Hello to everyone here. I have been using FFS for a while now and decided to try it at home for some backups. My 1TB target drive already had about 260GB of data on it all stored in a folder. The empty space on the drive was intended to be used for backup. After running the backup aimed at the root of the target drive, my 260GB of data is gone!!!
What happened?
I'm completely shocked to have this happen. The 260GB of data was important to me and I hope it can somehow be recovered.
Please give me some insight.
Thank you,
T
Files on targe drive deleted after trying to sync from other drive
- Posts: 3
- Joined: 1 Apr 2013
- Posts: 3
- Joined: 1 Apr 2013
I ran GetDataBack on the drive and the folder with all my files are completely empty, probably overwritten by new data during the file sync. I'm still trying to understand why my files were deleted in the first place.
Does anyone have any idea what may have happened?
Thanks,
T
Does anyone have any idea what may have happened?
Thanks,
T
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- Posts: 2299
- Joined: 22 Aug 2012
It depends on what synchronization method you choose.
1) A two way synchronization will make your folders identical. (left-to-right + right-to-left)
2) If you opt for a mirror synchronization, the application will make the folder on the right identical to the one on the left, even if it has to erase one or more files.
3) With the Update method selected, FreeFileSync will copy new or modified files from left to right.
It sounds like you used the "mirror" option.
This means, that, next to copying everything from the source to the target (if not already there), everything that is on the target but not on the source will be removed.
If you mirror to the root of the target, anything already on the target that is not in the source will be removed.
It sounds like like you will need to use the "update" method (which will however also "leave" files in the target's "synced" part that have been removed from the source.
Or you need to make a (sub)folder in the target's root and "mirror" to that (sub)folder.
Plerry
1) A two way synchronization will make your folders identical. (left-to-right + right-to-left)
2) If you opt for a mirror synchronization, the application will make the folder on the right identical to the one on the left, even if it has to erase one or more files.
3) With the Update method selected, FreeFileSync will copy new or modified files from left to right.
It sounds like you used the "mirror" option.
This means, that, next to copying everything from the source to the target (if not already there), everything that is on the target but not on the source will be removed.
If you mirror to the root of the target, anything already on the target that is not in the source will be removed.
It sounds like like you will need to use the "update" method (which will however also "leave" files in the target's "synced" part that have been removed from the source.
Or you need to make a (sub)folder in the target's root and "mirror" to that (sub)folder.
Plerry
- Posts: 3
- Joined: 1 Apr 2013
Ah yes!! Thank you Plerry for the response, I rushed to do the backup and left it as mirror!! I take it my files are gone? :-(
So if I had made a subfolder in the target, even with the mirror setting, my data would have stayed in tact?
Thanks again Plerry for clearing that up for me.
T
So if I had made a subfolder in the target, even with the mirror setting, my data would have stayed in tact?
Thanks again Plerry for clearing that up for me.
T
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- Posts: 2299
- Joined: 22 Aug 2012
"So if I had made a subfolder in the target, even with the mirror setting, my data would have stayed in tact?"
To be more precise: If you had used a (sub)folder of the target drive as the sync-target,
you could have used "mirror" without loosing your data in other (sub)folders than your sync-target (sub)folder on that drive.
And, yes, I suppose your files are gone ... :-( ... if you have no backup elsewhere.
Plerry
To be more precise: If you had used a (sub)folder of the target drive as the sync-target,
you could have used "mirror" without loosing your data in other (sub)folders than your sync-target (sub)folder on that drive.
And, yes, I suppose your files are gone ... :-( ... if you have no backup elsewhere.
Plerry
