Sync One hdd to another

Just want to sync one hdd to another using network. Both Running Win 11. Easier to sync Hdd than individual folders. Any help greatly appreciated.

Edition: Windows 11 Pro
Version: 25H2
Installed: 10/19/2024
OS build: 26200.8894

Well, here's ten points just for filling out your computer specs.

I'm network challenged so someone else will have to help with your query.

If you just want to write one drive's contents onto another, you can use Robocopy. Assuming you have a local drive (L:) and a remote drive (R:), you would use

robocopy.exe L:\ R:\ /MIR /R:2 /W:10

That will delete whatever is on R:, so don't do that if that's not desired. We can give you other options if that's the case.

Beyond that, a lot of folks around here seem to like FreeFileSync.

pseymour said:

Beyond that, a lot of folks around here seem to like FreeFileSync.

Click to expand...

To add to that sentence.

I like FreeFileSync as it is a cross platform software.. so it works on Windows, MacOS and Linux.

I also like the function of choice of oneway / twoway sync.. or just to compare without syncing.
This last one is gold if you have old backup/archive disks you never really touch.. as you can use that compare function to run on two identical drives to detect bit-rot, as file-size always to 99.99% changes if so.

I also like you can set it to keep duplicates.. so it saves one or several older versions if you have changed the content in a document.
Say you delete something in a document.. three days later you discover you deleted the wrong section in the document.. then you still have the older version on the other drive.

I use this one from my computers to my network drives i have on my server.. and also from my server down to external disks for offline backup.

Basically what I'm trying to do is sync my external HD which is upstairs on my primary computer which houses all my programs data, copies of my programs that I download, my password safe, pictures, etc to my external HD on my Laptop. There are things I can do upstairs that I can't do on this laptop. One reason why is because my legs and knees. I have a hard time navigating going upstairs. My primay computer is a tower and heavy a blazes. There is no way can I carry it down the stairs and my rooms down stairs will not accomodate all the stuff I have to run that computer. I'm also in the process of of getting a quote on a new laptop I want to build. This laptop is 5 years old and can't run the programs I usually run. Just trying to keep things together Till I can get my new laptop

Since you have the Pro edition of Windows, I think I would look into using Remote Desktop to log into the upstairs computer from the laptop. You might be able to avoid syncing altogether. Just another option to throw out there.

Another vote for FreeFileSync. It some capabilities that are just unmatched. Here is just one example:

Say you move a large file like a Windows ISO to another location. Or say you simply rename that file. If you are syncing with Robocopy it has no idea that this file was moved or renamed so when it does the sync it has to move that file to the destination all over again. With FreeFileSync it KNOWS what happened to that file. As a result, all it has to do is move or rename the file on the destination which takes a fraction of a second.

Plus, you can convert a job into a batch file and schedule it to run at set times.

I use it to sync between about 5 machines here, so every machine always has the latest version of files. Oh, I should note that I am syncing about 250GB of data between all these machines. Takes less than a minute a day to sync them all.