Windows (and Linux!) backups made dirt simple

This post is in progress, however as part of this I have been looking again at opensource software. specifically rsync.


The Cygwin Project made a beautiful version of rsync, i do recommended you take a look to see how much of the *nix world you can bring to your Windows computer!http://cygwin.org/


This specifically talk about using their implementation of rsync. as gathered by BackUP PC


their directions help you set up rsync as a service for a central machine to reach out and make a backup. you can set it to read only have it always run ect ect ect. this is great if you have a file server someplace. or simply want to make 2 machines nearly identical. This should be set for a time when your not logged in but the Machine is on.


However I expand on this with a more graceful and personal variation. Rsync can be used locally between 2 local filesystems (USB HDD anyone!) and a log-off script. basically when you shut down, or log off this thing fires off and makes the 2 locations the same. This gives you a backup of your needed data that can be referred to  when needed.


so once installed you can do a command similar to 
C:\opt\rsyncd\rsync.exe -uav "/cygdrive/c/docume~1/username" "/cygdrive/e/filesync/backup" >>cygdrive/e/rsync.log


This will backup your entire user profile in its entirety


How i used this. I created a folder called c:\opt and installed the binary in a folder there. I then created a folder on my destination drive to backup to (in this case an external Drive)


Here is where it gets interesting, create a back file with the desired rsync commands. save this, ( i used the handy c:\opt) then you can create a task, that every time you log off your computer it executes a batch file. this way you are not really logged in, so files normally being accessed (like outlook pst's and ost's) are not in use then it does a backup of files that have been changed (new version) every time you log off/shutdown/reboot. and the way rsync works it moves quite quickly.


This is the batch file i have run each time i log off the computer
It cleans up Google chrome and IE cache only. tidies up the log file and then runs my rsync.



@echo off
RunDll32.exe InetCpl.cpl,ClearMyTracksByProcess 8
del C:\Documents and Settings\username\Local Settings\Application Data\Google\Chrome\User Data\Default\Cache\*.*
del e:\filesync\rsync.old.log
copy e:\filesync\rsync.log e:\filesync\rsync.old.log
del e:\filesync\rsync.log
C:\opt\rsyncd\rsync.exe -uacv "/cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/username" "/cygdrive/e/filesync/backup" > e:\filesync\rsync.log


E is the drive letter of the externally attached HDD i have.





Other things to try:

• -b (i.e. -avb) makes backup copies of any files at the destination, before updating.
• -u (i.e. -avu) updates - won't overwrite newer files.
• -S (i.e. -avS) is more efficient if you have sparse files.
• rsync -e ssh -av --delete "/cygdrive/d/" remote:/rsync/data1/d >>rsync.log will log the transfers to file rsync.log
• -z (i.e. -avz) is very useful if doing it by modem. This compresses the information before transport. Waste of time if on a fast network.
• -P (i.e. -avP) shows progress during transfers, and also keeps partially transferred files so that if the transfer is interrupted mid-file, the bit already transferred isn't wasted. Again, good if rsyncing by modem.
• The --exclude option is very useful to exclude swap files. You may also want to exclude things like netscape caches. For example:
  --exclude 'pagefile.sys' --exclude 'WIN386.SWP' --exclude 'Cache/'
• --backup-dir=PATH puts all old versions of files into the named directory, thus giving an incremental backup.
• Look at the rsync man page for more ideas.