This Instructable will show you the reasoning behind, and the correct codes to create a backup system, backing up an external drive (e.g. SD Card, USB Drive etc.)
This system should be used entirely for your own personal use and too make your life that little bit easier. I therefore reserve the right not to be held responsible for any activity, in which you should use this information, outside of this Instructable.
This system should be used entirely for your own personal use and too make your life that little bit easier. I therefore reserve the right not to be held responsible for any activity, in which you should use this information, outside of this Instructable.
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Signing UpStep 1: Huh?!? Why Notepad, that's the most useless program ever!
There is one basic command really and that's ROBOCOPY.
Those with earlier versions of windows may be more familiar with it as XCOPY.
Robocopy is basically a mass copying command, used to copy many files over networks in businesses or otherwise.
Here is the script for my system, you'll have to change yours so that you can copy what to where.
So type this out on Notepad!
@echo off
ROBOCOPY I:\. F:\sd_card_backup /E /ETA /Z /MIR
EXIT
I:/. (that's my target drive, the . is to specify "copy the whole thing")
F:/sd_card_backup (that's my destination drive, the "sd_card_backup" is the name of the folder I want to save it all in. If this older doesn't exist then one will be created. Oh, and my drive value is "F:/" cause I have an external one. Yours will probably be "C:/")
/E (tells the system to copy all the folders, even if there empty. This way you can have a complete replication of the folder/drive you copied.)
/ETA (will give you an Estimated Time of Arrival, see what they did there?)
/Z (you don't need to worry about this, it's just the type of copying that works best for small copies)
/MIR (again, this assures you have a mirror of what you copied, to make sure you've got absolutely everything)
SO!
Your text may look like this if you were backing up your USB drive for example:
@echo off
ROBOCOPY G:\. C:\users\user\documents\USB_backup /E /ETA /Z /MIR
EXIT
This would copy your entire G drive (hopefully your USB) to your documents, creating and placing it in a folder called "USB_backup".
Lovely!
Those with earlier versions of windows may be more familiar with it as XCOPY.
Robocopy is basically a mass copying command, used to copy many files over networks in businesses or otherwise.
Here is the script for my system, you'll have to change yours so that you can copy what to where.
So type this out on Notepad!
@echo off
ROBOCOPY I:\. F:\sd_card_backup /E /ETA /Z /MIR
EXIT
I:/. (that's my target drive, the . is to specify "copy the whole thing")
F:/sd_card_backup (that's my destination drive, the "sd_card_backup" is the name of the folder I want to save it all in. If this older doesn't exist then one will be created. Oh, and my drive value is "F:/" cause I have an external one. Yours will probably be "C:/")
/E (tells the system to copy all the folders, even if there empty. This way you can have a complete replication of the folder/drive you copied.)
/ETA (will give you an Estimated Time of Arrival, see what they did there?)
/Z (you don't need to worry about this, it's just the type of copying that works best for small copies)
/MIR (again, this assures you have a mirror of what you copied, to make sure you've got absolutely everything)
SO!
Your text may look like this if you were backing up your USB drive for example:
@echo off
ROBOCOPY G:\. C:\users\user\documents\USB_backup /E /ETA /Z /MIR
EXIT
This would copy your entire G drive (hopefully your USB) to your documents, creating and placing it in a folder called "USB_backup".
Lovely!
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It's in a resource kit on their site, download and extract the exe. I just also read somewhere that they have a gui for it as well somewhere.
However, you can just open up "My Computer", and right-click on the desired drive, and select "Copy" from the drop-dialog
This way, you can rely on the Windows copying system to cover everything you need reliably, as well as any hidden files in the parent directory that you may not have selected when copying from the parent directory.