File timestamp discrepancies after TC file copy/synchronize

[HuSc]

Hi,

recently, after TC file copy/synchronize actions, I noticed timestamp discrepancies at various files on my USB sticks. Offsets of 1-2 seconds, compared to their corresponding original files on the harddisk, from where these files were copied before with TC.

This effect becomes clearly noticeable when sorting my files by date instead of name. Because only few sporadic files are affected, this totally screws up their correct (i.e. the expected) display order. It makes working with both panels unclear, inconvenient and prone to errors.

I can reproduce this effect with TC8.51a (32 and 64bit) on different independent configurations. (E.g. on XP-SP3-32bit and on Win7-SP1-64bit machines, with and w/o their different antivir applications enabled/disabled and with different USB sticks.)

I first had assumed an interfering antivir program together with slow writing to an USB stick as possible cause, which I could already exclude.

So I searched this forum and found the possible cause:
The FAT32 file time granularity is 2 seconds, compared to NTFS format with its much finer file time granularity. -- This fits to my observations, because the affected USB sticks use FAT32 format, whereas my internal and the external USB harddisks are all NTFS formatted. I hadn´t noticed this USB timestamp issue before, possibly due to using different (much larger) NTFS-formatted USB sticks then.


My PROBLEM now is as follows:
To equalize those files' timestamp value with their original counterpart, I tried to clean up this mess with TC's "Synchronize Dirs" and "copy file properties (date+time)" for all affected USB-stick files. This worked at most files, but not for each! Sporadically some files on the stick obtain this small unwanted time offset, which a subsequent TC "file compare/sync" doesn´t report as a difference.

I really had expected that TC would SYNC/transfer the original displayed(!) timestamp values for all target files.


QUESTIONS:
- Is there a TC command/worflow to adjust all my USB located target files' timestamps to fit exactly to the displayed timestamps of their original files?
- How can TC copy unchanged timestamps (of the original files) already when copying/synchronizing files and directories?


Many thanks for helpful hints.
Hubert

[karlchen]

Hello, HuSC.

The filesystem on the internal disk will be NTFS. NTFS timestamps have got a granularity of 1 second.
The filesystem on the external USB pendrives will be FAT32. FAT32 timestamps have got a granularity of 2 seconds.

Could this be reason?

Cheers,
Karl

[HuSc]

Hi Karl,

thanks fo the confirmation.

This FAT32 2-seconds granularity (system limitation) seems indeed to be the main reason. Nothing to blame TC for.

I just checked several file timestamps on such a (FAT32 formatted) USB stick:
All showed EVEN seconds (02, 04, 06, ...), none had an odd value. -- As a quick test, I manually adjusted such a file timestamp in TC to an odd value. It got automatically set (rounded) to the next even value on the stick.

As solution, I will consider only NTFS formatted sticks now, to transfer those files.


Cheers
Hubert

[Hacker]

[mod]Moved to the English forum.

Hacker (Moderator)[/mod]

[Froll]

Dear support colleagues, please forgive me this disruption - I have question regarding copy/sync actions routine.

I am very accurate person, so I made my backups very scrupulously with a "sync" tool.

The "sync" tool works great, but there is one thing I am concerned about.

The target directory timestamp always differs from source's.

I have figured out that this is standard behaviour for Windows to create new directories, but could TC correct this?
I would like to get my backups equals to their source in all aspects, including directory timestamp.

[Gral]

Add
CopyDirTimeStamp=1
under [Configuration] section of your main INI file (check its location: Help - About).

[Froll]

Thank you!

Could this trick be applied to existing directories while syncing?

[Froll]

Hmm.
I have added "CopyDirTimeStamp=1" to [Configuration] section of my main INI file and restart the program, seems to have no effect.
TC 7.56a.

[ghisler(Author)]

CopyDirTimeStamp is not used in the sync function, just the normal copy function.

[Dalai]

To add to this: The timestamp can be copied in the sync dialog manually using right-click "Copy file properties (left to right)" (or right to left).

Regards
Dalai