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How do I "sync" hard drives / copy files from one drive to another without duplicating them?

Hi, Is there a way to sync to hard drives? I'd like keep the same data on two hard drives (one as a backup), perhaps by coping files from one hard drive to another without duplicating them.


Background:

I shoot a lot of photos and store them on an external hard drive that I travel with. I keep a second hard drive at home with the same files. (I intentionally do not use Time Machine, in part, because the images are linked to a Lightroom catalog.)


I copy the files from one drive to the other every week or so. Lately, I've had to manually select the folders to copy. The problem with this: It leaves room for me to miss copying some folders.


In the past, I was able to drag and drop entire folders. Finder would then offer to only copy the new files. I'm not sure if something in MacOS changed or if I just forgot how to do this. Is there a way to do this?


Or is there another method to sync hard drives without re-writing all of the information, which would take hours?

MacBook Pro 13″, macOS 10.14

Posted on Jun 15, 2020 9:09 AM

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Posted on Jun 15, 2020 9:42 AM

Either learn how to use rsync in the terminal, or use a ready-made sync utility like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper. There are quite a few other tools that are designed around syncing folders, too.


Folder merging hasn't really changed, but it is difficult to get correct, and it only works one folder deep. Any subfolders are just replaced, not merged.

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Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Jun 15, 2020 9:42 AM in response to helloandyhihi

Either learn how to use rsync in the terminal, or use a ready-made sync utility like Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper. There are quite a few other tools that are designed around syncing folders, too.


Folder merging hasn't really changed, but it is difficult to get correct, and it only works one folder deep. Any subfolders are just replaced, not merged.

How do I "sync" hard drives / copy files from one drive to another without duplicating them?

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