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[lookingforinfo]

I am now at the point where I am backing up our Vista machine to Volume_1 of a DNS-323 with FW 1.08.
My goal is to now make a second copy of the files on Volume_2.  I have mapped both volumes to drives Y: and Z: on the Vista machine and am copying the data to Volume_2.

I have found three programs (Robocopy, Deltacopy and Cygwin) that claim to perform the same as the Unix rsync command, but under Vista.  In my search of this list I find very few referenced to these products.

Is there a good way to mirror selected directories on Volume_1 to Volume_2 using Windows Vista?

[dosborne]

Any pure client copy program will be slow as the data has to be transfered to the PC then back to the NAS. Rsync, cp (if you have ffp installed) or I believe even the backup option in the admin (can't say I've really looked at it) are your best options.

[scaramanga]

What I'm suggesting here involves installing Fonz' Fun Plug and using rsync and rsync daemon:
Howto backup from one volume to the other: http://wiki.dns323.info/howto:backup
Howto backup a PC: http://wiki.dns323.info/howto:backup_-_pc

[lookingforinfo]

Thank you dosborne and scaramanga.  While I have not wanted to add Fun Plug because it is another set of software tools that need to be kept current, it looks like it may be time to bite the bullet.  scaramanga, the links were very helpful and I especially liked the idea of rotating the disk used as Volume_2 so one drive is always off-site.

[jamieburchell]

To avoid ware and tear by keep removing and inserting drives in the 323, you could also use funplug to utilise the USB port for external drives or SATA enclosures. It's going to be a little slower than drive to drive inside the 323 though I would imagine.

I too was reluctant to use ffp. I didn't want to complicate the setup, but once you understand what it does and how it works I felt much more comfortable. You can run as many or as few packages as you like. One thing I discovered though is you need to disable all services such as SSH before you can run the scandisk or unmount the drive cleanly.

Here's a very good step by step tutorial: http://nas-tweaks.net/CH3SNAS:Tutorials/fun_plug

[JohnnyDemonic]

Once fun_plug is installed and running properly, I use the following to sync my 2 volumes:

Copying files from 1 volume to the other

   Copy from Right Volume to Left Volume
   cp -Rv /mnt/HD_a2/files /mnt/HD_b2/
   
   Copy from Left Volume to Right Volume
   cp -Rv /mnt/HD_b2/files /mnt/HD_a2/

I am only concerned with the information in the Files folder which is my "acquired" data. 

PS.  For whatever reason, rsync is no faster than copying from volume to volume using Windows browser.  Wish it were faster though.

[scaramanga]

If I were you I'd use "cp -a" which preserves file permissions and modification time.
What you wrote about rsync is a bit odd. Depending on how you set it up, first time it normally does require to copy everything over. But on next copies, it only needs to copy the changed files, which, in case you don't make too many changes to your files should take considerably less time.

If you need help setting-up rsync, see here: http://wiki.dns323.info/howto:backup