XCOPY for backups

 

 

Now if only this would work with system (ntuser) files also .....!

 
No that will not work if the user if logged on the system because the file is locked, you need to use a program like Cobian Backup I post above or HoboCopy a command line tool.

 

These should be great if I can get them to work.  I installed Cobian ("as an application" not as a "service") but can't get it to run, it seems that it thinks that another version is in progress.  With the Hobo download it appeared that other additional components had to be downloaded from somewhere but I found a Hobo GUI and on the surface it looks like it might work.  Nothing in life is simple

 

 
It's better to install Cobian as service to schedule backups also running as service it will bypass some permissions restrictions.

Why do you say that Hobo needs additional components?
 

With the (archive) attribute command do I run it just once only at the beginning - not prior to using xcopy / M each time?

Every time before xcopy /m
 

Re Crazy Cats' post - thanks, it looks very impressive indeed but I'm trying to figure out just what it does and does not do! [system files?]

It will fail also but the copy continues because of /C

Tks for clarifying the archive attribute question.

I tried to install Cobian as a service but it didn't like it and the installation failed.  It installed OK as an application (whatever the difference is) but whenever I try to open it within XP Programs it thinks that another instance is running, and baulks.

With Hobo I need Windows "Volume Shadow copy" and "MS Shadow Copy Provider" enabled.  Who knows how to do this!

As is, clicking on hobocopy.exe brings up the command screen for 2 nano seconds only.  Typing hobocopy /? into DOS brings up "... is not recognized .."

It's tough going ...

Tks for clarifying the archive attribute question.
 
I tried to install Cobian as a service but it didn't like it and the installation failed.  It installed OK as an application (whatever the difference is) but whenever I try to open it within XP Programs it thinks that another instance is running, and baulks.
 
With Hobo I need Windows "Volume Shadow copy" and "MS Shadow Copy Provider" enabled.  Who knows how to do this!

Those are services included on windows that make possible to copy files locked.
 

As is, clicking on hobocopy.exe brings up the command screen for 2 nano seconds only.  Typing hobocopy /? into DOS brings up "... is not recognized .."

Copy the hobocopy.exe to the c:\windows folder. Hobo it's a command line tool you need to open the Command Prompt and type hobocopy /? to see the help.

There is a simple tutorial for Hobocopy here.

Edited by SleepyDude, 24 February 2014 - 11:27 AM.

Ah thanks - they didn't explain this on the tin.

As an afterthought, thinking back on my previous efforts, might xcopying in XP safe mode work for system / ntuser files?

hobocopy.exe is now in my e:\windows folder (I run from the e: drive).  No apparent change to previous

Cancel last post.  Putting it into C:\windows seems to have worked

Crazy Cats' post - thanks, it looks very impressive indeed but I'm trying to figure out just what it does and does not do! [system files?]

Ah thanks - they didn't explain this on the tin.

 

As an afterthought, thinking back on my previous efforts, might xcopying in XP safe mode work for system / ntuser files?

I don't think so. The ntuser.dat contains the user registry part its loaded and locked by the system if you login with the same user.

To have free access to those system files you need to login with a different user that need to be a member of the Administrators group. Restoring from a backup done that way can be tricky because you must make sure that the file permissions are correct or windows will refuse to load the user profile.

It's far more safer to use hobocopy to do the backup without messing with file permissions.

May I revert re the attribute and xcopy /m?

For differential backups I want the system to select and copy only the files that have changed since the last backup.  It has therefore to distinguish between the two categories.  But if I reset the attribute with attrib /S +a each time, then it can't do this?  Am I missing a trick?

===

What is the difference between what Hobocopy and Robocopy can do when they are behaving themselves? They seem very similar.

I have uninstalled Cobian and will try a reinstall just to have this as a backup backup.

I may have gone into Safe Mode and then as an administrator (guided by someone on the phone) but I agree that it would be much better to do it via Hobo (and/or Robo)copy.

