Personal Backup

f Personal Backup - Task

	Personal Backup Version 5.2
	© 2012, J. Rathlev, IEAP, Kiel University

Creating a new backup task

A wizard can help the less-experienced user create a backup task. The wizard will lead you through the basic settings (Start wizard button). A task created in this way can later be edited using the program desktop functions described below.
The experienced user can skip this wizard by clicking the Configure task button and entering the settings directly.

Backup wizard

First select the destination directory for your backup. This means the location to which you wish to back up your data. Using a subdirectory on an external or network drive is recommended. You can insert placeholders for the date and/or time of backup into the directory name (more ..).

Next, select the directories you wish to back up. Folders containing your personal data (under My Documents for your documents and Application Data or AppData\Roaming for your program settings and mail data, e.g. from Mozilla Thunderbird) can be added by clicking the associated button. Other directories may be searched-for manually and added to the list.

Then select how the files are to be stored in the destination directory:

as separate files, optionally compressed and/or encrypted
as zip files, optionally encrypted

Finally, you can specify whether you want to start the new backup automatically under a selection of conditions (more ..).

Click the Done button to store and complete the new task. The wizard will be closed. To start the new backup, just click the Start button.

Editing a backup task

Destination

The destination path is displayed towards the top of the program center window. It can be a local path, a network path or a directory on an FTP server.

Destination (local or network):

Click on the button on the right to select a directory anywhere on your computer or on your network.
Clicking the down arrow at the right of the entry field will drop down a list of recently-used destination directories for quick selection. Right-clicking this field will open a menu for editing this list.
It is also possible to insert placeholders for date and time into the path and to replace the drive letter with the volume name of a removable drive (e.g. a USB stick).

User logon

If you need a special account to access the destination directory, click the button and enter the username and password.

Destination on an FTP server:

The required connection settings can be specified or edited in a dialog box that appears when the option "FTP server" is selected or when the button is clicked:

The destination directory may contain one or more placeholders.
If a password is specified in the dialog, the connection to the FTP server will be established automatically. If you leave the password blank for greater security, you must insert it manually before each backup.
Other options:

Secure data connection: Data transfer using FTPS
Changing filenames: Unix/Linux systems differentiate between lower- and upper-case characters in filenames. You can specify whether you wish to change all file and directory names to lower or upper case prior to data transfer.
Quoted filenames: Filenames with spaces will cause errors on an FTP transfer. Some servers allow filenames within quotation marks (as is common under Windows).
Character encoding: As there are still FTP servers that do not support UTF-8 encoding, you can specify that certain characters are to be replaced by a numeric code as is usual in URL addresses (e.g. a space = %20).
Force UTF-8 encoding: Some servers do not announce their UTF-8 capability in the feature request but still support this. In this case you can force the encoding to UTF-8.

Using placeholders

Clicking the button causes the dialog box (reproduced on the right) to appear, in which a placeholder in the format "%sss%" is added to the directory name, with "%sss%" being replaced with current values on backing up:

%date% - date in the format "yyyy-mm-dd" (e.g. 2011-08-03)
%yaw% - year and week in the format ""yyyy-ww" (e.g. 2011-31)
%dow% - day of current week in the format "Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun"
%day% - day of current year in the format "ddd" (e.g. 1 = January 1)
%week% - week of year in the format "ww" (i.e. 01 .. 53)
%dom% - day of current month in the format "dd" (i.e. 01 .. 31)
%wom% - week of month in the format "w" (i.e. 1 .. 6)
%month% - month of current year in the format "mm" (i.e. 01 .. 12)
%year% - current year in the format "yyyy" (e.g. 2004)
%time% - time of day in the format "hhmmss" (e.g. 215325)

Example: X:\Backup\Data-%date% ⇒ X:\Backup\Data-2004-10-17
Hence another backup directory will be generated each day.

Volume specifier of a removable drive

When using USB sticks, the system may not always assign the same drive letter. To be independent from drive letters when backing up data, you can use the volume specifier of the removable media (:<volumename>:) instead.
Example:

instead of K:\Backup use :Backup-1:\Backup

Directories to be backed up

Click on the Directories tab and select the directories you wish to back up. There are two ways to add the selected directories to the backup task:

Click on the button
Left-click and hold the selected directory to drag and drop it onto the task list.

