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Windows Folder Mirroring / Synchronization

Anonymous
2022-07-19T18:45:15+00:00

Hi,

Can anyone tell me if Windows 10 has a feature that would allow me to synchronize the contents of a local folder with the contents of a folder on a server?

I'd like this synchronization to be "one way", meaning that users (with appropriate permissions) will only add, modify, or delete files and on the server. I'd like the local folder to be a read-only mirror image of the folder on the server.

Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance,

Paul

Windows for home | Windows 10 | Files, folders, and storage

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  1. Ramesh 176.1K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2022-07-20T14:38:25+00:00

    Hi Paul,

    You can use RoboCopy (with the /MIR switch) to do a one-way (left → right folder) sync. More information is available here.

    Also, type robocopy /? to learn more about this built-in console tool.

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  2. Ramesh 176.1K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2022-07-23T02:32:27+00:00

    Hi Paul,

    RoboCopy error codes are explained here and here. Error codes greater than or equal to 8 indicate that there was some failure during the operation. Also, you can make use of logging (to file) to see the result of each copy/mirror operation.

    Alternately, you can make a hash (MD5/SHA) comparison of files in two locations. Check out the methods hehttps://www.winhelponline.com/blog/compare-two-directories-files-find-differences/re.

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  3. Anonymous
    2022-07-22T18:06:33+00:00

    Hi Ramesh,

    Thank you for your response. I think I like the idea of using Robocopy with the /MIR switch more than the method I was using previously, which was using the RMDIR command to delete the destination folder followed by the MD command to recreate the destination folder and then the XCOPY command with the /E and /S switches to copy the content from the source folder to the destination folder.

    For test / practice purposes, I have been able to use ROBCOPY /MIR to mirror the contents (files & folders, including the content of folders) from my source folder to my destination folder.

    Looking at the Microsoft documentation for the ROBOCOPY return codes, I am a little confused as to how I can use the return code to determine if the mirroring process was successful or not. If you can clear this up for me, I would greatly appreciate it.

    Thanks again and best regards,

    Paul

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  4. Anonymous
    2022-07-20T13:26:55+00:00

    Thank you Dave,

    If there is a 3rd party solution you (or anyone else here) have used for this purpose and found to work well, I would greatly appreciate any recommendation you might have.

    Thanks again and best regards,
    Paul

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  5. DaveM121 868.4K Reputation points Independent Advisor
    2022-07-19T19:17:57+00:00

    Hi Paul,

    I am Dave, I will help you with this.

    Windows does not have this functionality built into the operating system, you would need to find a 3rd party backup solution to be able to implement this as you need it to be.

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