Fast, Easy Backups For
Win98 / ME / NT / 2K / XP
1) TOTAL IMMUNITY FROM
DATA LOSS
This is the Holy Grail of
Backups: A method that ensures you'll never lose an important file; never have
to rebuild your system and reinstall all your
software from scratch;
never have to re-type or recreate old data; never have that awful "Oh,
no!" moment when you realize you need a file you deleted several weeks---
or even years--- ago.
Good backups do all that.
They let you restore either a single file, or all files--- including system
files--- back to a known-good state.
Some people think,
"Well, I don't have anything really valuable on my system." But in my
experience, just about everyone has *something* on their PC that they'd hate to
lose. In some cases, it's obvious--- business, tax, banking and other financial
and legal records may have high value for three to seven years, or longer in
some cases. But even PCs used informally or for recreation may contain
important or valuable emails, family-heirloom digital photos or videos,
creative works, and the like.
Your PC setup itself also
has intrinsic value: As a LangaList subscriber, you probably invest a
nontrivial amount of time getting your system "just right," and just
the way you want it. If you make the right kind of complete system backup when
your PC is in perfect shape, or nearly so, then you can always return your
system to that perfect state whenever you need to in the future. You'll never,
ever have to face a total reinstallation of Windows again. Should your system
become unstable or corrupted, you can get it back to perfection in a matter of
just minutes. (More info: see <http://content.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/2001/03.htm>
and <http://content.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/1999/0831.htm> )
Having a full backup also
means that should something very, very bad happen to your PC--- hard drive
failure, lightning strike, motherboard failure, outright theft of the system---
whatever--- you'll be able to get back up and running in a fraction of the time
it might otherwise take. You can even use backups to assist in moving files to
a new PC, when you get one, letting you get the new box set up and in use in a
flash.
We've been covering a
*lot* of info about backups in recent issues of the newsletter, and those prior
discussions constitute essential background for understanding the context of
what follows in this article. Please take a moment to refresh your memory:
Backups, Part One
http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-11-26.htm#3
Backups, Part Two
http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-11-26.htm#4
What About Backup To/From
Tape?
http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-11-19.htm#3
Tape Vs CDs
http://www.informationweek.com/story/IWK20010719S0003
What About "Go
Back" and "Restore" Tools?
http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-12-03.htm#1
Mobile Rack Storage
http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-12-03.htm#2
Reader Backup Response
http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-11-29.htm#2
Much More Backup Info:
http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=backup&sp-a=0008002a-sp00000000
2) WHAT'S THE
"BEST" BACKUP?
In the next few pages,
I'll give you a ton of backup ideas and many specific details. Some you can use
as-is, but --- more likely--- you'll want to take and modify these ideas and techniques
to suit your own unique purposes and setup.
Further, what's
"best" for you may not be what's "best" for me, and vice versa.
Different people, different circumstances, different operating systems, etc etc
etc all need somewhat different solutions.
As a result (and this is
important), this article is NOT intended to provide you with a
one-size-fits-all, cookie-cutter solution that will work for everyone, all the
time. When it comes to backups, there's simply no such thing.
You see, "the best
backup"--- in fact, the only backup worth anything at all--- is one that
you'll *use*. A backup system that doesn't fit your style of working, or that
takes too long, or is too expensive, or gives you any reason to avoid using it,
is next to worthless.
And I'm first to admit
I'm somewhat of a backup fanatic, and have been for years. I literally can pull
up important files from over a decade ago, and can literally pull up *any* or
*all* files from any arbitrary date in the last four years or so. I can even---
if need be--- return my entire system to the exact state it was in on any given
date on the last four years or so.
Why would I want to do
that? Well, I have some records--- taxes, for example--- compiled years ago
with software I no longer have installed. If I needed to, putting my system
back to the exact way it was on the date I last used that software will give me
live access to those old records. (And, yes, Windows will let you do that, even
if you've changed PCs: The OS will wake up upon reboot, see that the hardware
is different, and reconfigure itself to work with what's available. The result
may not be pretty or slick, but it usually will work well enough for you to
recover what you need.)
