Copyright © 1997-2003 Fred Langa DBA Langa Consulting LLC. All worldwide rights reserved.
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#1
, 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 ; see also this and this ) 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 to 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 IN-USE DRIVE
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 gift to you, I’m pleased to offer you two FREE
versions of this script to help you automate management of your
backups. <g>
“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 intended to be a
finished, ready-to-run tool, but is rather 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 rest of this article 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.
Here are the downloads: Click, or Right-Click/Save As,
the following links. Note the files are in compact Zip form;
you’ll need some kind of uncompressor (such as WinZip,
mentioned above) to unpack the files.
(Legal Info: Please
note the cautions here http://www.langa.com/legal.htm ;
it is your responsibility to follow all instructions above and
within the actual scripts to ensure that these files are OK to
run on your particular system and setup.)
DOWNLOAD, UNZIP AND RUN ALL THE ZIPIT FILES IN THE SAME
DIRECTORY WHERE YOU STORE YOUR BACKUPS (such as D:\backups\):
(Note: In some
browsers, you may need to right-click on the following links
and select “save link as…”)
ZipIt For
Win9X/ME:
Read ALL the above and then
Download
ZipIt_98.Zip
(includes WMFREN)
ZipIt For
WinNT/2K/XP:
Read ALL the above and then
Download
ZipIt_XP.Zip
Optional Download #1:
Download this entire article
for easy reading:
HelpFile Format
(zipped: 40K) (courtesy:
Bronson C. Elliott )
Optional Download #2:
Download this entire article
for easy reading:
Plain-Text Format
(zipped: 15K) (courtesy: BillK
)