Sorry Misread the original post for the OS. Robocopy does work in XP - goto download.microsoft.com and download the Windows server 2003 resource kit - I believe that is the official source for the XP generation's version.

I have downloaded the 2003 Resource Kit into my program files folder.  The contents appear to be just a number of "Guides", all *.docs but no exe file.  Getting Robocopy to work remains a well kept secret just as before

 

Sorry Misread the original post for the OS. Robocopy does work in XP - goto download.microsoft.com and download the Windows server 2003 resource kit - I believe that is the official source for the XP generation's version.

I have downloaded the 2003 Resource Kit into my program files folder.  The contents appear to be just a number of "Guides", all *.docs but no exe file.  Getting Robocopy to work remains a well kept secret just as before

 This one ? http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17657

Re other comments about wanting to copy ntuser.dat around - I'd expect this to cause problems - I can't quantify them, but a local profile is just that - local. Corporate networks can usese roaming priofiles, whose synchronisation is managed automatically, but I've not seen local profile being copied around so freely. The system will likely keep ntuser.dat locked anyway.

May I revert re the attribute and xcopy /m?
 
For differential backups I want the system to select and copy only the files that have changed since the last backup.  It has therefore to distinguish between the two categories.  But if I reset the attribute with attrib /S +a each time, then it can't do this?  Am I missing a trick?

What is the difference between what Hobocopy and Robocopy can do when they are behaving themselves? They seem very similar.

 

 

 This one ? http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17657

 

Re other comments about wanting to copy ntuser.dat around - I'd expect this to cause problems - I can't quantify them, but a local profile is just that - local. Corporate networks can usese roaming priofiles, whose synchronisation is managed automatically, but I've not seen local profile being copied around so freely. The system will likely keep ntuser.dat locked anyway.

 

That was my previous source.  It seemed to imply that there was a "tool" to download but all I seem to have got is "guides"!  I'm missing something.

Hopes are now pinned on Hobocopy which if it does what it says on the tin (the tutorial) should satisfy my requirements, when I get a chance to put it to the test.

 

 

 

 This one ? http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=17657

 

Re other comments about wanting to copy ntuser.dat around - I'd expect this to cause problems - I can't quantify them, but a local profile is just that - local. Corporate networks can usese roaming priofiles, whose synchronisation is managed automatically, but I've not seen local profile being copied around so freely. The system will likely keep ntuser.dat locked anyway.

 

 

That was my previous source.  It seemed to imply that there was a "tool" to download but all I seem to have got is "guides"!  I'm missing something.

 

Hopes are now pinned on Hobocopy which if it does what it says on the tin (the tutorial) should satisfy my requirements, when I get a chance to put it to the test.

 

From that page you download rktools,exe. This is an installer which installs a a collection of tools for system management - the list of tools included is in the "details" rollup on the download page.

Thhe Windows 2003 resource kit does indeed incude a lot of documentation about that family of products, but also a part of the resource kit are the tools. In this case, you are only interested in the tools, which is the package available from the page that I linked to (really, it is - I just downloaded it again to check!). It's possible that you found a link that only included the doocumentation aspect of the resource kit.

x64

Edited by x64, 25 February 2014 - 04:49 PM.

I think that I have finally got Hobocopy to work and am getting quite enthusiastic about it.  Not quite so with the other computer however which is threatened with hard drive failure and from which I just took a "simple" copy of the Docs and Settings and Program files folders, and copied them on to a replacement (dual boot XP / W7) PC.  

From what I can tell most of the settings appear to have transferred but not, for some reason, my Chrome browser favo(u)rites / bookmarks.  Are they lost and hidden somewhere inaccessible outwith the Docs & Settings folder???

It seems that with MS Office (in my case 2003) you can't just "transfer" the files either but need the original installation disc which I haven't got.

I was under the illusion that if all else failed you could restore everything by reverting to what I had previously Macrium ghost-imaged.  Not so apparently unless the replacement hardware is a clone of the original.   If one wants to provide for having to replace one PC with another, is the correct course to backup / hobocopy the Docs & Settings and the program exe files folders?