managing backup copies of video files

[tuquoquefili]

Hello everybody, I'm new and quite interested by this astonishing software.

I don't know if what I'm about to explain will make sense because my english is quite poor.

I have a huge (and i mean HUGE) mkv collection.

If one of my hard-disks crasches (it happened once) I could lose up to 1500 films, so I have to manage backups on others disks that are not always the same size.
 
It would be nice to be able to check if each file has a backup copy, and when adding or deleting a file to be asked if a backup file should be added or deleted too. Or when replacing an avi file with an mkv one (for example), being able to keep the info and to swap only the files and the backups. Of course the software has each time to check if there is enough room on the disk, to store for each movie the path of the backup folder ...

For the moment I use a self-made "program" using excel vba which retrieves data from the french database Allociné (which provides a very convenient API) and I have implemented those functions. But the whole is very slow and on the contrary PVD is quite impressive with features I couldn't dream to achieve by myself.

So thanks in advance for considering this suggestion for a future version.

PS : If interested I can provide some info on the allociné API which, if integrated would certainly make this program useful for lots of french users.

[rick.ca]

Welcome to the forum.

To be effective, backup needs to be maintained automatically. This not only protects you from forgetting to backup. If you accidentally delete a video, or overwrite a good version with a corrupt one, you can recover the file from backup. There are a number of good freeware backup utilities available, like Cobian Backup. An application like PVD is not capable of providing the same functionality as these utilities.

[tuquoquefili]

Thanks very much.

I don't know this one (Cobian Backup). In fact I don't need backup to be maintained automatically (don't need backup for all files) and I need backup to be erased when I erase a File, or to be replaced by a new one when I replace a file of the same name (but different extension avi -> mkv) by another one.
I'll give a try anyway, may be It will do the trick one way or another.
Thanks again.

[wms]

Thanks very much.

I don't know this one (Cobian Backup). In fact I don't need backup to be maintained automatically (don't need backup for all files) and I need backup to be erased when I erase a File, or to be replaced by a new one when I replace a file of the same name (but different extension avi -> mkv) by another one.
I'll give a try anyway, may be It will do the trick one way or another.
Thanks again.

sounds like you need only to mirror some of your videofolders. there are some good backup-tools, which can be configured "how" to backup your files.
the only small bitter pill is, when you replace for example an *.avi with *.mkv, you have to change the path to the file manually.

this would be the only improvement in PVD i can think of -> if you click on "Scan folders for new movies/changed path" PVD would search "clever" and replace the extension if changed (if the former file doesn't exists and the "new" file has exactly the same filename without extension).

greets
wms

(sorry for bad english, bit late today  )

[rick.ca]

this would be the only improvement in PVD i can think of -> if you click on "Scan folders for new movies/changed path" PVD would search "clever" and replace the extension if changed

I don't think PVD should attempt to be a file manager any more than it should be a backup utility. Use a file manager to add a new file and delete an old one. Run PVD's file scan to update the change. Let your backup retain a copy of the old file until you're sure it's not needed.

[tuquoquefili]

After trying a few softwares this one ( http://synkron.sourceforge.net/) does most of what I need (erases files too and does an analisys showing what is about to be done before doing it).
As PVD can delete files and it's easy to replace one by simply changing its url, "mixing" the two software seems to cover for now most situations I might encounter.
Thanks again.