For more on the rationale
of why I do things the way I do, see the above-referenced links, especially http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-12-03.htm
, which explains what the main types of backups are, and what I believe each is
good for.
But your needs--- and
solutions--- may be different, and that's fine. Any backup--- any backup at
all--- is better than no backup. As long as you're using *something* and you're
happy with it, fine: You're already better off than most PC users!
So read the following,
and then decide whether all, or some or none of it will work for you; and if
the answer is "none" then do a web search to find a solution that
*will* work for you. There are literally dozens--- maybe hundreds--- of backup
alternatives out there: All you need to do is find *one* that works for you.
The only really bad backup is one that's never made. <g> So, without further ado, let's dive in.
3) PREP WORK: MINIMIZE
UNNECESSARY JUNK
A full backup involves
moving (actually, copying) everything on your PC to another storage medium or
device. Why waste time and storage processing junk files you don't need?
For example, by default,
both the Recycle Bin and Internet Explorer's Cache want to consume ridiculous
amounts of your hard drive space, and these files --- almost always junk---
will get caught up in any full backup you do. So, to reduce the amount of junk
in your backups, curb the appetites of these space-hogs: Right click on the
Recycle Bin, select Properties, and decide how much space you want the Recycle
Bin to consume either for all drives in your system or on a per-drive basis. (I
adjust the slider way to the left.)
Similarly, open Internet
Explorer, and select Tools/Internet Options. Under Temporary Internet Files,
click the Settings button and select a reasonable size for this cache area.
Generally speaking, if you have a fast connection, 5 Mbytes to 10 Mbytes is
adequate; 25 Mbytes or so is usually enough with a slower dial-up connection.
If you use WinME or XP,
you may similarly wish to slim down the System Restore applet, which otherwise
can consume huge amounts of disk space. And if you have your system set to
"Hibernate," you may wish to delete the large, on-disk hibernation
file prior to making a backup.
You also may wish to
consider uninstalling software you never use, and that you're sure you'll never
need again. And, if you have lots of old files you don't want to discard, but
also rarely use, consider compressing them into a Zip file. (Newer versions of
Windows, like XP, can compress old files automatically.) If you're using an
uncompressed backup format, having old files in Zip format will save you time
and space; and even if you're using a compressed backup format, Zipping
collections of old files will reduce the number of separate files your backup
has to track and process.
After doing the above,
and before every backup, empty the Recycle Bin, flush Internet Explorer's
cache, and use "CleanMgr" (Windows' built-in cleanup tool:
Start/Run/CleanMgr) to reduce the remaining junk files on your system. You may
wish to use other tools, too, such as third-party cleanup utilities like
CleanSweep or the Clean9x.bat files (
<http://www.langa.com/cleanup_bat.htm> ).
4) ORGANIZE YOUR HARD
DRIVE
Imagine you went to your
local library, and instead of finding all the books on the shelves, you found
them in a giant pile in the middle of the main room. The book you want might
well be there; it might even be properly entered into the card catalog. But
finding it would involve extra work that could have been avoided if the books
were organized.
Now consider: I get a lot
of mail from people who say something like "I have a 60GB [or 40GB or 20GB
or whatever] hard drive, and it's full of files. How on earth can I back that
up?" This is exactly the same problem as the library with all the books on
the floor, just in a different guise. In that unorganized library, while it's
possible to find the books you want, it's needlessly hard to do so. Likewise,
in an unorganized hard drive with tens or dozens of megabytes of files and
folders all dumped into (say) the C: drive or partition, it's very hard to
manage the files and to make reasonable backup sets. But it doesn't have to be
that way.
Libraries are useful
because the books are broken down into sections and subsections. Different
libraries use different methods of organization, but there's always some
rational pattern to the way things are laid out: A number system, a subject
index, alphabetic sorting by author or title--- there's some system that
gathers similar books into one part of the library, where you can find them,
fast.
Now think of your hard
drive: You probably have some files and folders that are valuable, but that
essentially never change. For example, if you have a collection of old legal
records, or MP3 files, or old software, or photo albums and the like; these
files may need only be backed up once, and then never touched again.
