your USB stick is working OK with benign test files. It is sometimes
> hard to get handle.exe working properly.

NOTE: I get an icon in my NNTP client saying the parent article by Hayes
is no longer available or cancelled on my NNTP server (individual.net),
so I cannot retrieve the article nor reply to it. I'll reply to you
because you might know the answers to the following suggestions.

I do not see an option in robocopy that has it do a compare between
source and destination files to verify they are the same after the copy
operation. I'm wondering if Hayes should add a 'fc /b' command after
the robocopy command to verify the hash values of the two files are
equal, and follow in the batch script with a check on ERRORLEVEL to see
if 'fc' succeeded or not.

xxcopy is a 3rd-party copy tool, I haven't used it in a long time, so I
don't know if it is more reliable than robocopy, or has an option to do
a file compare on source and destination files. I found xxcopy at
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/xxcopy.html, but the link to
the author's site fails with showing MajorGeek's "bad author" error page
(that the site no longer exists, or never existed). Also found xxcopy
at https://www.softpedia.com/get/System/File-Management/XXCOPY.shtml,
but that results in "server not found" on www.xxcopy.com. Looks like it
got discontinued about mid-2019, or earlier. I found a command-line
reference for xxcopy at:

https://fekete.x10host.com/xxtb3000.htm#xxtb_01

Maybe I missed the parameter, but I don't see XXCOPY does a binary file
compare between the contents of the source and destination files.

The problem is when Hayes copies the copied file off the USB drive, but
there is no problem noticed when copying to the USB drive. Perhaps it's
time to format (full) the USB drive, or do a chkdsk on the USB drive and
add the /r option to test the sectors are readable (but that's not the
same as a write test). Perhaps better is to use a test/diagnostic tool
to verify writes are okay to the USB drive, like Check Flash.

https://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Boot-Manager-Disk/Check-Flash.shtml
Last update: 2017 Jan 16
(the author's site is dead, so can't get if from there)

On 6/18/2023 6:51 PM, VanguardLH wrote:

> NOTE: I get an icon in my NNTP client saying the parent article by Hayes
> is no longer available or cancelled on my NNTP server (individual.net),
> so I cannot retrieve the article nor reply to it. I'll reply to you
> because you might know the answers to the following suggestions.

Using the missing MID returned by the error, you can look
for the original article on Howard. That's if you just
want to see the text.

<ghnn8i1a3jrmo8d8vbee3jc8f1v17llnir@4ax.com>

http://al.howardknight.net/

http://al.howardknight.net/?STYPE=msgid&MSGI=%3Cghnn8i1a3jrmo8d8vbee3jc8f1v17llnir%404ax.com%3E

There's also news.mixmin.net:563 . It does not offer port 119.
That's how I post to microsoft.public.windowsxp.general , is via mixmin.
(In the past, AIOE was the backup.)

Paul

I'm doing all my backups with FreeFileSync, because it runs on Linux,
and Windows, and according to the site, there are older versions that
still run on Windows XP:

https://freefilesync.org/faq.php#operating-systems

I have external hard drives and flash drives, and in my experience, the
hard drives are more reliable, and often faster too, especially when I
want to copy loads of small files, or a few big ones.

FreeFileSync has no problems with big files, like the Windows 10 virtual
machine that I run in Linux, which relies on a disk image that is bigger
than 20 GB. It only copies files when their sizes or timestamps differ,
so it's much safer for flash memory, which is very sensitive to wear,
especially when written to.

And like the name says, it is free.

On Fri, 16 Jun 2023 08:52:35 +0100, Ian Goddard
<ian_ng@austonley.org.uk> wrote:

>Steve Hayes wrote:
>> 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?
>
>Could it be a problem with the flash drive itself? Have you tried a
>second flash drive or a disk drive in a USB adapter?

Yes, I've used different flash drives, and when I usde a different app
(File Commander) to copy the file, it copies correctly.

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

On Fri, 16 Jun 2023 06:18:48 -0400, Paul <nospam@needed.invalid>
wrote:

>On 6/16/2023 12:21 AM, Steve Hayes wrote:
>> 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?
>
>Would the Rootsmagic V7 data file (sqlite), currently be open
>by the program ? Does any part of the program run, even when
>the GUI is not visible ?
>
>Sometimes a service, or even some sort of license enforcement, may
>be meddling with the file.
>
>If you boot any other OS on the machine, you may be able to
>make a copy from there, because at that point, any tricky
>Rootsmagic protections will be "at rest".

I've now found that it works 3 ways out of 4.

The only one that doesn't work is copying from the flash drive to the
XP computer hard drive (XXCOPY).

XP hard drive to flash works fine, as do copying both ways on the Win
7 laptop.

