Programming A backup command?

[VHockey86]

Hey, wasnt really sure what exactly to call this or what category to put it in.. but here it goes...

My dad's friend... whos computer "illiterate" to say the least needs a better way to backup his data than floppies.

Basic story is that he uses it for inventory/salary/sales data for his store in excel.

Now, once his files started getting over 1.44MB... he decided to stop backing stuff up (his comp is an HP Pavilion 533c that he bought last december). I guess he figured it was too new to have any problems.

Then some sectors went bad on the HDD.. and he couldnt boot into windows so I had to use Knoppix to recover the files and reinstall windows etc etc.

Windows XP Home edition by the way.

Now heres the real question:

Rather than backing up with multiple floppies, which arent that great of a backup to begin with, I'm suggesting he uses rewriteable CDs to back it up with.

Now... the problem is that he doesnt have a clue how to do this on his own (he didnt even know what a CD-burner was until a few days ago- yet his computer has I believe a 48x burner on it).

Rather than trying to teach him how to use a program such as nero or adaptec and have him actualy burn the cd each time I was wondering if there was any way to write a macro or batch kind of a file that he could click on to backup his stuff with the rewritable cd in the drive?

Only idea I've come up with so far is to use the UDF packet software "InCD" from Nero, where it treats it just like a normal removable storage, therefore I could just have a batch file copy it to E: and it would burn it for him...

Anyone know if this would work well?
Im not so sure having a "formatted" CD-RW would be the most effective way to do backup.

Looking for perhaps some alternative that are an automated "click a button on the desktop" kind of a thing.

Thx,
VHockey

[cadetstimp]

Many of the CDRW programs have a job file type feature.

Create a CDRW writing session, select the files that need to be backed up, then save the session as a job.

Leave a shortcut to the saved job file on the desktop and rename it backup.

All he has to do is double click the saved job and it will prompt him for blank media.

[VHockey86]

Sounds like a good idea... could you give me a little more detail on how to setup these "jobs"

I looked around nero options/settings and stuff but couldnt find any way to set something like that up

[cadetstimp]

You know how, when finished burning a CD, that upon closing Nero it asks if you want to save? Well, answer yes and then specify a file name to save. What you've just done is you've saved all the selections and settings for the burn you just did. Double clicking the saved file will launch Nero with the same selections - ready to burn.

[VHockey86]

hmm, If i add a folder for it to burn, will it always burn the entire contents, or just the files that were burnt originally?

New files get added to the folder each month...

[scholar]

DataKeeper (PowerQuest) can be set to backup continuously to a CD-RW. I had it running for more than a year and it seems to work well.

One problem--After a year of use, the rewritable CD went bad, so it should be changed periodically

Regards

[John Prophet]

I am experimenting with the same scenario myself....the whole packet writing thing seems such a natural for backups....you format it, you leave it in the burner, batch files works silently....life is good. The only problem is that the whole "InCD" or "DirCD" thing seems flaky to me....like you right the stuff the cd..its seems to be there..you eject then reinsert the cd..all of a sudden the data that you looked at on the cd isnt there anymore???

Plus as was stated, for some reason the cd's do go "bad".....I had one of those rare fairly smart customers..he was smart enough to back up some files....a lot of his downloads and email stuff...only problem was he was "transferring" them from comp to cd backup...using a formatted CD....using Roxio DirCD...so he was actually taking stuff OFF of his hard drive and storing it on the CD....of curse..then one day the cd said it wasnt readable, lol.

Maybe it would be better to just use a regular CD-r and just backup till its full.

The batch file I am playing with looks like this

xcopy /d /v /y C:\mydocu~1\mcse\70-215 d:\backup

I think what you would do is right click the batch..choose the "program" tab...click the check box for "close on exit"...then it will leave a shortcut for the close on exit version of the batch. I think you would then just schedule THAT program to run in your task scheduler. The shortcut will be a *.pif file (program info file).

Anyway, the real batch file pros are Meese and davidamarkley.

I havent gotten it perfected yet cuz sometimes it seems that certain files inside of folders dont get backed up..just the folder.

JP



PS...he might just need an external drive, that might be the best.

[meese]

John,

A couple things.

1) From the xcopy usage (if you type xcopy /?) at the command prompt. The syntax is as follows:

XCOPY source [destination] parameters

In your example above you have the parameters after XCOPY, I believe it should be like this:

xcopy C:\mydocu~1\mcse\70-215 d:\backup /d /v /y

Also add the /S parameter. This may correct the problem you are having.

2) When you execute the above command, d: is another partiton or hard drive, not a cd drive, correct? It is my understanding you cannot copy directly to a writable cd using copy or xcopy. (and I've tried just to make sure)

[John Prophet]

Actually, it is a Formatted CD as the D:.

I was/am under the impression that since using Roxio DirCD (or nero INCD) makes the d: with formatted CD show up in the "send to" list..that it basically functions just like a regular hard drive or floppy etc.

As far as the switches, I have seen them in both places..but I may try them at the end to see what it does.

Ok I just tried my batch just as I have it posted above....I took a .bmp and put it down in the "70-215" folder in the mcse folder etc.

I ran the backup shortcut.pif file and it ran perfectly....I look on the formatted CD and the .bmp is in the 70-215 folder.

That art of it is working..the part that seems freaky to me, is that I have a sneaking feeling that if I eject this cd I will not have the .bmp when I put the cd back in! lol.

As a matter of fact I was working with an .xls file the other day..I would write it to the formatted cd...it would show up....I would eject it, re insert it..the .xls would be gone, lol.

So get this....I just inserted the CD today..and the .xls is back on it! lol. (its possible I forgot and put it back on but it shows it was modified two days ago...so I think it is just on there from when I was experimenting)

So its that part of the equation that is really giving me pause....if I cant even get this to do straightforward reliable backups FOR ME..how am I gonna go get a customer to sign up? lol.

And I am not questioning the batch file part....just the "DirCD" thing. It has to have something to do with the "closing" of the cd cuz it gives 3 different options etc....but I shouldnt have to close it at all if its still on this same comp with DIR cd running.

JP

[John Prophet]

Actually the more confusinf issue I have is....when using plain old window98se backup....I have a little test backup job....saves my docs, identities, favorites, other email stuff etc.

So I run the backup, it works, it stores it in its little ".qic" file.

Ok, I go to test the restore..which is where the rubber meets the road...this is what we are going to be doing in case of hard drive failure etc, lol......I restore from the backup...of course it lets you choose which files to restore....so I just pic the mcse/70-215 folder....which mainly just has some .txt files in it.

So I make a little "restore test" folder in the "backup test location" folder on my C: drive.

I restore the chosen stuff...the folders restore, but the final folder has nothing in it??? No .txt files, no pdf's.....whats up with that?

I use a folder on the C: called "backup test location" to do the actual backup to..thats where the .qic file is stored. But also in the "backup test location" folder there is a folder called "restore test" where I try to restore stuff just to test it out.

Is that why I am having problems there, because I am working from the same folder??? As far as the 'restore test" folder is in the same folder as the actual .qic backup??

JP