Backups question

[Jack Hannibal]

Hi everybody,

Two how to types of issues for which I would like your opinions on how to resolve.

Question 1
On my Win98 box, I have a specific directory, we'll call it Mable for discussion purposes. I would like to implement an automated process which would essentially mirror the contents of the Mable directory from the Win98 box to my Win XP home box. The two boxes are currently networked and sharing a cable internet connection.

Is this possible?

Someone had suggested XXCOPY, however I am not familiar with the app. Any applications suggestion to resolve this issue?

Question 2
The user of the above listed Win98 box is currently doing some basic website html work. For discussion purposes, lets assume the website URL is http://www.myweb.com. I had earlier used Teleport Pro to create a local replica of the website, however, I was uncertain as to the best way to automate this process. Is it possible to automate a process to backup the website?

Ideally, for both of these issues, I would like to establish processes which would remove the "human" factor from the process. The overall goal of both of these questions is too allow me to perform backups on these processes for which I currently do not have a plan.

Thank you

[Quidam]

I am running WINXP and use Scheduled Tasks to run Backup application every night on certain directories. I believe that WIN98 also has the ability to run Scheduled Tasks. If you share the out the directory on the WIN98 PC and map to it from the WINXP PC, you can include its files in the backup.

[meese]

If Mable is located at c:\Mable on you win98 pc and you want to copy it to c:\Mable on the XP pc, then the following will automatically map drive O: to the XP pc, copy the contents and delete the mapped drive.


NET USE O: \\XP_PC_Name
c:
cd\
xcopy Mable O:\Mable\ /D /E /Y
NET USE O: /DELETE

You can create a batch file using notepad and then schedule the task to run everyday at a specified time or during boot-up.


As far as backing up the website, you may be able to automate an FTP program to do this.

[ChrisK2972]

not trying to crap on your thread here, but, I thought I would ask here instead of making a new thread.

I want to back up my personal files: my documents, downloads, and such. I run W2K and set up a small 2GB Fat32 partition to share with my boy's computer. Thought it would be easier to share a drive rather than have to set permissions for individual folders. Anyways, I was thinking, I could put those files(the ones I want to keep backed up) on that partition and just back up the whole partition on a daily basis. Does that sound ok? Do you suspect any problems?

[meese]

Should be fine. If you want to use xcopy you would do something like this:

xcopy d: e:\backup /D /E /Y

That will copy all the directories and subdirectories from the D Drive to the backup folder on the E Drive. The /D switch is pretty cool. After you perform the initial backup, using /D causes xcopy to only copy files that are new or that changed, so you are not copying everything each time.

[Jack Hannibal]

Originally posted by meese

As far as backing up the website, you may be able to automate an FTP program to do this.

I was playing with Teleport Pro's scheduler. It appears I could use that to automate the creation of a local copy at system start-up on the Win98 box. I might even go as far as setting Teleport Pro Scheduler on the XP Home box as it is the one with the DVD burner on it. No sense having to transfer the local website replica.

Any suggestions beyond Teleport Pro Scheduler? Thank you for the help.

[meese]

I'm not familiar with Teleport Pro. Our webiste is not real complex. I used FrontPage to make it and I use it to import the web to my pc maybe once a month, or anytime I make a change. But this is done manually.

[Jack Hannibal]

Hi everybody

A follow-up question to the earlier posted xcopy question. My current batch file is set to run on my WinXP system. The much appreciated post from meese has me running this as a push from the Win98 box to the WinXP box. I would rather execute the batch on the WinXP box and pull the files from the Win98 box.

The folder I am attempting to run xcopy on is on the second disk drive of the Win98 box. The folder name on the Win98 box I want to xcopy from is called Mable. I have an equivalent folder on the WinXP box. The batch file currently reads as follows:


NET USE Q:\\Win98_PC_Name\disk_drive_2
c:
cd\windows
cd\system32
xcopy Q:\Mable\ Mable /D /E /Y
NET USE Q: /DELETE

I am getting the following error when the batch is run:
System error 67 has occurred.
The network name cannot be found.
The system cannot find the specified path.
More help is available by typing net helpmsg 2250.

So I typed net helpmsg 2250 and received directions to type net use to display a list of system resources.

So I typed net use and got the following:
Status OK
Local Nothing
Remote \\Win98_PC_Name\disk_drive_2

Any thoughts as to where I went wrong. You'll have to excuse noobieness to networking. I have alot to learn. Thank you for the help.

[John Prophet]

I didnt read thru all the posts..but one thing I had a problem with was trying to get XP to work on a W98 workgroup...was that the win98/ME machines would work quite well with a space in the computer name but they XP machine wouldnt work with the W98 machine with the space in the name.

In other words the W98se machine had a name of, say, ...... 'Joe's comp" well that worked fine with all the machines until I put the XP machine on the workgroup. I chased it all around until I took the space out like this "Joe'sComp"...then it worked just fine.

I am really weak on unc naming coventions etc...so maybe those "_" dont fly well with XP?? Just brainstorming.

Good Luck, JP

[meese]

Jack,

You need to create a mapped drive pointing to mable. Make Q map to mable directly. For some reason you can't use a path on the remote pc, whether you copy to it or copy from it. As an example:

xcopy c:\mable O: /D /S /E /Y

you can specify the path "\mable" because its on the local pc, but if the destination is "\\somepc\jimbob\mable", when you define mapped drive O you will use the entire path.

Basically what I'm saying is mable needs to be a mapped drive on the 98 pc.

Hope that makes sense