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

On Mon, 19 Jun 2023 15:10:00 +0200, Enno Borgsteede
<ennoborg@gmail.com> wrote:

>I'm doing all my backups with FreeFileSync, because it runs on Linux,
>and Windows, and according to the site, there are older versions that
>still run on Windows XP:
>
>https://freefilesync.org/faq.php#operating-systems
>
>I have external hard drives and flash drives, and in my experience, the
>hard drives are more reliable, and often faster too, especially when I
>want to copy loads of small files, or a few big ones.
>
>FreeFileSync has no problems with big files, like the Windows 10 virtual
>machine that I run in Linux, which relies on a disk image that is bigger
>than 20 GB. It only copies files when their sizes or timestamps differ,
>so it's much safer for flash memory, which is very sensitive to wear,
>especially when written to.
>
>And like the name says, it is free.

Thanks very much, I'll have a look at that.

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

On Fri, 16 Jun 2023 13:28:40 +0100, Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid>
wrote:

>On 16/06/2023 05:21, Steve Hayes 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.
>
>I'm not going to try to help out with the problem you actually face, but
>suggest an alternative method. Why not use sync software over a
>network? Others may also suggest other software, but I use DeltaCopy to
>copy data between Win7 and XP machines without too much difficulty,
>although there are some gotchas, the two most important being:

I find networks very unreliable, and anyway they don't work when the
power is off, which happens several times a day. One of the reasons
for needing to copy the files is so that I can continue working on the
laptop when the power is off.

But if find that even wehn the network is working, sometimes I can see
the other machines on it, and sometimes I cant, and sometimes it asks
for a password (there isn't one) and sometimes it doesn't. But when it
asks for a password I can't use it.

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

On Fri, 16 Jun 2023 16:12:04 -0400, Denis Beauregard
<denis.b-at-francogene.com@fr.invalid> wrote:

>On Fri, 16 Jun 2023 06:21:27 +0200, Steve Hayes
><hayesstw@telkomsa.net> wrote in soc.genealogy.computing:
>
>>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.
>
>What about reducing the size of the file by zipping it before the
>transfer since it is for backuping ?

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.

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

On 27/07/2023 07:13, Steve Hayes wrote:
> On Mon, 19 Jun 2023 15:10:00 +0200, Enno Borgsteede
> <ennoborg@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> I'm doing all my backups with FreeFileSync, because it runs on Linux,
>> and Windows, and according to the site, there are older versions that
>> still run on Windows XP:
>>
>> https://freefilesync.org/faq.php#operating-systems
>>
>> I have external hard drives and flash drives, and in my experience, the
>> hard drives are more reliable, and often faster too, especially when I
>> want to copy loads of small files, or a few big ones.
>>
>> FreeFileSync has no problems with big files, like the Windows 10 virtual
>> machine that I run in Linux, which relies on a disk image that is bigger
>> than 20 GB. It only copies files when their sizes or timestamps differ,
>> so it's much safer for flash memory, which is very sensitive to wear,
>> especially when written to.
>>
>> And like the name says, it is free.
>
> Thanks very much, I'll have a look at that.
>
>
Don't see the OP but +1 for FreeFileSync

Using it for years to back up to external USB HDDs.

--
Regards
wasbit

On 27/07/2023 08:21, Steve Hayes wrote:
> On Fri, 16 Jun 2023 16:12:04 -0400, Denis Beauregard
> <denis.b-at-francogene.com@fr.invalid> wrote:
>
>> On Fri, 16 Jun 2023 06:21:27 +0200, Steve Hayes
>> <hayesstw@telkomsa.net> wrote in soc.genealogy.computing:
>>
>>> 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.
>>
>> What about reducing the size of the file by zipping it before the
>> transfer since it is for backuping ?
>
> 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.

On 27/07/2023 07:17, Steve Hayes wrote:
> On Fri, 16 Jun 2023 13:28:40 +0100, Java Jive <java@evij.com.invalid>
> wrote:
>
>> On 16/06/2023 05:21, Steve Hayes 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.
>>
>> I'm not going to try to help out with the problem you actually face, but
>> suggest an alternative method. Why not use sync software over a
>> network? Others may also suggest other software, but I use DeltaCopy to
>> copy data between Win7 and XP machines without too much difficulty,
>> although there are some gotchas, the two most important being:
>
> I find networks very unreliable,

IME, if properly set up to begin with, they're far more reliable than
USB sticks, as your OP and subsequent posts show.

> and anyway they don't work when the
> power is off, which happens several times a day. One of the reasons
> for needing to copy the files is so that I can continue working on the
> laptop when the power is off.

Perhaps you'd do better to fix your power supply problems? Anyway, as
explained, I use DeltaCopy to do that too.

> But if find that even wehn the network is working, sometimes I can see
> the other machines on it, and sometimes I cant, and sometimes it asks
> for a password (there isn't one) and sometimes it doesn't. But when it
> asks for a password I can't use it.

Then either you've not configured your network properly, or your router
may be faulty, or perhaps you're referring to recent versions of Windows
often failing to find something under 'Network' even when the network is
actually working properly. I'm afraid the latter problem is just
Microsoft networking, the network is there, and usually choosing Refresh
from the View menu in Explorer will find it, or if it doesn't, the
desired machine can be accessed by entering the UNC path directly into
Explorer, but no-one would deny it's a PITA. I still prefer the XP
method of creating shortcuts to the other machine shares that you
commonly access.

