Drag and drop files to external drive

This morning I have been doing backups of my documents folder to my expansion drive. I do know about Time Machine but this is how I have done it for years and I don't want to change.

In Windows 7, when I drag and drop files from computer to external hard drive, a dialogue box will appear if there is already a file with the same name. It will also give information as to whether the file you are trying to copy is older or newer (it has all the information on including when it was last updated). This is handy because I want to copy and replace some of the files but not others. I have Paragon NTFS for Mac and was doing this job this morning but found that although the Mac does alert you if there is a file with the same name, it doesn't give you the depth of information that Windows offers.

Please can someone tell me if this is quite normal for Mac and if so, is there any way it can be tweaked so that I can have more information as in W7 in order to make an informed decision about what needs to be replaced and what doesn't? If not, I will just have to do the job with Windows.

That is normal for OS X. What you can do is to open two instances of Finder, with one window open to your source and the other to the destination. Now you can see before you drag and drop which file is older and which is newer.

A second way is to answer the question with "Keep both." In that case OS X will append number behind the new one to differentiate it from the original. So, "file.txt" will become "file (1).txt" and the original "file.txt" maintained. Then you can go back to the backup later and delete the one you don't want.

OS X normally does prompt you if the replacement file is older or newer, although in the little bit of testing I just did, that apparently is not universally true. It did prompt me on a text document that I modified, then tried to replace over the original, but doing the same on a media file didn't alert me that one was older than the other. I am dumbfounded as to why this is.

You may be better off using dedicated file syncing software. FoldersSynchronizer is one that I'm familiar with and is really good but takes some time to fully understand how it works. The price is a bit steep, but I got my license via a MacUpdate bundle some time back.

Thank you for replying. I thought that maybe it was just something that couldn't be achieved. I have the two computers synched so I will continue to copy the documents from my Windows 7 laptop and forget doing it on the Mac.

Forty years ago I owned an Austin-Healey sports car that I had rebuilt from the ground up. I was so in tune with the engine that I could hear when the twin SU Carbs started to get out of sync, pull over, pop open the bonnet, jam my head down between the carbs and sync them by just the sound of the air rushing through them. Five minutes total, max.

Last Spring I rented a Mercedes-Benz that when I put the key fob in the key slot, the engine didn't start until I put it in gear and took my foot off the brake. Every time I stopped at a traffic light, the engine would cut off, only to restart as soon as I released the brake and before I could get my foot to the accelerator.

Why this little trip into automotive prehistory and this year's update? Just to say that while I enjoyed maintaining that A-H, the functionality of the Benz was infinitely better. And since I wanted to get from point A to point B, the Benz was actually better at it. Same thing applies to computers. In the beginnings, we, the users, had to do things FOR the computer, like worry about backups and which file to replace. Now there are tools to do that scutwork, and they do it much better than we can ever do. You said you know about Time Machine, but don't want to work with it. That's much like me saying I know how the Benz works, but I'm going to keep the engine running by holding the handbrake and releasing the footbrake, just to get the engine running. Yeah, I CAN do that, but why? If you don't like how TM works, look into Carbon Copy Cloner, or Super Duper!, or Chronosync or any of the other backup/file sync tools available to you. That way you can spend your time having the computer do something for YOU, instead of YOU doing something FOR the computer. It is, after all, the 21st century. Just my 2¢.

I bought a new external hard drive and have used Time Machine. We all have different ways of working on our computers and whilst I understand your analogy, this is my preferred way. I have had to make quite a few changes since switching to the Mac and it has been a learning curve. Sometimes I find I cannot be bothered with making any more adjustments, probably because I am getting too old for it. I know that there are things that I do which (for me) are much easier and straightforward on Windows than on the Mac. Although the Macbook is nice, I could live without it but I couldn't manage without Windows.

This requirement referred to is so very basic and when you have spent well over £1,000 for a computer you don't expect to find it lacking. There is nothing wrong with sticking to procedures that you are comfortable with.

pbd said:

I bought a new external hard drive and have used Time Machine. We all have different ways of working on our computers and whilst I understand your analogy, this is my preferred way. I have had to make quite a few changes since switching to the Mac and it has been a learning curve. Sometimes I find I cannot be bothered with making any more adjustments, probably because I am getting too old for it. I know that there are things that I do which (for me) are much easier and straightforward on Windows than on the Mac. Although the Macbook is nice, I could live without it but I couldn't manage without Windows.

This requirement referred to is so very basic and when you have spent well over £1,000 for a computer you don't expect to find it lacking. There is nothing wrong with sticking to procedures that you are comfortable with.

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There is nothing wrong with sticking with what you know. But step back and take a look at your approach. You are micro-managing your tasks while the rest of us are just letting the software do the work (either automatically or via "rules" that we custom set in software that allow for it). I can't even fathom spending all that time manually cherry picking what to backup based on certain criteria when I can tell my syncing software to do that for me. Food for thought...