You probably have another
set of files--- some system and application files, for example--- that change,
but infrequently. If a file doesn't change much, it doesn't need to be backed
up very often. In fact, it only needs to be backed up after it's changed, and
then can be left alone until it changes again.
Another class of files
changes from time to time, but irregularly: Think, for example, of something
like tax files, which go into high flux at tax times, and then may otherwise
lie dormant for long periods.
Still other files---
email, daily reports, schedule information, etc--- may change every day, or
multiple times a day.
All those file types have
differing backup needs.
And then there are some
files that don't need to be backed up at all: For example, you may have some
files you just don't care much about--- if you were to lose them, it wouldn't
matter much. This may be because they're easily replaced with a fresh download
or reload, or because of low intrinsic value.
If all these many
different kinds of files and folders, with their varying needs for backup, are
all tossed together onto (say) your C: drive, you're like that library with all
the books in a pile. Yes, you can do backups, but it will be an unpleasant and
needlessly difficult task.
5) TRADITIONAL BACKUPS
Traditional backup
programs use something called an "archive bit" to determine if a file
needs to be backed up ("archived"): Every file on your system carries
a kind of digital flag that the operating system sets when the file is first
created. This flag says, in effect, "I need to be backed up." A
traditional backup program looks for files with this flag, backs them up, and
then turns off the bit so the flag now says "I don't need to be backed
up." This way, the backup program will skip that file the next time.
But if you alter the file
in any way, the operating system re-sets the archive bit to once again say
"I need to be backed up again." The backup program then knows to grab
that file during the next backup.
Sounds great--- and it
can indeed work fine. But there are problems, as explained in detail in http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-11-26.htm#3
, http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-12-03.htm#1 and the other references
at the start of this article.
There's a better way; it
involves a little more work up front, but pays off forever, once it's done.
6) A MORE RATIONAL
ORGANIZATION FOR YOUR FILES
The key to managing a
large hard drive is "partitioning:" breaking the physical drive space
into subsections called partitions, or "virtual drives," each with
its own drive letter. Like a well-ordered library, you can place files with
similar backup priorities on the same logical drives; each logical drive would
have its own backup set and schedule, which hugely simplifies backups--- and
restores! Most times, your most important, most-changeable files will go on the
C: drive, so you can just focus on that for your day to day backups. All less-important
files will go on other partitions--- D:, E:. F:, and so on,--- where they're
out of the way of the high-priority files.
That in a nutshell is how
you solve the problem of backing up a huge hard drive: Your 80GB or 60GB or
40GB (or whatever) drive can be broken into manageable chunks.
On my systems that run
Win98/ME, I have things set up so my essential, core OS and user files are in
one 2GB C: partition; I install nonessential apps and files on other
partition(s). It doesn't matter how large the entire drive is: It's just that
2GB C: partition that I need to worry about on a daily basis. The rest of the
drive--- tens or dozens of gigabytes--- does *not* need daily backup, and so
doesn't get in the way.
Win2K and XP are both
bigger than Win98/ME, so I set things up differently. My copy of XP Pro, for
example, with my essential, must-back-up user files and a normal complement of
applications, currently occupies about 3GB of an 8GB partition. (I still have
many static files and less-essential stuff out of the way on other partitions,
separate from the files that need regular and routine backup.)
Win2K and XP also do a
pretty good job of segregating user files into their own directory structure,
and this further helps to keep backups manageable. For example, although my
entire C: drive of essential XP files currently occupies about 3GB, the
"C:\Documents and Settings\Fred" branch of the C: drive--- which
holds my user data and many user-specific settings--- contains only about 450MB
of files. Many of these are the files that change every day; it's just this
core of 450MB that needs daily backup attention. The rest of the drive--- tens
or dozens of gigabytes--- does *not* need daily backup, and so doesn't get in
the way.
