Sync. backup copies entire folder when only a file is edited.How to change this?

[Guest]

[marcos.zy]

Hi! 

I have installed Comodo Backup, and create a job in synchronized mode. So, all is working fine, but CB copies the entire folder where the edited/deleted/created file is located.

For example, if I edit a file in a folder included in a synchronized job, Comodo Backup always saves again the entire folder, and not only the edited file. This action creates various identical zip files in the destination folder.

How can I change this? It is possible?

Thank you for your help! 

[JJasper]

Hello marcos.zy

I have been using Comodo Backup for quite a while now and have figured out a lot of the quirks that it has.  However I have not tried the synchronized job.  Now I have a reason to do so. I will test it over the next couple of days and see what happens and if I can figure out an answer to your problem.  If no one else comes up with an solution for you before then, watch for an answer from me.
In answer to a couple of other questions you had:

1) To use the "synchronized mode", have I to mark/select the "options ==> settings ==> load at windows startup (all or current users)" option?

You do not need to select the load at windows startup.  It starts as a service.  Just make sure you have "Comodobackupservice" running and on automatic.

2) What means the "Backup type" option, in backup configuration screen? It is setted as "user backup", in my current job. Is that correct?

I have left the "backup type" as "user backup" and it runs just fine as a service and the scheduler works good with this setting as well.

Hope this has been a bit of help to you.  I will get back to you on the synchronized job as soon as I check it out.

John

[marcos.zy]

Hi JJasper,

Thank you for your help. 

I will await for your test.

Have a good day, thank you. 

[panic]

Hey Marcos,

As a test, I created two folder - "original" and "sync". In the original folder I created four text files so they all had different time stamps. I then setup a synchronisation job in Backup and ran it initially as a user mode backup with a time interval of 15 secs.

The first time it ran, it created a folder in "sync" called "original" and recreated the four text files.

I then edited one of the text files and saved it, so the time stamp changed. The next time the sync backup job ran, only the altered text file was updated to the "\sync\original" folder.

I then changed the job to a service mode backup and made a further change to the modified text file in "original". Again, only the changed file was synchronised.

You mentioned ZIP in your original post. I can't see how to create a zip file in sync mode. If the file you are modifying is INSIDE a ZIP archive, then I would think that the backup job is doing exactly the right thing - the ZIP file has changed when you modified one of the files within the archive file, so backup is synchronising it, as it is a single file (even though you and I know it's an archive of several files) at the file system level.

Hope this helps and thanks for making me look deeper into Backup.
Ewen :-)

[JJasper]

Thanks Ewen :-) for doing the test.  I just did not have the time right away to do it so I appreciate you stepping in and doing it.  I will still continue to experiment with the synch job to make myself more familiar with it, and if I find any strange results I will post them.
Marcos - I'm sure this will help you a lot.

John

[JJasper]

Ok here is my test results.  I got the same results as panic but will give you my results anyway.

I put 3 text files and a zip file in folder I named Test-1

I set Backup to: simple copy, user backup, full backup, enable revisions.

I ran backup and all my files were copied to a folder it created named Test-1 in a folder that I had chosen named Test-2

I changed the settings to: simple copy, user backup, incremental backup, enable revisions

I altered one of the text files and the zip file, ran backup, and the text file and the zip file were updated and the original backup were also there with a CB in front of it. (this is the revisions working).

I then changed the settings again to synchronization mode and 11 seconds delay.  I altered the text file and the zip file again and both were updated automatically in the 11 seconds.

I also tried all the above in service mode and it did not make any difference to the backups. 

I would recommend that if you want the original backup updated with the incremental backup then you should not enable revisions or you will get the duplicates. 

I also tested it with compression.  The first run backed up to a zip file I named Test.zip and after altering the text file and the zip file again, the text file and the zip file were both updated in Test.zip, not copied.

There are no settings in synchronization mode for compression but it will work well with compressed files.

