Watch Your Back-up!

by strods

5.5K349

Intro: Watch Your Back-up!

Quick question for anyone who uses a computer out there: How many of you backup your files as often as you should?
Now everyone who said they do . . . stop lying.

Second question: How many computers do you work on. I personally find myself bouncing between four: home, office, and two computers at a church I volunteer at. Now my solution for my mobility has been like many, portable hard drive, (or 'jump drive' I call it). Now this has worked great but at it basically becomes my primary drive, but as mobile as I obvioulsy am, do you think I have time to think about backing up my files? Well after physically loosing my first drive, my second drive dying, and loosing my senior project twice because of it I came up with a solution.

Well, just a few minutes and two Notepad text files solved my problems. Now yes, you can buy a fancy MS or other professionally designed program to do this, but why when you don't have to?

STEP 1: File 1 - Backup

Write notepad file and copy as shown, make sure you change the C:\ to the location you want your files backed up at.

@echo off
echo -------------------
echo Removable Device Automatic Backup
echo -------------------
xcopy "*" "C:\-insert file path here-" /Y /E /R /D
echo Backup Complete!
Pause.

Save as'Backup.bat'

STEP 2: File 2 - Write the Autorun

Write notepad file and copy as shown:

[autorun]
action=Backup
open=backup.bat
label=Backup
includeRuntimeComponents=True

Save as autorun.inf

Save both of these files on your own jump drive.

STEP 3: The Result:

Every time you plug your drive in you should see the following menu.

Just hit OK and your jump drive files are copied to your computer’s hard drive. The first time everything will be copied, thereafter old files modified or new one added will be what is copied.

It may be simple but if you can reduce backups to one keystroke every time you plug in your jump drive at home, it’s made my day.

11 Comments

petalee 10 years ago

Great! Just what I need in case I lose one of my many USBs again :)

benny3521 14 years ago

Thanks man!  this is just what i need

cotton 15 years ago

thx i needed this i mde aa program that steals the sam and system backup file and coppies then to the usb then opens saminside to crack the password lol i am selling it now thx =)

binnie 17 years ago

this is a great idea ive got no idea about bat files except when i run my java apps i get a bat file, quickly copy and paste it to another folder and it provides a link to run that program and one qst. which bit is it backing up the usb or the folder that you specify

strods 17 years ago

it is coping the files from the usb, and backing them up onto the pc

mikesty 17 years ago

I recommend ViceVersa Pro for a commercial solution, but simple batch tricks like this are great. Recently I just got burned, been workin' last 36 hrs to get my windows install back online. More on that later..

PetervG 17 years ago

Your the liar, I back up all my things on CD's twice every month or so.