How can I save a file to two locations at the same time?

25,993

Windows 8 has a built-in file cloning mechanism called 'File History'. When enabled, you can allow it to backup (or in your case, double-save) the files from a specific folder to your USB drive.

This can be accessed by going to Control Panel -> System and Security -> File History

You should have an option prompting you to enable File History.

From this menu, you can add any form of external storage to be used as a backup drive. You would select your USB drive.

After this, it will start copying the files from your Documents folder. To change this, go to 'Exclude Folders', where you're able to select which folders get backed up.

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The backups are done almost instantaneously. Also, if you don't have your USB drive inserted while changing the files, when the drive is re-inserted, Windows will copy the files over.

Important note File History will make a backup of every version of a file you make, which means if you were to save a file three times, it will appear three times on your USB. There is an option in File History which allows you to automatically delete these after a certain amount of time however.

25,993

michaelpri

If you need to reach me, ping me, @michaelpri, in The Junk Drawer (Lifehacks SE's chatroom) or The Waiting Room (Health SE's chatroom).

Updated on September 18, 2022

Comments

michaelpri almost 2 years

I have a lot of files that I create on my Windows 8 computer and save in my files, but I want to save them to my USB flash drive too. I usually just save the file in my computer and then save it again on my flash drive, but this is really inconvenient. Is there any way I can set it up so the files save to both locations at the same time? The files are mostly .html, .js, .css, and .py files, but there will be some .docx and .txt files.
- Xen2050 over 9 years
  
  how about a custom right-click "send to both" actions? like a script with 2 "copy" commands
- Tyson over 9 years
  
  I used to Have a Sublime Text 2 plugin that I think was called "Multi-path Save As", but I just looked around github and I'm not finding. I stopped using sometime ago because I switched to a synched folder in the cloud.
- Engineer Toast almost 7 years
  
  Do you leave the USB drive plugged in all the time or do you ever edit the files w/o the USB drive there?