Good backup utility for W7?

[Chuck]

Can anyone recommend a freeware (preferably OSS) backup utility for W7? It
needs to be able to save to a network share, and shouldn't require a giant
amount of ceremony to set up to keep My Documents, My Pictures, and a
handful of other folders backed up.

Oh, and it should, of course, only copy over the changed files since last
time. Keeping older versions around would be a nice-to-have but not
essential. If so, integration with W7's "previous versions" file properties
tab would also be nice.

 

[Zaidy036]

Can anyone recommend a freeware (preferably OSS) backup utility for W7? It
needs to be able to save to a network share, and shouldn't require a giant
amount of ceremony to set up to keep My Documents, My Pictures, and a
handful of other folders backed up.

Oh, and it should, of course, only copy over the changed files since last
time. Keeping older versions around would be a nice-to-have but not
essential. If so, integration with W7's "previous versions" file properties
tab would also be nice.

RoboCopy pre-configured to run in a BAT on demand

 

[Chuck]

RoboCopy pre-configured to run in a BAT on demand

I ask for a minimum of setup ceremony and you suggest something that
requires fiddling with BAT files?

 

[Juan Wei]

Zaidy036 has written on 4/28/2013 7:50 PM:

RoboCopy pre-configured to run in a BAT on demand

xxcopy configured to run in a BAT and on the Task Scheduler.

 

[Seth]

I ask for a minimum of setup ceremony and you suggest something that
requires fiddling with BAT files?

=============================================================
rem Backup.cmd

mkdir "\\server\share\path\backup"
robocopy %username%\documents "\\server\share\path\backup\documents" /s /e
/v /z /eta /w:2 /r:2
robocopy %username%\pictures "\\server\share\path\backup\pictures" /s /e /v
/z /eta /w:2 /r:2
robocopy c:\misc_folder_1 "\\server\share\path\backup\misc_folder_1" /s /e
/v /z /eta /w:2 /r:2

=============================================================

There, the heavy lifting is done. Edit as you see fit...

 

[Paul]

I ask for a minimum of setup ceremony and you suggest something that
requires fiddling with BAT files?

This copies the E: drive to the M: drive. You can adjust the
two paths, to point to the folders of your choice.

robocopy E:\ M:\ /mir /copy:datso /dcopy:t /r:3 /w:2 /zb /np /tee /v /log:robocopy_e_to_m3.log

The "mir" option is for mirror mode, where only out-of-date
files should get copied on subsequent runs. Also, the mirror
mode removes files that should not be there. The result
should be, that the contents of the destination exactly
match the source (no more or no less). So the command I
just gave, is not exactly "archival". The command as written,
is for making exact copies, with the least work from the hard drives.

The tool has other operating modes. That is not the only one.

The log file keeps track of what was done. I create
a log file for each robocopy run.

So in that example, it's not even a .bat file. Just
one line of crap I copy and paste into a command prompt
window.

Since the mirror mode is so dangerous (can wipe a destination drive),
always check what is typed very carefully before using. In
particular, since drive letters can change due to changes
you've made to your hardware, you could even copy/paste
or run a .BAT, that absolutely screws things up. I've done
that, just one time, and had to modify my usage procedure
to protect against it.

*******

There is a GUI available for running Robocopy.

I haven't tried combining this, with an OS that
already has a copy of Robocopy. And for all I know,
the GUI could be more trouble than it is worth.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2006.11.utilityspotlight.aspx

*******

Have you tried the built-in Windows backup software ? If
you have an OEM laptop, the cruft they include, may have
replaced it. But you can try accessing it, from here. Tey
one of these, and see if it starts you in a dialog to select
things to back up.

sdclt /configure
sdclt /configure /target

On my Windows 7 laptop, Acer managed to damage the dialogs
for the Windows backup, so it does not work as intended.
You have to play around, to get to the Microsoft original
design intent on my machine.

HTH,
Paul

 

[Seth]

=============================================================
rem Backup.cmd

mkdir "\\server\share\path\backup"
robocopy %username%\documents "\\server\share\path\backup\documents" /s /e
/v /z /eta /w:2 /r:2
robocopy %username%\pictures "\\server\share\path\backup\pictures" /s /e
/v /z /eta /w:2 /r:2
robocopy c:\misc_folder_1 "\\server\share\path\backup\misc_folder_1" /s /e
/v /z /eta /w:2 /r:2

=============================================================

There, the heavy lifting is done. Edit as you see fit...

Oh yeah, add the /purge parameter if you wish to deletes files from the
backup that are no longer in the source

 

[Lemon]

Can anyone recommend a freeware (preferably OSS) backup utility for W7? It
needs to be able to save to a network share, and shouldn't require a giant
amount of ceremony to set up to keep My Documents, My Pictures, and a
handful of other folders backed up.

Oh, and it should, of course, only copy over the changed files since last
time. Keeping older versions around would be a nice-to-have but not
essential. If so, integration with W7's "previous versions" file properties
tab would also be nice.