To get even more
specific: My newest system has a 60GB hard drive, and it arrived (as most
systems do) with one gigantic C: partition occupying all 60GB. As described
above, I re-sized the C: partition to be 8GB, and left the core OS and user
files there. I split the leftover disk space as follows: 20GB as the D: drive
(used for storing daily backups, routine disk images, and other large files);
20GB as the E: drive (used for storing software, patches, updates, large
downloads, and as an installation destination for lesser-used applications);
and the remaining 12GB as an F: drive (used as a maintenance and repair area
for storing the original factory configuration and perfect "as
modified" images of the system, plus copies of setup files, BIOS updates,
and such needed to restore the core system. None of these virtual drives is
anywhere near full; I could have split the space in smaller increments if I'd
wanted to. In any case, it's only the relatively small C: drive that I need to
worry about for my daily backups.
So, the first step towards
getting control of your backups is to get control of your hard drive: Think
about your files, and come up with an organizational plan that will work for
you. Plan to put your essential, must-backup files and settings on one
partition; place other, less-important or less-frequently-changing files on
other partitions. (We'll tell you how in a moment.)
[Expert users: Note that
multiple partitions also let you mix partition types. You can, for example,
create an NTFS partition for XP or Win2K, but have other partitions set as
FAT32 or FAT16. These other partitions will be faster-performing than the NTFS
partition (so you can, for example, place the swap file there). Or, you can use
the multiple partitions to support a multi-boot system with several or many different
operating systems on the same hard drive, each self-contained in its own
separate partition. Once you get away from the "gigantic C: drive"
syndrome, you'll find a new world of operational efficiency and alternatives
open to you.] Once you have a plan for
organizing your hard drive, the next step is to implement it.
7) HOW TO SAFELY AND
NONDESTRUCTIVELY PARTITION AN
The most common, simple
(and crude) tool used for partitioning is FDISK. If you're setting up a
brand-new hard drive, FDISK (part of Windows/DOS) will let you chop it into
"logical drives" of whatever size you wish. But the process is a
little geeky and it's also somewhat dangerous: Resetting your partitions via
FDISK will erase the entire contents of your hard drive. This isn't an issue
with a new disk, or if you want to start over with an older disk, but it's
clearly not a good thing if your disk is full of files you want to preserve.
There are many
partitioning tools--- some free!--- that let you work nondestructively on an
in-use disk: You can find many of them here: http://search.atomz.com/search/?sp-q=partitioner&sp-a=0008002a-sp00000000
The one I use is
PartitionMagic, from Powerquest. It's not free, but I've never had a serious
problem using it, and I find its front end particularly easy to use.
But note: Any time you're
fiddling with a disk's partition table, there is a risk of data loss. So---
ironically--- all the makers of partitioning tools recommend that you make a
backup *before* you use the tool. Of course, that's a chicken-egg kind of
problem: If you're using the partitioning tool because your current hard drive
setup is too big to backup, what do you do?
You can skip this initial
backup step, of course, but at your own risk. The better answer is to make at
least a partial backup of your most-essential files. You could, for example,
focus primarily on the "My Documents" folders, or any other folders
that contain irreplaceable data. Many newer systems come with a CD burner (or
you can buy one for under $100); you can use this to copy your irreplaceable
files; for example. If you're on a network, you can temporarily copy your files
to a different computer's hard drive. Or you can use an online storage service;
and so on. In a pinch, you even can use email: Use something like WinZip to
compress your most critical data files, and send yourself the Zip file as an
email attachment. It will sit safely on your mail server until you later
retrieve/download it.
Once you've protected
your most essential files, run Scandisk and Defrag to get your current hard
drive in as good shape as possible. When your disk is error-free and
defragmented, run the partitioning tool of your choice, and create the new,
empty partitions you need to organize your drive.
When that's done, spend
some time getting the system well-ordered: Move (don't copy) files with similar
backup priorities into whatever new partition(s) you've decided on.
You may also wish to move
some infrequently-used applications off of C: to another partition. (As I do.)
The best way to do this is to uninstall the application from C:, and then
reinstall it: When you're given a choice of where to install the app to (you
may need to select "custom install" to get this option), tell Windows
to place the application on some partition other than C: If your hard drive was very full when you
started, you may find it easier to handle re-partitioning in several steps. For
example, you might start with a nearly-full C: drive, and use the partitioning
tool to create small new D:, E: and F: partitions. After moving some files to
these new partitions, you can then re-run the partitioning tool to shrink the
size of C: and increase the size of the others. Do this iteratively until
you've achieved the final sizes you wish for all your partitions.
