Appending files to an existing directory rather than replacing.....

I am a recent 'SWITCH' user, having fought my way through many reincarnations of that other OS flavour, much to my emotional discomfort.
One thing I have noticed (and annoys me a little) is that when you copy a directory in OSX to a different location, it looks for duplicates at a 'directory level' rather than a 'file level'.
eg If I have a directory on another HDD called My Music containing files Song 1 and Song 2 and I wish to transfer a second directory called My Music containing files Song A and Song B and Song 1.
In Mac OSX, I get a warning saying the HDD already contains the Directory "My Music" do I want to replace?.....if you do, it does just that and copies over the original files....output "Song A, Song B and Song 1"....an exact replacement.
In the other OS, you would get the message that the Directory already contains "Song 1", do I want to replace.......if I answer yes, the version is replaced but all other files are appended to that directory and output would be "new Song 1, Song 2, Song A and Song B".
I know that it can be done in OSX like the 'other OS' because I have a small cataloging program that seems to be able to append......is there a simple key-press combination when selecting the files that changes this or a register /preference change that could fix this for me? Would prefer to transfer and dump manually rather than have the OS decide for me!!
Still have to use the other OS and find this the most infuriating difference between the two flavours of OS (ie Lost data in file transfer operations in OSX!!). You could argue that I need to retrain myself to think differently, but I find this the most difficult thing to get into my head!!
Thanks...is probably the most basic operation to fix, but please go easy on a 'switching newbie!". Please chuckle silently to yourself!!!
Thanks
Gareth

Hi Gareth.
You wrote: "In Mac OSX, I get a warning saying the HDD already contains the Directory "My Music" do I want to replace?.....if you do, it does just that and copies over the original files....output "Song A, Song B and Song 1"....an exact replacement.
In the other OS, you would get the message that the Directory already contains "Song 1", do I want to replace.......if I answer yes, the version is replaced but all other files are appended to that directory and output would be "new Song 1, Song 2, Song A and Song B".
I know that it can be done in OSX like the 'other OS' because I have a small cataloging program that seems to be able to append....."Actually, what you are seeing is Mac OS X working as designed: that's how copy works in Mac OS X. There is no workaround for this.
The "cataloging" app to which you refer is probably handling the issue programatically. In other words, the behavior is programmed, it is not using the Mac OS X default behavior.
What you probably want to look at is "Sync" software, such as the following apps:
- ChronoSync.
- You Syncrhonize.
- Folders Synchronizer X.
The sync software area seems to be a mixed bag of applications that could all use improvement. ChronoSync has been one of the highest-rated I've read about. You may also need to consider how Sync software will work if the "other HDD" is formatted for Windows (MS-DOS or FAT32) instead of in Mac OS Extended (aka HFS Plus or HFS+) format.
When looking for new applications, I recommend searching MacUpdate or Version Tracker. You may want to explore those sites for additional Sync software applications.
Good luck!
Dr. Smoke
Author: Troubleshooting Mac® OS X

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