How to move synced files to a hard drive, and also keep their modification dates?

[Graphicus44]

I have 7TB of files on an external hard drive that is sync'd to Dropbox. This drive is getting old (6years) and starting to make noise. So I bought a 8TB SSD drive and attempted to move the files over but I'm having a lot of issues. After copying all the data over I didn't realize that although the individual file modification dates stayed the same, all the folders have a new date which completely messes up my way of working (long story). And since I sync'd up Dropbox online (after copying my data to the new drive) the online version of my files now has those same (newer) folder modification dates. Here's my questions....

1. Is there a better way to dupe the original disk to the new one so that ALL the dates remain unchanged (perhaps a drive cloning software)?

2. Probably more important, if I can rectify #1 above OR go back to using the original drive, what would be the process to establish all the original dates on the online Dropbox version...I"m assuming a complete deletion of all online files and a new sync of my local files??

[Здравко]

Hi @Graphicus44,

There are some... strange things in your description:

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@Graphicus44 wrote:

... And since I sync'd up Dropbox online (after copying my data to the new drive) the online version of my files now has those same (newer) folder modification dates. ...

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If no any new folder or file comes there, nothing's gonna sync! Can you clarify, what exactly you synced at all?

You have your first question answered yourself, so what is you asking for actually?

On the second question, there is a imperfection in Dropbox application (not to say a bug) that you may benefit of. The application doesn't sync any folder's times/dates, except the first time when folder uploads. So, you have to clarify to yourself where the changes you talk about comes from and just avoid them. That's it.

Good luck.

PS: If needed relax a bit, and continue after that in consistent way. 😉