Backing up file metadata?

[Megalith]

My problem with backing up files in the cloud is that most of your metadata is lost. This would include information such as the creation dates of files. Is there any way to scan a directory and make a copy of each file's unique metadata, and re-apply them to any files that are restored from the cloud?

 

[FnordMan]

My problem with backing up files in the cloud is that most of your metadata is lost. This would include information such as the creation dates of files. Is there any way to scan a directory and make a copy of each file's unique metadata, and re-apply them to any files that are restored from the cloud?

Only way I know of would be to use an archive format that preserves that information. I think 7-zip can to it's 7z format but i'm not 100% sure there.

 

[eagleknight]

PowerShell could be used to pull the information off fairly easily and build a database. You would then need a key to re-apply, but you could build hashes from each file using PowerShell and use that as the key to then verify later.
Below are some links showing some quick scripts to pull and set file creation dates.


How Can I Use Windows PowerShell to Report Back the Name and Creation Date for Files Containing a Specified String Value?

Use PowerShell to Modify File Access Time Stamps

 

[Snowknight26]

Creation times aren't the only metadata fields (assuming NTFS). Others include file attributes (hidden, system, compressed, etc.), other timestamps (modified, accessed, changed), NTFS ACLs, owner info, auditing info, etc.

 

[eagleknight]

Here is another link for working with file attributes. You are asking for some very specific things so I can't one quick answer that would do everything. If that archiving won't work I think PowerShell would be your next best thing because PowerShell can pull any attribute that you can see on the file. Re-applying is where is gets tricky. Some things can be set by already built cmdlets in PowerShell, but others get more complicated.

Use a PowerShell Cmdlet to Work with File Attributes