Question How can I save files on 2 drives at the same time ?

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Eamonn100

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Oct 23, 2020
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I want to be able to save files on 2 different hard drives at the same time... ie If they are saved on a MVMe SSD as default... anytime I'm saving them, they are also saved automatically on a HHD as well, (as back up).

Is this possible, and how would I go about it?
 
Option #1
If both drives (SSD and HDD) are set up as dynamic, then you could set up mirror volume on them.
Contents automatically get synchronized on both drives.
Note - this is not available, if one of your drives is OS drive. This is available on secondary drives only.

Option #2
You can set up robocopy scheduled task, that copies contents of first drive to second drive.
And set up to run this task every 10min (or whatever frequency is appropriate).
Explore robocopy options. It can also limit copying to changed files only.
 
If you just want to copy folder to folder Resilio sync is a nice program to use. This will do copies in real time so if a file gets messed up in one folder it will copy that to the other.

If your wanting a true backup in case something happens to the original file, you need to look into a backup solution like macrium reflect or veeam
 
Eamonn100 said:
I want to be able to save files on 2 different hard drives at the same time... I.E. If they are saved on a MVMe SSD as default... anytime I'm saving them, they are also saved automatically on a HHD as well, (as back up).

Is this possible, and how would I go about it?
Click to expand...
There is FreeFIleSync, which includes the function of "RealTimeSync".
https://freefilesync.org/manual.php?topic=realtimesync

Be careful of how tightly you couple these drives.
You don't want the performance of the NVMe to be dragged down to that of the HDD.
Also, be careful of exactly what you sync. If this is the OS drive, and you try to sync "everything", this includes temp files, writes to the Registry, etc, etc....
 
USAFRet said:
There is FreeFIleSync, which includes the function of "RealTimeSync".
https://freefilesync.org/manual.php?topic=realtimesync

Be careful of how tightly you couple these drives.
You don't want the performance of the NVMe to be dragged down to that of the HDD.
Also, be careful of exactly what you sync. If this is the OS drive, and you try to sync "everything", this includes temp files, writes to the Registry, etc, etc....
Click to expand...
The NVMe SSD is not the OS drive ... it's where I keep all short/medium term files for fast usage. (The OS one is mostly for programs).

Yeah, I just want what ever is saved on the secondary NVMe to automatically save on my big HDD as well.

I'll start and look into what you guys have suggested.
 
SkyNetRising said:
Option #1
If both drives (SSD and HDD) are set up as dynamic, then you could set up mirror volume on them.
Contents automatically get synchronized on both drives.
Note - this is not available, if one of your drives is OS drive. This is available on secondary drives only.

Option #2
You can set up robocopy scheduled task, that copies contents of first drive to second drive.
And set up to run this task every 10min (or whatever frequency is appropriate).
Explore robocopy options. It can also limit copying to changed files only.
Click to expand...
I think option 2 is for me??

Basically, if I can save on my SSD and have it automatically save on the HHD as well, I'll do that. But I would want to put things on to the HHD sometimes that I would not want on the SSD. Which is the best option for that?
 
Last edited:
Eamonn100 said:
I think option 1 is for me??

Basically, if I can save on my SSD and have it automatically save on the HHD as well, I'll do that. But I would want to put things on to the HHD sometimes that I would not want on the SSD. Which is the best option for that?
Click to expand...
Personally, I would do a Once A Day backup to the HDD.
(and this is exactly what I do)

Not anything real or close to real time.

"Automatically in real time" also means any bad data/malware/etc/etc....
 
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Eamonn100 said:
I think option 2 is for me??

Basically, if I can save on my SSD and have it automatically save on the HHD as well, I'll do that. But I would want to put things on to the HHD sometimes that I would not want on the SSD. Which is the best option for that?
Click to expand...
USAFRet said:
Personally, I would do a Once A Day backup to the HDD.
(and this is exactly what I do)

Not anything real or close to real time.

"Automatically in real time" also means any bad data/malware/etc/etc....
Click to expand...
I edited to Option 2...

but you are saying don't do either and just do a backup each day?
 
USAFRet said:
Personally, I would do a Once A Day backup to the HDD.
(and this is exactly what I do)

Not anything real or close to real time.

"Automatically in real time" also means any bad data/malware/etc/etc....
Click to expand...
How do I setup a backup to a HDD?

Is it a simple google search? Or is there's things I should look out for?
 
I cannot recall if it is Restore or Windows Backup, but I believe Windows 11 has built in (basic) functionality to at least do this on a schedule.

I used to do something similar with RoboCopy but it has been well too long since I messed with it. At the time there was a console you could download from somewhere and it would take parameters you put in and spit out what to paste into a scheduled task or event.
 
Hi guys,

Chat GPT gave me this Robocopy script...

@Echo off

:: Ensure the log folder exists
if not exist "C:\Logs" mkdir "C:\Logs"

echo === Backup started at %DATE% %TIME% === >> "C:\Logs\SmartBackupLog.txt"

:: Run Robocopy for incremental backup (no deletions)
robocopy "I:\" "H:\2-990-NVMe-SSD-I" /E /XO /FFT /Z /MT:32 /R:3 /W:5 /LOG+:"C:\Logs\SmartBackupLog.txt"

echo Backup finished at %TIME% === >> "C:\Logs\SmartBackupLog.txt"

but it keeps returning...

Started : 21 June 2025 17:41:50
Source : I:\" H:\2-990-NVMe-SSD-I \E \XO \FFT \Z \MT:32 \R:3 \W:5\
Dest -

Files : *.*

Options : *.* /DCOPY😀A /COPY😀AT /R:1000000 /W:30

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ERROR : No Destination Directory Specified.

How do I septate the source and destination?
 
Last edited:
Eamonn100 said:
robocopy "I:\" "H:\2-990-NVMe-SSD-I" /E /XO /FFT /Z /MT:32 /R:3 /W:5 /LOG+:"C:\Logs\SmartBackupLog.txt"
How do I septate the source and destination?
Click to expand...
Do you have drives H: and I: ?
Do you have folder H:\2-990-NVMe-SSD-I ?
robocopy "d:\sourcefolder" "e:\targetfolder" /E /XO

/E :: copy subdirectories, including Empty ones.
/XO :: eXclude Older files.

Remaining copy options are not important.
Get all possible robocopy options with
robocopy /?
 
SkyNetRising said:
Do you have drives H: and I: ?
Do you have folder H:\2-990-NVMe-SSD-I ?
robocopy "d:\sourcefolder" "e:\targetfolder" /E /XO

/E :: copy subdirectories, including Empty ones.
/XO :: eXclude Older files.

Remaining copy options are not important.
Get all possible robocopy options with
robocopy /?
Click to expand...
Do you have drives H: and I: ?
Do you have folder H:\2-990-NVMe-SSD-I ?

Yes and yes.
 
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