Background
When providing support I noticed most people need a
backup facility, but don't have an easy backup procedure, or
even any backup procedure. I decided to create a tool I
could use whilst at clients to set them up with a simple
backup procedure, and with minimal instruction, a tool they
could use in the future to create their own backup
procedure.
What I wanted from a backup procedure was:
- To copy a number
of folders and the folders' contents to an external
device such as a USB drive or external hard disk.
- To create a folder
on the external device with the date and time in the
folder name so each backup went into a different folder.
- To check the
number of files copied to the external device matched
the original files.
- I wanted the back
to be a straight copy of the files so it was easy to
copy the files should they need to be restored.
- I wanted to be
able to nominate the drive letter where the backup would
go, or let it default to the C: drive.
Since nothing worked the way I wanted, I decided to
create what I wanted. I now use this approach with my own
backup and this page allows me to easily create the backup
script file whilst on site with a client and also to provide
the tool to clients for them to use.
Instructions
For those who may be confused by the term "batch file"
I'll be using, it
is the term used when a a series of commands (usually called
DOS commands) are placed in a file and the file can then be
run like a program on the
computer. The file is given the extension .bat so the
computer knows that when you run the file the commands will
be executed. What you are doing here is entering the folders
you want to back up and then this web page creates the
commands needed. You then copy and paste the commands to create the
backup batch file.
Create your backup batch file as follows:
1. Enter your operating system.
2. Enter the drive letter you would like to set as
the default backup drive location.
3. Enter
the name of the folder to contain the backed up files. (The
date and time will be added to the folder name.)
4. Enter up to five
folders you'd like to back up. The folders and their
contents will be backed up.
5. Press Submit.
6. The
page then displayed is the content/commands you copy and paste as
follows, to create your backup batch file.
7. Open Notepad.
8. Copy all of the text in the web page.
(Press Contrl+A to select all the text in the web page and
then Control+C to copy.)
9. Paste the text into Notepad. (Press Control+V to paste
the copied text.)
10. Save the file as MyBackup.bat or a filename of your choice but end the
filename with
.bat.
11. Close Notepad.
Once you've create your backup batch file you can then run
the backup by double clicking on the backup batch file.
1. By default the Default Backup Drive is the C: drive. If
you have a device you always backup to, you can set the
default drive letter to your device. If you don't know in
advance what the backup device drive letter will be, then
leave the default to be C:. Insert the device and check
drive letter assigned. Assign that letter when the backup is
run.
2. The copy of the folders being backed up will be copied to
a folder on the backup drive with the folder name you
provide and appended to the end of the folder name will be
the current date and time of the backup. This will enable
you to determine quickly the latest backup. If you want to
have separate backups for different purposes you can provide
each backup with a different folder name.
For example users in an office commonly have their
email data on their local computer. Each user could run a
backup of their email data to a central computer with each
having their email data contained in a folder with their
name. Another example is you may have one backup you run
multiple times a day because the data is very important to
you, another run at the end of the day, and another run
occasionally. Each backup procedure could use a different
folder name to more easily identify which backup the data
was from.
3. Enter up to five folders you want to backup. Each folder
and its contents will be backed up. You don't have to
enter all five, just the number of folders you want to back
up.
4. At the
end of the backup check the summary of the
backup and make sure number of files and the total size of
the file of the source and destination match
for each folder.
5. Enter the full patch of the folder you want to back up. A
good technique is to use Windows Explorer to find the folder
and then copy and paste the full path shown in the address
bar. Note at MyBackup only works for folders on the C drive.
For example if you want to back up My Documents, you need to
determine the full path such as C:\Documents and
Settings\Acer\My Documents. In your case the folder Acer
will be your log on username.
6. An easy method to determine the path of a folder is to
use Windows Explorer to drill down to the folder. Once at the
folder the address area will display the full path to the
folder. Copy and paste the full path into this form.
7. The path needs to be the full path including the drive
letter C:.
8. You can create multiple backup batch files. You may wish
to make a small backup for your core files which can be done
quickly and another which backs up a large backup and can be
run when convenient. Give each backup batch file a different
name.
9. You cannot use MyBackup to backup the contents of an
external drive such as a USB drive as MyBackup requires a
folder name to work. If you wish to backup the
contents of a USB drive put the contents into a folder.
10. MyBackup can be run from the command line or as a
shortcut. When run as a command you can enter a single
parameter which is the drive letter you wish to backup to.
The letter you enter will override the default drive letter
and you won't be prompted for a drive letter.
11. Select the operating system your use. The choices are
Windows XP, Vista, Windows 7 or Windows 8. The batch file you create
may differ for different operating systems.
12. Do not try to back up a folder which contains system files. If a system
file is in use the backup will fail. For example you can backup all of the users
folder. You can however backup up individual folders in the users folder as
long as those folders don't contain system files. Remember MyBackup is designed
for you to backup the files you've created, that you can see when you
browse through the folders. System files are hidden by default.
13. Earlier versions of MyBackup created a folder name with the date
and time appended at the end. This was difficult to read so now
there is a space between the folder name, date and time.
14. Earlier versions of MyBackup allowed for entering up to five folders. This
has been increased to 10 folders.
