Microsoft Office

Everyone has been in the same situation. It’s 2am, you’re finishing up an {insert procastinated project}, and what happens? The computer crashes! Your saved file might work, but what if its corrupted, and you can’t get any recoverable data back? What if it wipes out your collection of family vacations? Sure, you “backup”, copying files to your thumbdrive, CD-R, or whatnot. But you need something more reliable so you can SET IT AND FORGET IT! -thx Ronco

Introducing: RoboCopy (Robust Copy)

RoboCopy is part of the Windows 2003 Resource Tools that can be installed on a Windows machine, and provides more functionality when it comes to copying files. Want to copy only newer files? Robocopy can do it. Want to remove files that are backed up that you deleted from the source? Check. Want to keep autoamte and keep track of what is going on? Ding ding ding ding ding!!!

So, what to do?

• First, download and install RoboCopy
• Set up a destination for your backups, whether it’s another directory, drive, remote computer share, etc etc.
• Open a text editor (I use Notepad for making scripts), and enter your commands (the robocopy manual can help you sort out options)
• When you save it, enclose the filename in quotes, something like “backup_stuff.bat”. This will change the file extension, otherwise you’ll wind up with a backup_stuff.bat.txt file
• Once your script is tested and working, add it to your Scheduled Tasks, and you’re done!

Below is a sample script of mine, with a short explanation:

robocopy X:\Source Y:\Destination *.* /S /NP /XO >> logfile.txt

What this does is:

• Copies all files from the source to the destination (noted by the *.*)
• /S - include subdirectories
• /NP - hides the progress (if you’re going to log to a file, you want this option)
• /XO - exclude files that are older/have not changed
• >> - appends the results to the file. If you only use one ‘>’, it will overwrite instead.

I forgot to mention, RoboCopy is FREE!

Well, thats it, enjoy your backups!

UPDATE!

Over at Microsoft Talk, theres a story about a GUI version, for those of you who are uncomfortable with the command line.

backup, robocopy, sync, update, automate, office, free