In any case, when you're
done, you should have a C: drive that's reasonably sized--- a size that's
amenable to frequent backups--- and that contains your most essential system
files, settings, and data files. Your other partitions can be of almost any
size, with the partitions with the lowest backup priority being the biggest.
Now you're ready to start
your formal, regular and effective backup process.
8) BUILT-IN AND
ALTERNATIVE BACKUP TOOLS FOR WIN9X / ME / NT / 2K / XP
Win98 comes with
"MSBackup," which is optionally installed if you so chose when you
first set up Windows. (If can be installed later via Control Panel's
"Add/Remove Software" applet; it's in the Windows Setup tab under System
Tools.) MSBackup will do the job, but it's pretty lame. For example, MSBackup
cannot operate in unattended mode--- you have to babysit it when it runs.
Microsoft says: "The version of Backup that is included with Windows 98
does not support a backup job being started automatically, so you must be present
to begin the backup job. RESOLUTION: To resolve this issue, upgrade to a backup
program that supports completely unattended backup jobs. (See http://support.microsoft.com/directory/article.asp?ID=KB;EN-US;q184756
) Gee, thanks, Microsoft. (Sigh.) If you want full automated backups, you might
also try http://www.google.com/search?q=unattended+backup+win98 or, for free
options, http://www.google.com/search?q=unattended+backup+win98+free .
WinME hides its backup
applet, although you can dig it off the WinME setup CD's "\ADD-ONS\MSBACKUP" folder. Click
on the MSBEXP.EXE file there, and WinME will then install MSBackup--- the same
tool as in Win98, above, with all the same limitations. To find alternatives,
search for http://www.google.com/search?q=unattended+backup+winme or, for free
options, http://www.google.com/search?q=unattended+backup+winme+free . XP Home: Like, WinME, XP Home hides its
backup applet on the setup CD, but at least it's a full-blown backup tool
(NTBackup) capable of unattended operation: It's in the
"\VALUEADD\MSFT\NTBACKUP" folder on the setup CD; click on
NTBACKUP.MSI .
NT, Win2K and XP Pro all
use NTBackup, it's usually installed at setup and can be invoked through the
menus, or by typing NTBACKUP on the Run line.
Alternative tools: A
general web search for http://www.google.com/search?q=unattended+backup will
show you a huge range of alternatives specifically designed for backup jobs.
But you also can use
tools not specifically designed for backups. For example, many people use XXcopy,
a tool (free for personal use) that can copy entire chunks of your hard drive
from one location to another. (http://www.xxcopy.com/xxcopy/ )
Or, you can use a tool
like WinZip ( http://www.winzip.com ) to copy and compress sections of your
hard drive; WinZip can record full path information, too, so the file(s) can be
put back into the proper location upon restore.
Once you have a backup
tool in hand, you can put it to use. Here's what I do:
9) FRED'S SMALL-PARTITION
BACKUP ROUTINE
If you can get your
"essential, must-back up" files to fit in one modest partition, then
you may wish to try the method I used successfully for years with my Win9x and
ME machines.
It couldn't be simpler: I
just used Drive Image by itself, for a fast, simple, one-step backup. Current
versions of DI have a built-in automation tool called "QuickImage"
that makes it a snap to clone an entire C: partition to (say) the D: partition.
I'd also use DI's built-in "maximum compression" to reduce the size
of the image file, and "password-protection" so no one else could
access the image file.
Because my Win98/ME
machines have modestly-sized C: partitions (see above), the compressed file of
the partition was small enough that I could burn it (later) to a single CD. I
then stored these CDs offsite, in a safe location, so that even if something
completely took out my PC, I could use the CDs to get things back as they were.
This small-partition
approach was ideal for me because it put all my essential user files AND all my
system files in one complete daily backup. I could selectively restore a single
file or files if I needed to, but also could roll back the entire system if I
needed to. And, with DI, restores are *fast*--- you can put back an entire
system (all files, all software, all user settings. everything!) in 5-10
minutes. It was--- and is--- the single best method for backing up I've ever
found, bar none.
