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I want to mirror two folders that are in different computers so changes in one, affect the other.

This needs to be done offline since one of the computers does not have acces to the internet nor LAN.

Also, one of the folders must be a "dummy copy" where all the files are empty because the original folder is too heavy to be fully copied (Many GBs of files)

I have a rough idea on how I could get this but I lack all the necessary steps and software. So far I know how I can do this:

  1. Create a complete copy of the existing folder in the OriginalPC where the copied files will be fake. All copied folder and file names will be the same as in the source but the files will either be empty or they will be filled with spaces. this can be done with FakeTwin

  2. Copy this through a USB to the WorkingPC

  3. Here I would make the modifications I need to do and then to be saved into the USB so this changes can be applied to the OriginalPC

Problem is the software I have found works with 2 full copies while in my case one of them would be a dummy copy.

How could I easily get this?

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  • What kind of files are we talking about? Even spaces do take up space as a side note. I don't really get what you want to archive with your first step. Should that PC be the source of the files (so it contains the original files) or not? If you just need to modify a few files, why not just copy those few files directly?
    – Seth
    Jul 25, 2017 at 8:46
  • @Seth The files are mostly pictures and videos and applying changes to these folders (They are several GBs takes a lot of time in my old PC). Creating a dummy copy would make the process of organising them faster while keeping the same structure and names. Also, it happens that the process of organising can take up to several hours and this can be done only in the secondary PC. The original PC should be accesed only when all the actions are already stored and ready to be applied. Jul 25, 2017 at 9:11
  • So you would be modifying pictures and videos without being able to actually work on them because they would be empty/filled with spaces? What? I really don't see how that setup makes any sense. From what I get about what you want to do, I can't image a software that would do that. You might be able to do the export as per your tool, use git or similar to track the changes (assuming they're only moves) and maybe generate a script based on that.
    – Seth
    Jul 25, 2017 at 9:40
  • @Seth Think that files would not be modified (The content) But only renamed and moved. I have limited acces to the original computer so I just want to dedicate 5 minutes to extract the "dummy" copy from it and then work in the secondary PC all I want. As soon as I feel the dummy copy is properly organised / renamed / sorted, I want to apply this changes to the original copy. Jul 25, 2017 at 10:40
  • @McDonald's The problem is both computers are placed in different physical locations (several kilometers far) and cannot acces to each other in any way except through a USB device. This is why I need some way to track moves / deletions /renames on a dummy copy that can be easily carried in a USB, and then to apply these changes to the original Copy. After reading the documentation of Robocopy I am not sure it can do this Jul 26, 2017 at 8:27

1 Answer 1

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One idea would be to create a batch file with the copy/move/rename commands you want to execute. You could test the file on your twinned copy, and if it works properly, execute it on the original machine folder.

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  • That would be nice and that is what I am ultimately looking for. Problem is there will be thousands of renames of files plus the many moves and merges of folders which can be easily done in Windows Explorer but would be tedious to write a command for each action. Therefore, it would be interesting some program to track these actions and create this batch file automatically while I am performing them so I can easily export this batch file to the original machine. Jul 26, 2017 at 8:31

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