Doesn't Windows 7 itself have back up software?

Control Panel -- Large icons -- Backup and Restore

It enables you to save on a network.

Lemon

 

[Zaidy036]

I ask for a minimum of setup ceremony and you suggest something that
requires fiddling with BAT files?

That is so you can repeat the backup operation on deemand after you set
it up once.

 

[Steve Hayes]

Can anyone recommend a freeware (preferably OSS) backup utility for W7? It
needs to be able to save to a network share, and shouldn't require a giant
amount of ceremony to set up to keep My Documents, My Pictures, and a
handful of other folders backed up.

Oh, and it should, of course, only copy over the changed files since last
time. Keeping older versions around would be a nice-to-have but not
essential. If so, integration with W7's "previous versions" file properties
tab would also be nice.

A batch file using xcopy?

 

[Chuck]

This copies the E: drive to the M: drive. You can adjust the
two paths, to point to the folders of your choice.

robocopy E:\ M:\ /mir /copy:datso /dcopy:t /r:3 /w:2 /zb /np /tee /v /log:robocopy_e_to_m3.log

The "mir" option is for mirror mode, where only out-of-date
files should get copied on subsequent runs. Also, the mirror
mode removes files that should not be there. The result
should be, that the contents of the destination exactly
match the source (no more or no less). So the command I
just gave, is not exactly "archival". The command as written,
is for making exact copies, with the least work from the hard drives.

The tool has other operating modes. That is not the only one.

The log file keeps track of what was done. I create
a log file for each robocopy run.

So in that example, it's not even a .bat file. Just
one line of crap I copy and paste into a command prompt
window.

Since the mirror mode is so dangerous (can wipe a destination drive),
always check what is typed very carefully before using. In
particular, since drive letters can change due to changes
you've made to your hardware, you could even copy/paste
or run a .BAT, that absolutely screws things up. I've done
that, just one time, and had to modify my usage procedure
to protect against it.

*******

There is a GUI available for running Robocopy.

I haven't tried combining this, with an OS that
already has a copy of Robocopy. And for all I know,
the GUI could be more trouble than it is worth.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/magazine/2006.11.utilityspotlight.aspx

*******

Have you tried the built-in Windows backup software ? If
you have an OEM laptop, the cruft they include, may have
replaced it. But you can try accessing it, from here. Tey
one of these, and see if it starts you in a dialog to select
things to back up.

sdclt /configure
sdclt /configure /target

On my Windows 7 laptop, Acer managed to damage the dialogs
for the Windows backup, so it does not work as intended.
You have to play around, to get to the Microsoft original
design intent on my machine.

HTH,
Paul

This copies the E: drive to the M: drive. You can adjust the two paths,
to point to the folders of your choice.

robocopy E:\ M:\ /mir /copy:datso /dcopy:t /r:3 /w:2 /zb /np /tee /v
/log:robocopy_e_to_m3.log

The "mir" option is for mirror mode, where only out-of-date files should
get copied on subsequent runs. Also, the mirror mode removes files that
should not be there. The result should be, that the contents of the
destination exactly match the source (no more or no less). So the
command I just gave, is not exactly "archival". The command as written,
is for making exact copies, with the least work from the hard drives.

The tool has other operating modes. That is not the only one.

The log file keeps track of what was done. I create a log file for each
robocopy run.

So in that example, it's not even a .bat file. Just one line of crap I
copy and paste into a command prompt window.

Since the mirror mode is so dangerous (can wipe a destination drive),
always check what is typed very carefully before using. In particular,
since drive letters can change due to changes you've made to your
hardware, you could even copy/paste or run a .BAT, that absolutely
screws things up. I've done that, just one time, and had to modify my
usage procedure to protect against it.

*******

There is a GUI available for running Robocopy.

I haven't tried combining this, with an OS that already has a copy of
Robocopy. And for all I know, the GUI could be more trouble than it is
worth.

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/ magazine/2006.11.utilityspotlight.aspx

*******

Have you tried the built-in Windows backup software ? If you have an OEM
laptop, the cruft they include, may have replaced it. But you can try
accessing it, from here. Tey one of these, and see if it starts you in a
dialog to select things to back up.

sdclt /configure
sdclt /configure /target

On my Windows 7 laptop, Acer managed to damage the dialogs for the
Windows backup, so it does not work as intended. You have to play
around, to get to the Microsoft original design intent on my machine.

HTH,
Paul

Thanks. (Are you the Paul that that loon "Citronella"/"A band of heros" is
raving about, BTW?)

Unfortunately, the built in Windows 7 backup stupidly refuses to recognize
a network drive as a valid destination. Apparently it wants me to *pay
extra* for Windows 7 Enterprise to do that??? How does that make sense?
That's not an extra feature I'd be paying for. If they'd just programmed
the backup in the obvious way it would simply work for any destination
drive. They would have had to specifically *add* programming to it to make
it *ignore* network drives, just so they could demand people pay extra for
them to *remove* that. Absolutely frigging ridiculous.

