Dummy backup of files/folders/drives

[chumbo]

Hi,
This is slightly out of the scope of the nature of XY and yet, it would seem rather apt at doing this....
I've been looking for a program that would do a sort of a backup of selected files/folders/drives where the files would be sort of 'dead' copies of the original i.e. an mp3 file would not play, a photo or video would not be viewable, an .exe would not run, etc...but you could see them in their respective folders, exactly as you would normally and maybe even with a basic property like it's file size could be available but in actual fact, these would just be dummy files probably less than a 1kb in size each.

Why you ask? For backup purposes. Say you have one or more backup drives with Tbs of data on them and wondered if you have already this episode of a series or can't find an important document on your local disk. Rather than having to reconnect an external drive or open a backup software or browse an image file, you could just browse your local dummy backup of the files and quickly get the answer.

And in my case I've made a habit of sharing backup drives of my media files with a friend of mine. I have a backup of his drive and he has one of mine and when we meet every few weeks, we update our respective backups. This means he can browse and enjoy my collection and vice versa.

Having this system would allow me to know what is already on my backup or not for example. Anyway, I'm sure you get the point and since XY already 'has' all the data at it's disposal, I figured it would just be a little added 'trick' to make this possible.
Hope it's of interest!

(don't tell me XY can already do this?! I know I've always been amazed in the past that XY was already capable of doing what I was requesting but this....nah, don't think so).

[highend]

Ofc it can...

viewtopic.php?f=7&t=13740

[chumbo]

Wow! that's amazing but...it doesn't do anything? I go to Load Script File, select it and...nothing? What is supposed to happen exactly?

[highend]

Maybe you should start by mentioning which version you've downloaded and trying to load? oO

What is supposed to happen exactly?

It opens up a menu

From that thread:

Code: Select all

MenuItems:
* Create ShadowCat: create a shadowcat of a picked location, current path selected by default
* Open ShadowCats: open one or more saved ShadowCats in special tabs
* Kill Shadowcats: delete one or more saved ShadowCats
* Convert to ShadowCat: Create a ShadowCat from current path. Like "Toggle paper folder", but for ShadowCats
* Open this ShadowCat: open selected ShadowCat in a special shadowcat tab (indicated by icon and sc: prefix, and homezonelocked) .
* Configure: right now this opens the ini file with a popup description (yeah, lazy)

[chumbo]

I only saw one version available at the link you posted: v1.2b1

Anyway, I ran the code you just posted and that worked...almost. I didn't understand the last two entries in the Menu, so I didn't bother but I tried the first which seemed to describe what I'm trying to do but I got an error:

Selected path was the root of an external USB drive.

[highend]

I ran the code you just posted and that worked...almost

I didn't post any scripting code, just something from the mentioned thread...

I only saw one version available at the link you posted: v1.2b1

That link contains 3 versions in the first posting

Selected path was the root of an external USB drive.

Don't know if this is supported at all (selecting a drive letter). Go into the root of the usb drive
and try again. When it asks for the destination, make sure that the path does NOT contain the
double colon... and make sure you load the downloaded script file!

Apart from that, this is not my script and if you have a problem with it, please post in the
appropriate thread...

[chumbo]

The selected path wasn't a drive letter but the content of that drive, at the root of it.
Just for testing purposes, I even tried a single folder deeper in the drive and then with a folder open and the files showing, all give the same error.
Ok, I'll go to that thread then.
Thanks anyway!

[RalphM]

Now that you apparently found your solution take a step back and try to imagine how anybody else with a similar problem will ever find this thread.
Thread titles actually DO matter.

[chumbo]

I totally agree but I really couldn't come up with a good title...what would've you called it? I'll gladly modify it!

[RalphM]

Maybe "Shadow File List", other suggestions welcome.
I made that comment mainly to remind you and maybe others of the difficulty to find threads without a proper subject line.

[chumbo]

Well, oddly enough, it has in fact served someone because in the other thread I was redirected to, which discusses specifically the script mentioned here, I was thanked for this post so...go figure!?

[bdeshi]

Well, oddly enough, it has in fact served someone because in the other thread I was redirected to, which discusses specifically the script mentioned here, I was thanked for this post so...go figure!?

That's probably because that topic floated up in the active topics listing after new activity.
I've edited this topic title, grabbing words from your first post here.

[chumbo]

Sounds good to me