Simple backup procedure for windows (c't bff)

Backing up your files should be fast and easy, so that you make a backup every day (or at least weekly if you are lazy and your work is not so important ). In the german computer magazine c't, a simple and efficient backup script was presented, which has some unique features:

• works on any windows machine, without installing additional software!
• runs very fast
• gives a report of the result of the backup

Setup of the bff.bat script:

1. think where you will store your backups. You need a drive letter to store your backups to. This can be a thumb drive or a network drive.
2. start notepad, copy-paste the script below into notepad. Change the values of Quelle and Ziel to fit your environment.
3. safe the file as bff.bat
4. Here are some ideas on how to run the bff.bat script, from the simple to more sophisticated.
   • Place a link to bff.bat on your desktop
   • Place a link to bff.bat in your autostart script
   • place bff.bat on an external drive, and create an autorun.ini so that bff.bat automatically runs when the drive is plugged in.

Notes:

• For a more sophisticated backup using rsync see http://www.heise.de/ct/ftp/06/09/126/
• If you don't have windiff on your machine, you can install the Windows XP SP2 Support tools

For windows XP machines, here is the script. You can find the zipfile for all windows versions on the c't homepage

set Quelle="C:\Dokumente und Einstellungen"
set Ziel="D:\Backup\%date%"
set templog="%temp%\temp.log"
;
echo . >>%windir%\backup.log
echo Starte Backup: %date% %time% von %Quelle% nach %Ziel% >>%windir%\backup.log
md %Ziel%
xcopy %Quelle% %Ziel% /m /s /v /c /i /f /h /k /o /x /y >>%windir%\backup.log
echo Starte Überprüfung >>%windir%\backup.log
start /w windiff.exe -Sdx %templog% -T %Ziel% %quelle%
find "different" %templog% >>%windir%\backup.log
echo Fertig >>%windir%\backup.log
start notepad.exe %windir%\backup.log
;
rem Erstellt 2003 von Axel Vahldiek / c't
rem mailto: axv@ctmagazin.de

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