If the first is the problem, I posted instructions for how to share over
a network between Windows PCs here. However, if you're running
Microsoft Security Essentials on W7 or later, you won't be able to share
stuff with XP and earlier, possibly Vista and earlier, without an
additional registry hack, which I can look up if required by don't
recall OOTTOMH:

https://groups.google.com/g/alt.comp.os.windows-xp/c/Ygj5tIKQgsE/m/4rQJlmX5AQAJ

--

Fake news kills!

I may be contacted via the contact address given on my website:
www.macfh.co.uk

In message <u9tlm6$1schm$1@dont-email.me> at Thu, 27 Jul 2023 13:50:29,
john <john1@s145802280.onlinehome.fr> writes
>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.

Or find the 8.3 name - "dir /x" will show them. Though if doing so loses
the longer version, you might have to rename it back to actually use it
after a restore, which could be a pain.
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

There's only so much you can do... with gravel.
- Charlie Dimmock, RT 2016/7/9-15

In message <u9tdol$1rko2$1@dont-email.me> at Thu, 27 Jul 2023 10:35:16,
wasbit <wasbit@nowhere.invalid> writes
>On 27/07/2023 07:13, Steve Hayes wrote:
>> On Mon, 19 Jun 2023 15:10:00 +0200, Enno Borgsteede
>> <ennoborg@gmail.com> wrote:
>>
>>> I'm doing all my backups with FreeFileSync, because it runs on
[]
>>> https://freefilesync.org/faq.php#operating-systems
[]
>>> And like the name says, it is free.
>> Thanks very much, I'll have a look at that.
>>
>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
bidirectional arrow on the Synchronise button, but I now see it has a
mirror mode. Though only the video tutorial mentions - and that only in
passing - the deletion of files on the target, which I'd want.)

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 available from MS, but
the last version [2.1] is at
https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/microsoft_synctoy_for_windows_xp.html
[ignore the xp in the URL, it's actually 11/10/8/7 according to the
actual page].)
--
J. P. Gilliver. UMRA: 1960/<1985 MB++G()AL-IS-Ch++(p)Ar@T+H+Sh0!:`)DNAf

No sense being pessimistic. It wouldn't work anyway.
- Penny Mayes, UMRA, 2014-August

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?

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

On Thu, 27 Jul 2023 16:28:02 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver"
<G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:

>In message <u9tlm6$1schm$1@dont-email.me> at Thu, 27 Jul 2023 13:50:29,
>john <john1@s145802280.onlinehome.fr> writes

>>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.
>
>Or find the 8.3 name - "dir /x" will show them. Though if doing so loses
>the longer version, you might have to rename it back to actually use it
>after a restore, which could be a pain.

The trouble is that before I could do that Dropbox would pick it up
and create a duplicate, one with the short name and one with the long
one.

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

On Thu, 27 Jul 2023 17:14:25 +0100, "J. P. Gilliver"
<G6JPG@255soft.uk> wrote:

>In message <u9tdol$1rko2$1@dont-email.me> at Thu, 27 Jul 2023 10:35:16,
>wasbit <wasbit@nowhere.invalid> writes

>>>> I'm doing all my backups with FreeFileSync, because it runs on
>[]
>>>> https://freefilesync.org/faq.php#operating-systems
>[]
>>>> And like the name says, it is free.
>>> Thanks very much, I'll have a look at that.
>>>
>>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
>bidirectional arrow on the Synchronise button, but I now see it has a
>mirror mode. Though only the video tutorial mentions - and that only in
>passing - the deletion of files on the target, which I'd want.)
>
>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 available from MS, but
>the last version [2.1] is at
>https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/microsoft_synctoy_for_windows_xp.html
>[ignore the xp in the URL, it's actually 11/10/8/7 according to the
>actual page].)

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.

--
Steve Hayes from Tshwane, South Africa
Web: http://www.khanya.org.za/stevesig.htm
Blog: http://khanya.wordpress.com
E-mail - see web page, or parse: shayes at dunelm full stop org full stop uk

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?
>
>

Easy

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

>> 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
> bidirectional arrow on the Synchronise button, but I now see it has a
> mirror mode. Though only the video tutorial mentions - and that only in
> passing - the deletion of files on the target, which I'd want.)
>
> 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 available from MS, but
> the last version [2.1] is at
> https://www.majorgeeks.com/files/details/microsoft_synctoy_for_windows_xp.html [ignore the xp in the URL, it's actually 11/10/8/7 according to the actual page].)

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.

I use Linux and Windows 10 and 11 in multi boot configurations, and
because I often change files on either, I use the two way sync, with an
external hard drive formatted as NTFS. This means that any change made
in Linux, will make it to Windows via that external drive and vice versa.

And when I change the same file on both sides between sync sessions, the
program will also warn me about a possible conflict, and let me choose
what to do.

Enno

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