Months ago, I did backup a very large disk of my PC (E:\) to multiple smaller disks connected one after one, using a e-sata cradle (G:\).
Recently one of those small backup disk started to experience NTFS Errors and I did lost its content. To avoid restarting a complete backup of E:\, I had to find which data were lost to redo a backup of those only.
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First, I did recreate the complete folder structure (i.e.: without the files) of the remaining backup disks in one folder of my PC (C:\Temp\Backups). I did reconnect the disks one after one via the e-sata Cradle and did execute each time the following command in a MS-DOS console:
[powershell gutter=”true”] MkDir C:\Temp\BackupsXCopy G:\ C:\Temp\Backups /T /E[/powershell]
More details typing “XCopy /?” in your console:
/T Creates directory structure, but does not copy files. Does not include empty directories or subdirectories. /T /E includes empty directories and subdirectories.
The result was 22.036 folders – 0 bytes.
Notice that the target folder (C:\Temp\Backups) must exists !
Next, using BeyondCompare, I did a “Folder Compare” between “C:\Temp\Backups” and “E:\”.
I did first select the option to see only the orphans, via the menu “View/Show Orphans“.
And I did next add a “Filter” to “Exclude files” with a name “*.*”, via the “glasses” icon (i.e.: I did exclude all the files – in order to only compare the directory structure and backup the missing ones. Otherwise, no folder in C:\Temp\Backups would have appeared as orphans as they are all empty while their equivalent folders on E:\ have content).
Finally, in BeyondCompare, I did select all the orphan folders on E:\ and used the contextual menu “Copy To Folder…“. In the “Action” field of the “Copy to Folder” dialog box, I did pick G:\ as a destination folder.
Et voilà.
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