That two-step imaging
process (image first to drive, then burn to CD) also offers other benefits. For
one thing, it's much faster than direct burn-to-CD. For another, it also avoids
many potential problems with getting CDRs to work reliably from DOS (which
Drive Image uses to create the images).
Every month or so, when
my D: partition would start to run out of disk space from the accumulating
backup files, I'd delete the oldest backup files, and start fresh. This way, I
always have many days' worth of recent backups both in "live" storage
(on the D: drive, from which restores are fast and convenient) and on CD in a
remote location as well. After a month or so, I'd no longer have the live,
on-disk copy, but I'd still have--- and will have, for years--- the on-CD copy.
Making the initial image
on a hard drive partition also means it's no problem if your data won't fit on
a single CD: Just tell DI's QuickImage what size you want the files to be, and
it will automatically split the large image file into sequentially-numbered
files of whatever size you specify. (This way, you can perform unattended
imaging of even large hard drives without having to be there to feed in new CDs
as the process goes along.)
By the way: CDs are
incredibly cheap. Even without catching a sale, you can routinely buy blank CDs
in quantity for 15-25 cents each (example: http://www.accessmicro.com/hotdeal/cdrspecial.php3?AID=1499209&PID=820469
), and for half that if you find a good sale. The trick is to buy in bulk (at least
25 at a time), and to get the CDs on a simple spindle rather than in individual
cases or sleeves. The spindle is better anyway: Use the empty spindle to store
the recorded CDs compactly when you're done. It makes for very inexpensive and
very space-efficient storage!
10) FRED'S
LARGE-PARTITION BACKUP ROUTINE
Alas, with Win2K and XP,
my core, "essential files" partition is too large for the one-step
Drive Image method to work as an everyday thing. So I developed a multi-part
process that on most days takes literally just a few minutes to complete, and
yet provides extremely high "restorability" for my systems. Here's
the first step:
For routine daily
backups, I use a tool (like Windows' built-in NTBackup) that allows for
unattended backups so I can schedule operations to happen automatically at
night. (But if I were using something like Win98's MSBackup, I could perform
the same tasks in attended mode during the day; say, during a coffee break or
lunch. It'd just be a little less convenient.)
I use the backup tool to
clone all my most-rapidly-changing files, and those that carry my personal
system customizations. In XP, it's easy: I just flag for backup most everything
in my "C:\Documents and Settings\Fred" folder and subfolders. Your
location and specific backup choices may vary, but whatever your specifics,
you'd simply use your backup tool's front-end to focus on your most-important
user files and the core system setup files that frequently change. For example,
you probably want your "My Documents" folder, and you may also want
folders such as "Favorites," "Application Data," and so on.
But you wouldn't need to backup up files that don't often change: Your
"System" or "System32" folders, for example, usually only change
when you install new software or make a truly major system change; you may not
need to back this stuff up every day. (I don't.)
Once I've selected the
files and folders I want backed up, I tell the backup tool to place the
resulting backup file on a separate partition--- my D: drive--- and I then set
the backup job as an automated task to run late at night. Having set up the
backup once, it then will run exactly the same way, every night at the same
time, providing me with automatic backups with no further effort on my part.
(Again, with a non-automated tool, like MSBackup, I'd just run the job manually
during lunch or a coffee break.)
Because I'm backing to a
hard drive partition instead of tape, CD or another medium, the backup is very,
very fast--- typically only about 2-3 minutes on my system. (The number of
files and the speed of your CPU and drive(s) will determine how long this step
takes on your PC.)
But we're not done,
because the backups files themselves are large, and because they still exist
only inside the PC, where a major system problem could wipe out both the
original files and the backup copies. So I do another step:
To keep the backups from
occupying too much space and to facilitate moving them to off-site storage, I
run a script to automatically change the name of the backup to a date-based
name (so I can keep many backups straight), and automatically to use WinZip to
place the renamed backup file in a maximally compressed, password-protected Zip
file. (More on this script in a moment.) This takes another 4-5 minutes or so,
on my system. I also have this backup/rename/compress operation run
automatically in the middle of the night, every night, but again, it's also
fast enough that I can run it on demand when I'm about to make any significant
system change (or if I were using non-automated backup tools): A 10 minute
coffee break later, and my system can be well backed up.
