The program runs on 32-bit and 64-bit systems
Installation: Under these operating systems, the rights of an administrator
are required. Always use the executable
setup (pb-setup-5.0.xxxx.exe) to install or update Personal Backup.
This will ensure that there are no restrictions on running the program.
Automatic backups on logoff or on shutdown work
on the above systems without any problems.
Many users do not know which backup mode is best for their purposes. If you
are not an experienced user, you should select the default options In separate
files, Separate directory per driveand Copy
so that no files are deleted at
the destination (unless you selected the Synchronize option). Only those files
will be overwritten that have a newer timestamp at source and the backup will
always be an exact (although optionally compressed and/or encrypted) copy of
all data (more).
The integrated Restore function of the program can be used to restore your data.
The options Full, Differential and Incremental should only be used by experienced users if they want to perform a special backup strategy. In each case the destination directory is cleared before backup. Restore is only possible with a combination of full and differential or full and incremental backups.
There are two options for saving data as zip files:
Zipped backup files must always be written anew, so this option is not suited to a daily backup of large amounts of data. It is more appropriate for small amounts of data (e.g. special projects). Many programs (including Windows Explorer since XP) can read and unpack these files. To document the various stages of a project, you can use one of the optional placeholders as part of the filename.
There are four different backup modes:
Automatic backup schedules of this kind are controlled by the program.
When using such drives it can happen that the system does not always assign
the same drive letter. To backup data always to the same medium independently
of the drive letter, you can use the volume name of the removable media
(:<volumename>:) instead. Go to Windows Start,
Computer or Workplace, right click on the drive and select Properties
to define a volume name.
Example:
Assign the name Backup-1 to the external drive.
Enter :Backup-1:\Backup instead of K:\Backup
in Personal Backup
To disconnect the external drive automatically after backup, use the "External programs" function to start a small batch file which calls the utility program RemoveDrive.
Sample script:rem remove external drive (RemoveDrive.bat) RemoveDrive "Backup-1"
The destination directory may be located on any network device or computer. There are various ways to connect:
Since Version 5.0.5, a monitor has been incorporated to prevent the program from hanging (e.g. if the network connection is lost). If while copying files there is no response for a specified time (default: 30s), the process will be canceled. The timeout is adjustable in Task settings ⇒ More options. Setting it to zero disables monitoring (view How-to-video).
After a file has been successfully copied, its timestamp (date and time of
last change) will be set to the value of the original file. If this
doesn't happen, a warning will appear in the log file. This is only an
indication of a problem, in that the actual backup of the file nevertheless
occurred.
When backing up to a local or Windows network drive, this warning points to a
problem in the destination directory (e.g. lack of administration rights)
that should be investigated. Should this warning appear when backing up via
FTP, the cause will probably be due to the fact that some FTP servers in
principle offer no way to set the timestamp. In this case the warning can be
ignored.
When using a backup destination on one of the above devices, the backup might stop with the error message The destination volume is full! even if sufficient space is actually available. In this case you should reduce the size of the internal copy buffer (e.g. to 64 kB) via Task settings ⇒ Other task settings. Try different values to determine which size is optimal for your backup device.
It is possible to configure Personal Backup in such a way that it can be started from a USB stick or drive without leaving traces on the host PC (Version 4.1.3.2 and above). Copy all files from the program directory (usually C:\Program Files\Personal Backup x) or the downloadable zip file to a directory on the USB drive (e.g. K:\PersBack), and use the command line options /ini:[IniFile] and /taskdir:[Directory] to start the program. The options set the program to use an ini file and a task directory on the USB drive.
Then, using a text editor, create a batch file (e.g. startpb.cmd) in the root directory of the USB drive with the following lines:
@echo off echo Start Personal Backup from USB flash drive start PersBack\PersBackup.exe /i:%%progpath%%\pb.ini /t:%%progpath%%\
Start the program from the USB drive using this batch file and configure your backup task. To use a backup target directory on the USB drive itself, omit the the drive letter from the destination path (e.g. \Backup).
There are several methods to start a backup on logoff:
If the backup does not start when logging off or shutting down the computer, the
reason is usually an incorrect Windows setting. The registry key
HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\AutoEndTasks determines whether
running processes end automatically or not (see the
information from Microsoft).
This value must be "0" to allow a backup.
If the program XP-Antispy
is installed, the value can also be changed from there: switch off the option
Activate fast shutdown.
On starting the program, the first directory of a backup task will normally be
scanned for new files. If for example this is a whole partition, it can take a
very long time.
There are two ways to get around this:
Files are encrypted using the AES method, with the same routines as in WinZip (Info at WinZip and at Brian Gladman). The file format created depends on the backup mode:
Enc-Header : 10, 14 or 18 bytes (depending on the length of the password)
Salt value (8, 12 or 16 bytes) + password verification value (2 bytes)
Enc-Data : Same number of bytes as original file
Enc-Trailer: 10 bytes Authentication code
Gzip-Header : 10 bytes
new: Flag byte: bit 5 = encrypted
Enc-Header : 10, 14 or 18 bytes (depending on the length of the password, see 1.)
Enc-Data : Same number of bytes as compressed original file
Enc-Trailer : 10 bytes (see 1.)
Gzip-Trailer: 8 bytes
Crc always = 0
See program sources (in German) for more details.
If the backup target is inside a Windows directory (local,
external or network) you can use the internal Restore function
for unpacking. This works also with encrypted gz and zip files.