Hope this is of some use to you marcos.zy and anyone else that may want to use Comodo Backup.
It is a good program once you get use to it.  I have tried dozens of backups free and not free and this is the one I have chosen to stay with.  It is reliable and easy to use.  It will backup over a LAN or onto CD/DVD or onto a USB drive.  I look forward to a new version - someday I hope.

John

[marcos.zy]

Hi JJasper and panic!

Thank you for your help, and for the tests made.

So, I think that the problem with me was caused by the way I set up the CB. I first created a full backup, in zip mode, and then I transformed it in a synchronized backup. CB created only a ZIP file, so, when I altered only one file, all files inside this zip file was updated. Is this the correct way of work of Comodo Backup?

I will make a test now, creating a new synchronized job. Thank you again! 

[JJasper]

Marcos

I'm not sure if this is the way it is supposed to work, but my guess is that when you change one of the files it will update all of them because it is now really one file (a zip file).

John

[panic]

I'm pretty sure that's it, John. His original backup job was set to output to a ZIP file and after it had run once, he changed it to a sync job without changing the destination which was still set to a ZIP.

Thanks for your help on this John, much appreciated.

Cheers,
Ewen :-)

[marcos.zy]

Hello JJasper and Panic! 

Thank you again for all your help and attention.

I understand now what are happening. If the job is set to output to a ZIP file, the sync job will update the entire zip file, even if only one file was edited.

So, if I create a job in sync mode without using compression, CB will only update the modified files. Is this correct?

And, after this, I can create a second job in full mode, using compression, and set this to backup the entire sync job above mentioned. Can I make this without any problems, ok?

Thank you! 

[panic]

That sounds about right. Give it a go and let us know how it works out.

Cheers,
Ewen :-)

[marcos.zy]

So, I have been made some tests today, and the problem persists.

First, I created a new job in "sync mode", and set up to backup only one folder. So, when I create a new *.txt file in this folder, CB copies to destination folder all files and folders that was inside source folder.

After this test, I created another job in full backup mode, but without using compression. CB runs the job accordingly, but, when I change this job to sync job, it copies to destination folder all files and folders that was inside source folder, even if only one file was created/edited/deleted, etc.

The same thing occurs if I change my actual full backup job to a sync backup job.

Perhaps, CB don't work by this way?

Thank you all for all your help! 

[JJasper]

Hi Marcos

I have been unable to duplicate your problem.  Following all your instructions here:

First, I created a new job in "sync mode", and set up to backup only one folder. So, when I create a new *.txt file in this folder, CB copies to destination folder all files and folders that was inside source folder.

When I did the same thing I found that the time stamp was changed on only the one file changed and from the log I see that only one file was copied.

The same applied to your other test:

After this test, I created another job in full backup mode, but without using compression. CB runs the job accordingly, but, when I change this job to sync job, it copies to destination folder all files and folders that was inside source folder, even if only one file was created/edited/deleted, etc.

Here I followed what you had done changing only one file and still found that only one file was copied.

I will keep working with you as you do some more tests.  I don't know why it works for me and not for you.  It may be helpful if someone else is interested in doing these test as well.

John

[marcos.zy]

Here I followed what you had done changing only one file and still found that only one file was copied.

I will keep working with you as you do some more tests.  I don't know why it works for me and not for you.  It may be helpful if someone else is interested in doing these test as well.

Hi John,

So, this is not running properly with me and I don't know why... 

I would like to thank you and Panic for all help and for all time you have been spending with me in this issue. Thank you very much! 

Today I have been made many tests, in different and new jobs, and this problems remains. Of course, I am glad to use a tool like Comodo Backup, and it was the best backup tool I have used until now.

It is running well, the schedule is running too,  but I have always to run "full backups", because I don't get the sync mode to run properly.

In all tests that I made, I never obtained the same results that you obtained. My full jobs changed to sync jobs with and without compression and my jobs created directly in sync mode, all of these always updates the entire folders even if only one file inside it was updated.

Well, thank you again, and let's see if we can obtain some new idea on this issue. 

Best Regards.


Marcos

[Tags:]