The daily backups capture
all the most-essential stuff, but there's still the need for total system
backups of *everything.* So, I still use Drive Image to capture "all the
bits" (see http://www.langa.com/newsletters/2001/2001-12-03.htm#1 ) and to
ensure I can roll my entire system back to a known-good state: I have DI5 set
up to run automatically twice a week in the middle of the night, and I also run
it manually before any really major system change. I use DI5's "Quick
Image" to clone my entire C: partition using maximum data compression, and
automatically to split the backup file into pieces that will fit onto separate
CDs, and to password-protect the whole thing. DI5 places these CD-sized files
in the same directory where I store the normal daily backup files--- on a
separate partition, away from my main files.
Thus, every morning, I
sit down to find my system has backed up all my essential data into a ZIP file
whose name is the date on which the backup was created; and twice a week I also
find that Drive Image has kicked in to clone my entire C: partition. As a
background task during the day (so there's no interruption of my work) I burn
these files to blank CDs, and then store the CDs offsite for maximum safety.
The whole thing costs me
pennies a day: The Zip-compressed backup files, representing my most valuable
and rapidly-changing data, currently run around 200-300MB, so they easily fit
on a single CD. The DI5 all-the-bits backup currently fits on 3 CDs. So, most
weeks, I achieve total data security for about $0.77 a week--- about a dime a
day--- at current CD sale prices, or for about $1.65 a week for normal,
non-sale bulk-purchase CD prices. How can you beat that?
Just as described earlier
in the "Small Partition" process, every month or so, when my D:
partition starts to run out of disk space from the accumulating backup files, I
delete the oldest backup files, and start fresh. This way, I always have many
days' worth of recent backups both in "live" storage (on the hard
drive, from which restores are fast and convenient) and on CD in a remote
location as well. After a month or so, I no longer have the live, on-disk copy,
but I still have--- and will have, for years--- the on-CD copy.
Because most of the
backups and Drive Imaging happens unattended, at night; it's an almost-effortless
way to ensure that I have multiple backups of both the data and the system
state. Combined with XP's own "system restore," which can deal with
minor roll-back issues, I feel I can weather just about any problem that might
happen. And because I store my backup CDs offsite, that means I can even
recover from major problems--- lightning, fire, flood, theft--- that might
otherwise ruin my PC and all the on-system backups.
11) FRED'S FREE
LARGE-PARTITION BACKUP-MANAGEMENT SCRIPT
Although you can use
Windows' built-in Task Scheduler to automate many backup tasks (NTBackup, for
example, or Drive Image both integrate with Task Scheduler automatically),
Windows provides no predetermined way to automate other steps.
For example, every time
you run a preset or automatic backup job, the backup file ends up with the same
name. On its own, Windows will offer to append backups with the same name one
to another, which results in gigantic, unwieldy backup files. Wouldn't it be
better if each backup could automatically get its own unique name, preferably
date-based, for easy tracking?
Further, some backup
tools don't use data-compression unless they're writing to (say) tape. Make a
backup to a hard drive partition and the resulting file can be very large.
So, I developed a way to
give each newly-created backup file a unique, date-oriented name, and to
auto-compress the backup file into a space-efficient, password-protected Zip
file:
As my
"ZipIt" comes
in two flavors: One for Win9x/ME (ZipIt_98) and one for WinNT/2K/XP (ZipIt_XP).
Both batch scripts look for a backup file in a pre-established location and
then WinZip-compresses it (using maximum compression) into a password protected
zip file named in a date-based format (yyyymmdd.zip or yy-mm-dd.zip).
ZipIt's defaults are
generic. As-is, ZipIt has no way to know what specific backup tool you'll use,
what precise name you'll give your backups, exactly where you'll put them on
your PC, and so on. To use ZipIt, you must modify it (it's easy!) to tell it
these things.
You just use NotePad (or
a similar simple text editor) to open ZipIt, to read the embedded comments
inside the file, and to follow the clear directions there to make whatever
modifications you need or want.