If the backup is on an FTP server, it is not possible to unpack
gz and zip files directly. You have to copy them first into a local temporary
directory using the internal Restore function or any FTP client
(e.g. FileZilla). Then you can use the internal Restore function
(see above) to unpack them to their final destination.
In a zip archive, first of all the compressed files are saved with a header and checksum in the destination file followed by a directory with pointers the start of each file. See PkWare for more details.
If the directory is corrupted or missing, the zip file can then no longer be read by many programs, although the data itself may still be intact. Some archive programs (e.g. iZArc) provide tools to repair such files.
To be able at least partially to restore data from corrupted zip files created with Personal Backup, you can use the following program:
The intended purpose of the program is to backup personal data such as documents, spreadsheets, images, etc., the loss of which can have a serious impact since the data is either impossible to recreate or can be achieved only after extremely time-consuming labor.
On the other hand, the operating system and applications in use can always be reinstalled from their original sources and while this will take some time, it is at least possible.
Saving this data with Personal Backup does not make sense because a restore is simply not possible. Moreover a daily backup of a running system is not necessary (in contrast to personal data). The fastest way to recover after a system crash is to restore the whole partition previously saved with an imaging tool. A freeware version for personal use is available from Paragon: Backup & Recovery Free Edition
The Windows API functions used in Version 4 of this program restrict the path
length (directory + filename) to 260 characters (see Windows SDK). Even Windows
Explorer in XP has this limitation.
Version 5 was built with Delphi 2009 which has full Unicode support. With this
version, path lengths up to 32,000 characters are allowed.
With Version 4 you can use a workaround using the command "Subst":
Example:
The files to be backed up are located in the directory C:\Dir1\..\Dir2\Dir3\..\Dir4.
The whole path (directory + filename) exceeds 260 characters.
To split the path, type at the DOS prompt:
subst X: C:\Dir1\..\Dir2Now you have a new (virtual) drive X: with the subdirectory Dir3\... Add this to your backup task.
subst X: /d
To automate this procedure, start the following batch files before and after backup using the integrated function to execute external programs: SplitDir.cmd:
rem Split directory path and substitute with drive subst X: %1UnsplitDir.cmd:
rem release substitution subst X: /dExecute before Backup:
SplitDir.cmd C:\Dir1\..\Dir2Execute after Backup:
UnsplitDir.cmd
When performing a backup on shutting the computer down, it may be that the PC
does not power off or does not restart.
The reason is that the Windows API function that notifies all programs before
shut down (See "WM_QUERYENDSESSION" in Windows SDK) says nothing about the
intended action (shut down or restart).
To tell Personal Backup what to do after backing up, select this in the main menu
Preferences ⇒ Shutdown.
An alternative method is to use the
functions in the context menu
called by right-clicking the icon in the Windows notification area.
This problem can be avoided by not using the integrated function Backup on logoff, but instead using a logoff (or shutdown) script. Create the following script and set the Windows policy for logoff (administrator rights are required):
Note: To use a shutdown script instead, select the section Computer configuration in the Group Policy Editor. This requires at least Personal Backup version 5.2.
The easiest way to start Personal Backup as a service is to use the Windows
Task Scheduler. You can configure many different backup tasks to start at different times
(e.g. on particular days of the week).
Process the following steps:
The wizard uses an interface to Windows Task Scheduler 1.0 that requires an
account with password, so users working with an account without password cannot
configure a scheduled task using the wizard. They must either add a password to
their accounts or create a special backup account with password.
Note: Windows 7 uses Task Scheduler 2.0 that can start
tasks without a password. Because the program libraries used in Personal Backup do not
yet support this version, you will always need a password to create a scheduled task
with the wizard. In any case you can configure a scheduled backup directly using the
Windows Task Scheduler dialog.
All program settings including the configuration of automatic backup tasks
are saved in an ini file (Persbackup.ini). This is a text file and can be read
with any text editor. Editing this file is, however, not recommended.
The ini file and the standard log file (Persbackup.log) are located in the
user's application data directory. You will find this at the following locations:
Note: By default this directory is hidden. To make it visible, change the Windows Explorer setting via Tools ⇒ Folder Options ⇒ View ⇒ Show hidden files and folders.
The files used by outlook are locked for other applications and backing up this data requires that Outlook is not running
There are two ways to ensure this:
Using the function Execute external programs: before backing up, a
script is run to stop Outlook and another script run to restart it as soon as
the backup is completed. The following sample scripts can be modified for other
applications. To create and edit the scripts you need a simple text editor such
as Notepad.
Save the scripts at an appropriate location using the proposed names.
Click Edit at Options/Extended/External programs and
insert the following command lines:
Before backup: %sysdir%\cscript.exe "<path>\StopOutlook.vbs"
After backup: %sysdir%\cscript.exe "<path>\StartOutlook.vbs"
and select the checkboxes.
' VB Script Document
option explicit
dim oWmi, sWmiO, oQResult, oProcess, WshShell, iRet
' Terminate Outlook
Set oWmi = GetObject("winmgmts:")
sWmio = "select * from Win32_Process where name='outlook.exe'"
Set oQResult = oWmi.Execquery(sWmio)
For Each oProcess In oQResult
iRet = oProcess.Terminate(1)
Next
Set oWmi = Nothing
set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
WScript.Sleep 100
' VB Script Document
option explicit
dim WshShell
' Start Outlook
Set WshShell = WScript.CreateObject("WScript.Shell")
' The following line depends on the installed Office version
WshShell.Run """%ProgramFiles%\Microsoft Office\Office11\Outlook.exe""", 9
Download the script files
Personal Backup Version 5 does not work under Windows 98. Users using this operating system must use Version 4.5!