 

[Chuck]

Doesn't Windows 7 itself have back up software?
Yep.

Control Panel -- Large icons -- Backup and Restore
Yep.

It enables you to save on a network.
Nope.

Lemon

Yep.

 

[Lemon]

Yep.

I checked on Pro, maybe Home doesn't do the network.

 

[Paul]

Thanks. (Are you the Paul that that loon "Citronella"/"A band of heros" is
raving about, BTW?)

Unfortunately, the built in Windows 7 backup stupidly refuses to recognize
a network drive as a valid destination. Apparently it wants me to *pay
extra* for Windows 7 Enterprise to do that??? How does that make sense?
That's not an extra feature I'd be paying for. If they'd just programmed
the backup in the obvious way it would simply work for any destination
drive. They would have had to specifically *add* programming to it to make
it *ignore* network drives, just so they could demand people pay extra for
them to *remove* that. Absolutely frigging ridiculous.

I usually back up to a local drive. A USB drive that can be
disconnected later.

On the laptop, I've even been known to back up to a separate
partition on the same (laptop) disk, then transfer the folder
with the backup of C: and SYSTEM RESERVED, to another destination.
I've done such transfers over FTP, to another computer in the
house. I can do a transfer like that at GbE speeds, which is
faster than the 30MB/sec of my USB2 drive.

Microsoft do other things you'd wish they didn't as well, such as
preventing VSS from doing things on the drive of your choice.
Apparently the equivalent Microsoft server version allows that.
On the desktop, VSS needs space on the same partition it is working
on, whereas on a server, you can redirect that activity. (VSS
is part of doing backups too.)

As for the alt.free.newsservers crew, I have been incorrectly
identified as another Paul, of Pembroke Ontario. My previous
ISP has around 3 million customers, so it's just possible
two users have a first name of Paul. The location data
from that ISP was useless at well - with the DHCP on the
previous ISP, a back end in Toronto, Ottawa, or Montreal
would respond. Years ago, I could have an IP address
that registered as being in Montreal. All because the
ADSL session was backhauled to whatever server had the
least loading. The phone company is good at doing stuff
like that.

Now I'm on a different ISP, but this game of "blame a Paul"
continues.

Maybe I should change my name ?

I've never been to Pembroke. I only use one nym. I stuck with
the one nym, so I could search Google for my previous
posts, and copy and paste text. Now, I just search for the
posts in my Thunderbird Sent file. As Google Groups kinda
sucks now.

Paul

 

[Roy Smith]

Doesn't Windows 7 itself have back up software?

Control Panel -- Large icons -- Backup and Restore

It enables you to save on a network.

That only works on windows 7 Pro or above, and you're also
restricted to making full backups only. For some reason Backup
doesn't do incremental backups over a network.

 

[Sn!pe]

What you cannot change is the personality, Paul.

Ye shall know him by the scent of frisky goats. [fu2: adn]

 

[Lemon]

That only works on windows 7 Pro or above, and you're also
restricted to making full backups only. For some reason Backup
doesn't do incremental backups over a network.

Thank you for the clarification.

Lemon

 

[(PeteCresswell)]

Per Chuck:

Can anyone recommend a freeware (preferably OSS) backup utility for W7? It
needs to be able to save to a network share, and shouldn't require a giant
amount of ceremony to set up to keep My Documents, My Pictures, and a
handful of other folders backed up.

Oh, and it should, of course, only copy over the changed files since last
time. Keeping older versions around would be a nice-to-have but not
essential. If so, integration with W7's "previous versions" file properties
tab would also be nice.

If you can live with just file copies (as opposed to a database-based
backup), SecondCopy might fit the bill. It's not free, but pretty close
at thirty bucks.

I've been using it for quite a few years - since my DB-based utility bit
the big one and I was too lazy to get something else.

I tried Cobian for awhile. It was a freebie, but I cannot recall why I
drifted away from it.

 

[Chuck]

Per Chuck:

If you can live with just file copies (as opposed to a database-based
backup),

File copies is preferable, actually. It means I can manually restore a
specific file easily, fix things if something goes wrong, and perhaps avoid
being tied to a particular backup software.

SecondCopy might fit the bill. It's not free, but pretty close
at thirty bucks.

Even that's a non-starter. I have no means of paying for things online
here, so it needs to be either free or shrink-wrapped in a local store.

I've been using it for quite a few years - since my DB-based utility bit
the big one and I was too lazy to get something else.

How, exactly, did that happen? Software doesn't tend to have parts that
rust.

I tried Cobian for awhile. It was a freebie, but I cannot recall why I
drifted away from it.

Nothing particularly leaps out at you as having been bad about it?

 

[DJT]

I ask for a minimum of setup ceremony and you suggest something that
requires fiddling with BAT files?

If you are only wanting to backup specific folders I recommend SyncToy
2.1 which is free from Microsoft.
Very configurable if you wish or simple if you don't