[dba-Tech] Auto-Backup

Hi all,

A while ago I inquired about creating a more intelligent backup system, that
would recognize all changed or new files on multiple partitions and
automagically copy them to some destination, in my case being a 16GB memory
stick (which only cost $20!). After scouting the Net I was reminded that I
already had installed, as part of Windows7 (and prior versions too),
RoboCopy.

If you have not investigated this wonderful example of command-line
software, I invite you to do so at your earliest convenience. It's just
about everything I could want from such a program. I opened NoteTab (my
favourite text editer) and inspected its help file and created a couple of
CMD files to do what I need to do every night, and often forget to do,
thanks to John Stuart's sense of humour. But now the Main Squeeze takes care
of herself. A couple of CMD files and adding them to the schedule has placed
me in some approximation of Nirvana. This works, and does it beautifully!

As a retired person with only one client but also a voracious appetite for
articles, only some of which are about programming, I cannot afford to
purchase a TB drive, but this little freeware program has given me a new
lease on life, as it were.

There's nice documentation, and with a few copy/paste commands you can
quickly create the CMD files that concern your folders of interest. Thanks
to the 16GB stick, I'm confident that I have enough space to replicate the
stuff of interest. My SQL database directory is another story, but as long
as I remember to stick in a blank dual-layer DVD, I'm covered there as well.
Thanks to the switches available in RoboCopy, the box won't bother copying
unchanged files, and deal only with the new or changed files.

So all I have to remember to do is, every morning ensure that the stick is
in place and a blank DVD is in place. The rest I can leave to the Universe.
She will take care of me!

These RoboCopy CMD files are dead-simple to create. The way I've set things
up, the Documents library goes to a rewritable dual-layer DVD and the
application I'm working on goes to the 16Gb memory stick, and after 3 days
of testing, I am satisfied that it works beautifully.

Yes, you people with lots of clients and corresponding budgets, this might
all sound very amateurish to you. I accept that, and my only excuse is my
miniscule pension. But it works! So if either:
a) you're subsisting on minimal income; or
b) you're a cheapskate that doesn't want to toss out money for a TB drive;
or
c) you're just interested in exploring new free solutions

Then I heartily suggest that you investigate RoboCopy. I am totally sold on
this pretty baby.

Arthur