bsmith52 Loc: Northeast Alabama

Looking for a shortcut from having to create files, subfolders, and drag and drop photos from hard drive to external drive.

Do any of you use a software that you can point to a folder on your hard drive and then it will create (mirror) the folder plus copy the contents to your external without altering your C: drive folder(s)?

Open source would be fine. Thanks

Longshadow Loc: Audubon, PA, United States

On what operating system?
Windows will let you copy a folder and all of the sub-folders and their contents to another drive. (Use copy, not move.)

rwilson1942 Loc: Houston, TX

If you are backing up the same folder(s)each time something like Microsoft Sync Toy (free) works well. It handles new subfolders as well. I use it to back up my folder where my images and all Lightroom information is stored. It only does new stuff to it's pretty quick.
If you are dealing with different folders every time time, I am not aware of software that will automatically do that. As Longshadow said, in Windows it's easy to do with File Explorer and Copy. I'm sure something similar is avail able for Mac.

Capture48 Loc: Arizona

Sounds to me like you don't quite get the idea of copying yet. The way you're doing it is equivalent to typing a letter, then putting in another piece of paper and typing the same letter again. This is why carbon paper was invented!

Shellback Loc: North of Cheyenne Bottoms Wetlands - Kansas

I use SyncBack by 2BrightSparks: http://www.2brightsparks.com/freeware/freeware-hub.html

I mirror / backup / sync my drive to various other drives and have the ability to use FTP for online storage.

It is easy to use and set up -

Jrhoffman75 Loc: Conway, New Hampshire

MirrorFolder does that.

Bobbee

bsmith52 Loc: Northeast Alabama

I am using win10. Thanks for the suggestions. Will look at all of them. I'm pretty windows literate and all those are new to me, but love to learn.

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

And Carbonite. :D

jerryc41 Loc: Catskill Mts of NY

Yes, very good program. I use "mirror" for backing up and "backup" when I want to copy a folder from an external backup to a computer.

bsmith52 Loc: Northeast Alabama

File explorer/copy is what I am doing now and was trying to find something safe that would mirror in the background what I do on my main drive to my external.

I tried freefilesync and it worked fine but kept getting warnings from my security software so I wanted an alternative. Thanks.

johnmac78 Loc: Massachusetts

I second SyncBack. They have both free and paid versions, it works great. You can set it up to do auto backups on a schedule or just do it manually if that is what you want.

Kuzano

No need to find anything else other than a function included in all versions of Windows going back in time.

Simply use the "SEND TO" function listed in the context menu when you right click on the folder you want to copy to the external drive.

First, FORGET drag and drop... this works much better, is safer, and menu driven. Ever had your finger slip off the mouse button doing a D&D?

First, make sure your external drive is hooked up, or it will not show in these instructions. This works in Windows 10 exactly as it has for most previous versions of Windows.

Navigate to the folder you want to copy in File Explorer. (Can be done at folder level or file level, including batching.)
Right click once on the folder
In the context menu, left click on Send To. (2/3 down list)
In the next menu, locate your external drive
Left click on the drive
A copy of the folder will be sent to the root of the external drive.
You may move it from there to another location on the external drive, OR..Bonus Tip:
It's possible to add new targets, ie folders and such to the Send To menu

This is a function that has been in Windows since every version of Windows since Win95. No cost, it's just one of the many wonders of Microsoft Windows.

Another BONUS TIP:
You can also make the copy be a "Move" instead by holding down the shift key on the keyboard as you click the target on the Send To folder.

So, bottom line, what you are looking for is already in Windows
It can be used to copy OR move (using shift) a folder, a folder and all it's contents or a lone file, or a batch of files by range or by random selection.
The search is over.

Teaching Windows for over twenty years reveals a lot about how well it's been built and configured.

For "mirroring" I use TruImage by Acronis. What you described however is not truly mirroring, as most know it. I mirror drives... not files and folders.