2009-02 How-to-document Data backup on external hard disk using XCOPY Inhalt 1. Abstract.................................................................................................................... 3 2. Introduction ............................................................................................................. 4 2.1 What is this all about .....................................................................................................4 2.2 What will you read in the following chapters......................................................................4 2.3 Language......................................................................................................................4 2.4 Copyleft and suggestions ................................................................................................4 3. First step: Where are your files? .............................................................................. 5 3.1 Find your default path ....................................................................................................5 3.2 Find your data...............................................................................................................6 4. Create myxcopy batch file ........................................................................................ 8 4.1 Open a new file in Editor / Notepad..................................................................................8 4.2 Enter the command text ...............................................................................................11 5. Run your backup .................................................................................................... 12 5.1 First backup ................................................................................................................12 5.2 Following backups........................................................................................................14 5.3 Deletion of files ...........................................................................................................14 5.4 Edit myxcopy.bat.........................................................................................................14 6. Additional Information ........................................................................................... 15 6.1 Using Backup programs................................................................................................15 6.2 XCOPY on the web .......................................................................................................15 6.3 My personal backup file ................................................................................................15 7. Disclaimer .............................................................................................................. 16 How-to-document Data backup on external hard disk Please feel free to copy, forward 2 using XCOPY or publish this document 1. Abstract Any kind of data can be lost or damaged. In computer centers, data backups are performed regularly by administrators. Especially for laptops and personal computers, the user himself should take responsibility for data backups. As nowadays external hard disk drives are fairly cheap, it is recommendable to buy an external hard disk and to run backups regularly. The purchase of a hard disk is one part; the execution of the backup is another one. In order to be encouraged to run the backup regularly, the backup procedure should be easy and fast. The strategy to make backups fast is to make full backup first and then run incremental backups which are much faster. The full backup means to copy all files onto the external hard disk. On a normal business computer, this (first) backup can take several hours. The following backups are only incremental backups; this means that only files that are new or have changed since the last backup are copied to the external disk. On an average business computer, a weekly backup consumes normally between five and fifteen minutes. To execute the backups, a lot of good software products are available for purchase and also as freeware. Another possibility to execute regular backups is to use the windows command XCOPY. XCOPY is a command line program which runs on windows in CMD.EXE. People who remember a few things from the ancient MS-DOS times can easily create a batch file for regular backups with one simple line. The line text is: XCOPY "D:\Documents and Settings\MY.USERNAME\My Documents\*" "E:\MYBACKUP\My Documents\" /C/E/H/D/Y MY.USERNAME and the letters of the disks have to be changed to the current values of the individual computer. Then, this batch can be used both full backup and following incremental backups. How-to-document Data backup on external hard disk Please feel free to copy, forward 3 using XCOPY or publish this document 2. Introduction 2.1 What is this all about The intention of this document is to show a very short and very simple way to do data backups on a Windows computer without installing any software. If you can still remember a few things from the DOS times, you will find an easy and fast way to backup your data. If you are interested in more sophisticated batch programs for backup, try to search the web with the Keywords “XCOPY BAT”. 2.2 What will you read in the following chapters In chapter 3 “First step: Where are your files?” you will see how to find the technical names of folders you want to back up. In chapter 4 “Create myxcopy batch file” you will see how to create a batch file for data backup. And in chapter 5 “Run your backup” you will see how to actually execute the full backup and the following incremental backups. 2.3 Language The hardware on which this document was created was set up in German. Please apologize the German hardcopies. 2.4 Copyleft and suggestions Please feel free to copy, forward or publish this document, especially if you like it. If you have any suggestions, corrections or improvements, please send an email to: [email protected] How-to-document Data backup on external hard disk Please feel free to copy, forward 4 using XCOPY or publish this document 3. First step: Where are your files? 3.1 Find your default path At first, you need to know where your files are located on the hard disk of your PC or laptop. To do so, you click on Start Next click on Execute (or “Ausführen” in German): In the popup-screen, enter “cmd”: How-to-document Data backup on external hard disk Please feel free to copy, forward 5 using XCOPY or publish this document The command window appears: Here you need to remember the path where “CMD” takes you. In my case, it is: “D:\Documents and Settings\MY.USERNAME”. In your case, it will be your username instead of my username. And it will probably start with a “C:” instead of a “D:”. The “C:” or “D:” indicate the disk drive on which you data is located. Whether it is “C:”, “D:” or something else, depends on the setup of your computer. 3.2 Find your data Next, you need to get the name of the path where your user data are stored. To do this, you start the Windows Explorer. If your screen looks like this without address bar, you have to switch the address bar on: In order to switch on the address bar, you click on “View” (German: Ansicht) in the menu: How-to-document Data backup on external hard disk Please feel free to copy, forward 6 using XCOPY or publish this document Here you go to “Toolbars” (German: Symbolleisten) and you switch on the address bar: Now, the address bar is displayed. But the entry “My Documents” or “Eigene Dateien” in German does not really help: How you can find out the technical path name is explained in the next step. How-to-document Data backup on external hard disk Please feel free to copy, forward 7 using XCOPY or publish this document To find the technical path name, go to the folder that you have seen in step one in chapter 3.1. Remember? For me, it was “D:\Documents and Settings\MY.USERNAME”: Normally, you would like to backup the files that are under “My Documents”. 4. Create myxcopy batch file 4.1 Open a new file in Editor / Notepad In order to create our batch file, start the Editor (or Notepad). First, go to “Start”, then to “Programs”: How-to-document Data backup on external hard disk Please feel free to copy, forward 8 using XCOPY or publish this document Next, go to accessories (German: Zubehör) and start the program “Editor”: First, save your file: How-to-document Data backup on external hard disk Please feel free to copy, forward 9 using XCOPY or publish this document Please save the file in the same folder that you have found when entering “CMD” for the first time (see chapter 3.1): Please give the file a name like “MYXCOPY.BAT”. • The .bat -ending tells Windows that the file is executable • The name should be different from XCOPY. (Otherwise I think the command interpreter will be confused.) How-to-document Data backup on external hard disk Please feel free to copy, forward 10 using XCOPY or publish this document 4.2 Enter the command text In your file myxcyopy.bat enter text like the following: XCOPY "D:\Documents and Settings\MY.USERNAME\My Documents\*" "E:\MYBACKUP\My Documents\" /C/E/H/D/Y What is the meaning of this and what do you have to change ? • xcopy tells the command interpreter to call the DOS-program XCOPY • "D:\Documents and Settings\MY.USERNAME\My Documents\*" is the source location where xcopy copies from. It needs to be in quotation marks, otherwise xcopy can not understand the blank signs in the folder names. Please