Minimalistic backup utility based on raw Windows API and custom standard libraries optimised for Windows. It has no bloat, only does what it needs to do - mirrors the content of SRC (source) folder/drive into DST (destination) folder/drive. Better robocopy with full hard link support and timestamps preservation.
To start the mirroring process, just pass SRC and DST as a command line parameters like this, with no trailing slashes:
dmirror [SRC] [DST]
Then, follow the instructions and confirm the beginning of the process.
[WARNING] Files that are not present in SRC are deleted from DST! Make sure you select the correct destination!
For example, to mirror local disk D:\ into external HDD F:\:
dmirror D: F:
To mirror directory structure rooted at C:\Users\foo\Documents into D:\Backup\Documents:
dmirror C:\Users\foo\Documents D:\Backup\Documents
Note: use quotes "D I R" if DIR path contains spaces.
At the present moment this program is in the state of beta version. It does most of the important stuff, while missing some minor features. Currently implemented features are:
- Full hard link support; detection of all hard link groups in the file system and recreation of the groups in
DST - Preservation of all symbolic links
- Fast file system scanning (241980 files in 2.5 seconds, single core)
- Preservation of the original file's create/modify/access timestamps
- Preservation of all directories' attributes
- Removal of files in
DSTthat are not present inSRC - Updating modified files (modify date and/or size does not match
SRCfile) - Skipping unchanged files
- Separate progress bars for total files and current file transfer
- Skipping small files' progress bar display, for decreased interface overhead
- Transfer speed display in
KB/s
Eventually, if I'll be able to fish out any time, I plan to implement this features:
- Removal of dangling empty directories from
DST - Recreation of empty directories present inside
SRCinDST - Preservation of create/modify/access timestamps for all directories
- Average transfer speed calculation
- Accurate remaining time estimation
- "Quiet" mode with no pauses or confirmations (very dangerous!)
- Display of the currently transferring BIG FILE's name
- Ability to pause the mirroring process, and resume it later
- Support for full live system drive mirroring
In my first full scale test this program was able to fully clone my internal non-system D:\ 931.3 GB SSD drive into external USB 2.0 931.3 GB HDD F:\ drive in 7 hours 8 minutes and 36 seconds (not counting the file system preprocessing time). The actual amount of data on D:\ drive was 758 GB. It contained 241979 files (most of them where "localised" websites and photo/video archive). There was no errors or crushes during the whole execution time. Total RAM used was no more than 56 MB. Based on this test, I can make an assumption that this program is pretty dam stable!
Note: the difference in file count is caused by screenshots that I took after the mirroring started. This screenshots was not scanned initially, so wasn't included in the mirror.
Just double-click the msvc_build.cmd file. Yep. As easy as this. Well, that is, if you have your Visual Studio installed, of course. And if your VS vcvars64.bat file is located at this path:
set "bat_dir=C:\Program Files\Microsoft Visual Studio\2022\Community\VC\Auxiliary\Build\vcvars64.bat"
If not, first of all, make sure the Visual Studio is installed. In the setup wizard you will see a huge list of useless features and bloat. Only the C++ build tools are actually needed. Switch to Individual components and try to find this in the humongous list:
MSVC vXXX - VS 202X C++ x64/x86 build tools (Latest)
After this you will have to merely locate the vcvars64.bat file and copy-paste the path to it into msvc_build.cmd. Then just launch it and wait until it does all the job for you. Yes, you don't even need to install or open the Visual Studio IDE itself. Ever.