I live in a rural area with slow internet so I had my trusted computer tech, who lives in the city and has fibre, synch my iCloud drive to my Windows 11 laptop, and, from there, copy 250 GB of my iCloud data to an external drive. My goal is to remove the 250 GB of data from my iCloud account.
He told me that all the copying to the external hard drive went well except for any Google created files (docs, sheets, slide shows). They would not copy to the external hard drive. He had to keep clicking’Skip this file’. Unfortunately he didn’t keep track of how many or there paths (lots of sub folders).
Can I write a power shell script that recognizes some file attribute that identifies a file as a Google product? And then generates a log containing the path and name for each of those files?
On Windows 10, I use FreeFileSync to backup files from my Samsung SSD to Samsung FIT Plus flash drives. I enable optional file verification, so each file is checked for integrity after backup.
FFS creates a log file where any errors are reported.
I also use TeraCopy to copy files, with file verification enabled. I enable SHA256 hash verification. So, it verifies the hash value for each file for integrity, and it creates a log file to report success and errors.
What software is being used to copy files to the external drive?
Doesn’t it create a log file to report problems?
I’m pretty sure he just dragged the folder to the external drive and chose ‘copy here’. I suggested he could try make a copy to the laptop’s internal hard drive (duplicate the folder). But I’ll also suggest your idea. That’s a lot easier than creating a script!
Yes, Windows copy and paste does not do a file verify after the copy and does not create a log.
With TeraCopy, I enable file verification in the settings, and select SHA256 hash values.
I set it to beep when the job is completed. Then, I check the log for any errors.
With TeraCopy, you can select a folder and have it create a .sha256 file that contains the file names and hash values for every file in the folder and sub-folders.
I save the .sha256 file in the folder.
At any time, you can do a file hash verify by simply clicking on the .sha256 file.
This is useful for archived files. You can check file integrity once a year to make sure there is no file corruption.
Windows also has a tool built in, RoboCopy. It’s command line only though. It has lots of options for logging and has a backup option you may want to use. It also has a means to restart a copy that gets interrupted.
That would be logical. But since no log file was created, I don’t know exactly what files refused to copy. Since the iCloud files are now synced to my laptop, I can run one of the backup programs myself since I won’t need fast internet to backup the files from my laptop. Then I’ll be able to see exactly what’s going on.
You can use FreeFileSync to do an automated verified backup to a Samsung FIT Plus 256 GB flash drive every n hours. It will detect any new or revised files and make a backup.
If you need more storage, they also have a 512 GB model.
FIT Plus flash drives have a 5-year warranty and are waterproof, temperature proof, shock proof, magnet proof and X-ray proof.
I am de-Googled, and do not use Google Chrome, Search, Workspace, Drive, Authenticator, or Maps.
I have an old legacy Gmail account only used for junk mail and newsletters, nothing important.
I found FOSS alternatives to Google and Microsoft products and services, and pay only $3.50/mo for a Proton Mail Plus account with 10 email aliases.