If you wish to inspect the files contained in the selected directory, click the button. The dialog box option "Show files" allows you to display a file list, but you can select only one directory.

The names of all selected directories will be added to the task list in the center. Long names will appear abbreviated in the task directory list such that the beginning and end of the path will remain visible. Moving the mouse over a such a name will display the full path as a tooltip.
After each directory name, additional info is displayed in an abbreviated form to indicate the subdirectories selected and any filter settings for file and filetypes:

(-n): There are n subdirectories excluded.
(+n): There are n subdirectories selected.
(all): No file filter has been specified.
(only FF): A file filter FF (e.g. [AB]*) has been specified to select certain files (See Standard file filter)
(except FF): A file filter FF (e.g. [AB]*) has been specified to exclude certain files (See Standard file filter)
from/to date: A time slot has been specified under the Files tab.
</> size: Only files matching a predefined size (e.g. <16MB or >1kB) will be backed up.
[+/-attr]: Certain attributes (e.g. [+a-r]) will be included or excluded.
[I]: A type list has been specified via the option "Only these" under the Types tab.
[E]: A type list has been specified via the option "All except" under the Types tab.

Clicking one of the listed directories will display the tree of all subdirectories in the program bottom window under the Subdirectories tab.

Possible placeholders for source directories

Clicking the button at the top on the right will open a dialog box. All placeholders are in the format "%sss%". These will be replaced with current values on backing up (see screenshot on the right):

%perspath% - Path to the My Documents user directory
%apppath% - Path to the Application Data (..\AppData under Windows 7) user directory
%profile% - Path to the user profile (e.g. C:\Users\<Name> under Windows 7)
%user% - Name of the logged-on user
%computer% - Name of the computer
%desktop% - Path to the user desktop folder
%favorites% - Path to the user favorites folder
%progfiles% - Path to programs folder (e.g. C:\Program Files)

Backing up removable volumes

If you want to back up files from a removable drive (e.g. a USB stick) you cannot be certain that the same drive letter will always be assigned. In such a case, using file synchronization on backup may result in loss of data in the backup directory.

To prevent this, the program saves the volume name with any directory located on a removable drive when creating a new task. Before the backup starts, the program checks whether this drive is present. If not, the backup will be canceled.

Desktop with fully-configured task

To remove a directory from the task list, click on the button or drag the selected directory back to the directory tree window.

Preview

Right-clicking the list of selected directories will open a context menu with several preview options

Show all selected files: Show all files that are selected for backup using the current filter settings. Which of these files really will be backed up will be decided later, on performing the backup.
Show all excluded files: Show all files that are excluded from the backup using the current filter settings.
Show all files to be backed up: This item is only available when using the archive bit for selection. All files with this bit set will be displayed.
Show all files not to be backed up: This item is only available when using the archive bit for selection. All files with this bit not set will be displayed.

Extended selections

In the program bottom window you can make more detailed selections for

Advanced settings

In most cases you can use the default settings for a backup, but the more experienced user may prefer to configure the many individual options.

Backup destination: In separated files or in zip file(s).
Backup mode: Copy (using timestamp or archive bit) or configured as an alternating schedule (full and differential or incremental).
File processing: Copy as-is, or use compression and/or AES encryption.
Options: Copy file details, verify backed-up files, etc.
Synchronization: Delete from the backup destination files that no longer exist at the source.
Security backup: Older versions of files are renamed instead of being deleted (with a definable number of previous versions).
Mail delivery: Automatic mail delivery after backup with status and optional log.
External programs: Execute any external program or script before and/or after a backup.

Status indicator

At the top of the program center window, key information about the current task is displayed:

Name of task
Total number of files and the storage capacity required for these (before compression)
Time and date when last backed up

To accelerate the loading of a task, the number of files, the required storage capacity and the type list for the selected directories are not all updated immediately. If the option Scan directories is selected in the main menu Preferences ⇒ Program start, only the first directory will be scanned for new files. Otherwise no scan will be carried out until any directory is left-clicked causing that directory to be scanned.

J. Rathlev, 24098 Kiel, Germany, August 2011

Personal Backup Version 5.2