Backups are an evil necessity and as with most geek admins we tend to forget to do it. We think of grand schemes and how we can do it better. Well I am still thinking of those grad schemes but in the meantime I use a simple command file to backup file off one drive to another that will only copy newer files. What is so nice with this is I don’t have to have a backup program to retrieve the data, but the drawback is that it uses alot of space. Running it the first time will back them all up but future runs are fast.

The batch file uses xcopy as the start with several switches, displays it in colored backgrounds and writes a logfile when it is done. Here is the simple backup.

@ ECHO OFF
rem
rem    FILE NAME:  myback.cmd
rem
rem    UPDATED:    May 10, 2011
rem
rem    Purpose:    Backup NAS files to another drive
rem
rem
rem    =====================================================================
rem
rem
cls
color 1e
@ECHO.
@ECHO.
@ECHO.
@ECHO.
@ECHO  Press Enter Key to run the program.
@ECHO  Key Ctrl+C to abort, now or anytime later.
@ECHO.
@ECHO.
@ECHO  Backup running...please wait.
@ECHO.
@ECHO.
@ECHO.
@ECHO.
@ECHO.
@ECHO.
COLOR 1B
@ECHO Copying files with more recent dates...
XCOPY "z:\documents\*.*" "i:\backup\documents\*.*" /d /E /R /f /H /Y
XCOPY "z:\downloads\*.*" "i:\backup\downloads\*.*" /d /E /R /f /H /Y
@ECHO.
@ECHO.
@ECHO.
@ECHO.
@ECHO.
Echo. >i:\back_doc.txt
Echo. >>i:\back_doc.txt
Echo. 	The Following Files Have Been Backed Up >>i:\back_doc.txt
Echo. 	--------------------------------------- >>i:\back_doc.txt
Echo. >>i:\back_doc.txt
Echo. >>i:\back_doc.txt
DIR i:\backup\*.* /-B /-S /on >>i:\back_doc.txt
tree i:\backup /A /F >>i:\back_doc.txt
REM
REM
CLS
color e9
@ECHO.
@ECHO.
@ECHO.
@ECHO.
ECHO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ECHO !!                                                         !!
ECHO !!             BACKUP PROCEDURE HAS COMPLETED.             !!
ECHO !!                                                         !!
ECHO !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
@ECHO.
@ECHO.
@ECHO.
:end

That’s all there is to it. To add more directories just copy one of the lines and change the directory names. For further automation use Windows Scheduled Tasks to add the command to run behind the scenes. You can do this the GUI way or command line. My preference is at the command line.

This example shows to run it weekly

schtasks /Create /SC WEEKLY /TN Backup /ST 03:00 /TR c:\scripts\myback.cmd

Now we are set. For the initial backup you can double click on the command file and watch it run. Then the scheduled task will run much faster.