For example, The Win9x
version of ZipIt assumes your backups are named "auto_backup.qic."
The "auto_backup" name is arbitrary, and if you want to call your
backups something else, you'd need to edit ZipIt to replace every instance of
"auto_backup" with whatever your backup file will be named. Likewise,
the ".qic" file extension is what's produced automatically by MSBackup,
Win9x/ME's built-in backup tool. If you use a different tool, you'd need to
replace each reference to ".qic" inside ZipIt with whatever file
extension your backup tool produces. See? That's not hard.
(By the way: If you're
new to batch files, check out http://content.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/2000/21.htm
. It either directly contains everything you need to know about working with
batch files, or has pointers to other sites that will tell you all you need to know.)
Similarly, the
WinNT/2K/XP version of ZipIt assumes your backups are named "auto_backup.bkf."
Again, the "auto_backup" name is arbitrary, and if you call your
backups something else, you'd edit ZipIt to replace every instance of
"auto_backup" with whatever your backup file is named. Likewise, the ".bkf"
file extension is what's produced automatically by NTBackup, WinNT/2K/XP's
built-in backup tool. If you use a different tool, you'd need to replace the
".bkf" extensions with whatever file extension your backup tool
produces.
Further, as is clearly
explained inside the actual ZipIt files, the script is written to operate on
backup files placed in the "D:\backups\" folder/directory. If your
backups are in a different location, you'd simply follow the directions inside
the ZipIt file to edit the ZipIt script to reflect where your files actually
reside.
Your choice of
compression tool also affects how ZipIt works. As-written, ZipIt assumes you're
using WinZip ( http://www.winzip.com ) and WinZip's free command-line line
add-on ( http://www.winzip.com/wzcline.htm ). If you prefer to use a different
file compressor--- or to turn off file compression altogether--- just follow
the embedded instructions inside ZipIt to add or deactivate the commands
appropriate to your file compression tool.
Finally, although the
date-based renaming methods I used were as general as I could make them (and
they should work for most users), they may need adjustment in some cases.
Because NT/2K/XP has better built-in date-scripting routines, that version of
ZipIt is actually a little more flexible than the other: Its date-renaming
routine is self-contained, and allows for up to 5 automatically-renamed backups
each day. See the actual ZipIt_XP file for more info.
DOS-based versions of
Windows--- Win9x/ME--- have less powerful batch file date routines: The
simplest solution I could find to allow easy date-based renaming of your
backups was to include a tiny freeware program called WMFREN along with ZipIt
itself: You place WMFREN in the same directory as your backups, and ZipIt will
automatically use WMFREN to assist in renaming your files. However, because of
the limitations of DOS, ZipIt_98 (as-written) can only handle one date-renamed
backup per day. You'll need to modify the file yourself if you want it to
handle more than one backup per day, or if you want to use a different
file-renaming method. See the ZipIt_98 file for more info.
12) ESSENTIAL INFO BEFORE
DOWNLOADING
I've placed the download
links at the end of this article in hopes that you will have read all the above
first. (Alas, many people skip right to the downloads, and then are confused
about what the files are and how they work.)
*********************************************************************
In any case, let me
repeat: ZipIt is NOT a finished, ready-to-run tool, but is a kind of template
you can use to create a custom tool that's specific to your own particular
setup and needs. PLEASE follow the instructions in the previous text and inside
the files to ensure that the file contents and structure are OK to run on *your
specific* setup.
*********************************************************************
Note that the ZipIt files
also contain information on how to use the ZipIt-compressed/protected files for
Restore operations; *please* read the files before trying to use them for
anything!
Because I don't know your
system or setup or needs, I regret that I cannot offer one-on-one advice in
modifying the ZipIt scripts for your particular system. But you can find all
you need via the info above. Or, if you're new to batch files, check out http://content.techweb.com/winmag/columns/explorer/2000/21.htm
. Combined, those links either directly contain everything you need to know
about working with batch files, or have pointers to other sites that will tell
you all you need to know.
Click to access
downloads:
http://www.langa.com/backups/backups(12).htm#downloads