Specially designed for Windows NT. Windows 2000, Windows XP and Windows.NET Server, Ghostfiles has little or no impact on your system while looking for file changes. When a file is changed, Ghostfiles simply applies those changes to the mirrored files.

Ghostfiles can mirror to removable media and across the network (never seen hardware do that!).

Note: Ghostfiles will create destination directories if they don't exist, removes and renames files as they are modified at source.

Features

• Lazy Write feature ensures locked files are copied.
• Now supports mirroring multiple directories.
• Simple to use maintenance functions for managing Ghostfiles settings.
• Mirrors file deletes and renames as well as file creates and updates.
• File mirroring without hardware
• Low system impact
• 100% reliable

When should I use Ghostfiles

• The simplest use of Ghostfiles is a software 'file mirror'. File mirroring can be done by expensive hardware, by with Ghostfiles, mirroring is easy and free.
• Another popular use of Ghostfiles is to track system changes - such as the files installed by an installation program.

Using Ghostfiles

When first run, Ghostfiles appears as an icon in the taskbar:

To view the main screen, right click over the icon to show the application menu:

and select "Open Ghostfiles". To shut down Ghostfiles, select "Exit" from the popup menu or from the main screen.

Ghostfiles settings

Settings are controlled from the Ghostfiles 'Maintain Settings...' menu from popup menu or from the 'File' menu on the main screen. On selecting this menu item the following dialog is displayed.

Using the 'Maintain Setting' dialog you can select source and destination directories for Ghostfiles. The setting also control whether or not sub-directories are scanned and mirrored.

Current settings are shown in the settings drop down list. You can add new settings (to mirror files from one or more directories), edit settings to change the source or destination directories or the sub-directory mirroring flag, or delete previous settings.

In the example shown above, the source directory is set to C:\PROGRAM FILES, the destination directory is set to C:\MIRROR and only the root directory files are replicated (changes to sub-directories are ignored).

Adding a new entry

To add a new entry, press the 'New' button. The 'Add Entry' dialog is shown:

The 'OK' button remains disabled until the new entry name is entered along with a source and destination directory. To add a new entry, choose a name for the entry and use the '...' buttons to choose a source and destination directory. When complete, press the 'OK' button to create the new entry.

On return to the 'Maintain Settings' dialog, the new entry will be added to the list of entries.

Press the 'Cancel' button to discard any changes and return to the 'Maintain Settings' dialog.

Deleting an existing entry

To delete an entry, select the entry from the drop down list and press the 'Delete' key.

Modifying an entry

Notice that whenever you change either the entry name, check or uncheck the sub-directory setting or use the '...' buttons to choose a new source or destination directory, the 'Apply' button is enabled. To save the changes you have made press the 'Apply' button.

If you exit from the dialog without saving changes a message box will prompt you to save the changes. Press 'Yes' to save changes or 'No' to discard any changes.

Lazy Write

Ghostfiles detects changes in the source directories and processes these changes but applying the changes to the destination directory. A small delay naturally exists between noticing the change in the source directory or file and applying that change to the destination. This delay (typically less than 50 milliseconds) acts as a natural 'lazy write'.

You may find that files are often locked by the application changing the file. In such cases, if Ghostfiles fails to access the files once a change has been detected, an error is displayed in the Ghostfiles main window and the change is lost.

Increasing the lazy write period (time between a change being detected and the change being applied to the destination root) can overcome this problem.

To change the lazy write period, select 'Lazy Write...' from the main menu or popup menu. The following dialog is displayed:

To change the period, enter an new value in the 'Period' entry field and press the 'OK' button. Note that the change takes effect immediately and applies to all Ghostfiles entries.

Before making a change to the lazy write period, ensure you take notice of the warning displayed.