I had a dream (about backups)
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I have a dream of a Windows file backup tool like so: The tools runs as a service, or otherwise discretely in the background. I specify a set of directories to watch, and for each directory, I specify a list of file extensions to include in the watch, or a list of file extensions to exclude. Whenever one of the matching files gets changed, created, or renamed, the tool automatically creates a backup of that file. So far so good. I found not many, but some, tools that do just that. I want my tool to record a change history of all these files, allowing me to trace back versions of a particular file through its change history, and be able to restore any version: the OOPS! case to restore the most recent one prior to the last change, or the one from a week ago, or that two month old one, ... A bit like a source control system, but local, automatic, and transparent. Finally, and in a perfect world, that tool would even use a standard archive format (e.g. ZIP) for storage, allowing for disaster recovery without special tools therefore. Has anybody seen or heard of such a tool? TIA, Bernd
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I have a dream of a Windows file backup tool like so: The tools runs as a service, or otherwise discretely in the background. I specify a set of directories to watch, and for each directory, I specify a list of file extensions to include in the watch, or a list of file extensions to exclude. Whenever one of the matching files gets changed, created, or renamed, the tool automatically creates a backup of that file. So far so good. I found not many, but some, tools that do just that. I want my tool to record a change history of all these files, allowing me to trace back versions of a particular file through its change history, and be able to restore any version: the OOPS! case to restore the most recent one prior to the last change, or the one from a week ago, or that two month old one, ... A bit like a source control system, but local, automatic, and transparent. Finally, and in a perfect world, that tool would even use a standard archive format (e.g. ZIP) for storage, allowing for disaster recovery without special tools therefore. Has anybody seen or heard of such a tool? TIA, Bernd
try http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/Laptop\_Backup.asp doesn't do everything you want as I wasn't interested in maintaining older copies but the basics are all there all you'd need to do is add the extension code, the data management code and the storage stuff. pseudonym67 My Articles[^] "They say there are strangers who threaten us, In our immigrants and infidels. They say there is strangeness too dangerous In our theaters and bookstore shelves. That those who know what's best for us Must rise and save us from ourselves." Rush
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I have a dream of a Windows file backup tool like so: The tools runs as a service, or otherwise discretely in the background. I specify a set of directories to watch, and for each directory, I specify a list of file extensions to include in the watch, or a list of file extensions to exclude. Whenever one of the matching files gets changed, created, or renamed, the tool automatically creates a backup of that file. So far so good. I found not many, but some, tools that do just that. I want my tool to record a change history of all these files, allowing me to trace back versions of a particular file through its change history, and be able to restore any version: the OOPS! case to restore the most recent one prior to the last change, or the one from a week ago, or that two month old one, ... A bit like a source control system, but local, automatic, and transparent. Finally, and in a perfect world, that tool would even use a standard archive format (e.g. ZIP) for storage, allowing for disaster recovery without special tools therefore. Has anybody seen or heard of such a tool? TIA, Bernd
Some people use CVS (actually, you could use only RCS) for that. You simply schedule something like this:
cvs add *
cvs ciEach time you hear the word 'easy', think of Windows. Each time you hear the word 'automatic', think of Unix. [edit]Actually, it's even simpler than that: on Linux, you can use the Versioning file system[^][/edit] Perl combines all the worst aspects of C and Lisp: a billion different sublanguages in one monolithic executable. It combines the power of C with the readability of PostScript. -- Jamie Zawinski
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I have a dream of a Windows file backup tool like so: The tools runs as a service, or otherwise discretely in the background. I specify a set of directories to watch, and for each directory, I specify a list of file extensions to include in the watch, or a list of file extensions to exclude. Whenever one of the matching files gets changed, created, or renamed, the tool automatically creates a backup of that file. So far so good. I found not many, but some, tools that do just that. I want my tool to record a change history of all these files, allowing me to trace back versions of a particular file through its change history, and be able to restore any version: the OOPS! case to restore the most recent one prior to the last change, or the one from a week ago, or that two month old one, ... A bit like a source control system, but local, automatic, and transparent. Finally, and in a perfect world, that tool would even use a standard archive format (e.g. ZIP) for storage, allowing for disaster recovery without special tools therefore. Has anybody seen or heard of such a tool? TIA, Bernd
berndg wrote: I had a dream (about backups) Try a psychiatrist.
David Wulff The Royal Woofle Museum
Putting the laughter back into slaughter
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I have a dream of a Windows file backup tool like so: The tools runs as a service, or otherwise discretely in the background. I specify a set of directories to watch, and for each directory, I specify a list of file extensions to include in the watch, or a list of file extensions to exclude. Whenever one of the matching files gets changed, created, or renamed, the tool automatically creates a backup of that file. So far so good. I found not many, but some, tools that do just that. I want my tool to record a change history of all these files, allowing me to trace back versions of a particular file through its change history, and be able to restore any version: the OOPS! case to restore the most recent one prior to the last change, or the one from a week ago, or that two month old one, ... A bit like a source control system, but local, automatic, and transparent. Finally, and in a perfect world, that tool would even use a standard archive format (e.g. ZIP) for storage, allowing for disaster recovery without special tools therefore. Has anybody seen or heard of such a tool? TIA, Bernd
Why yes, we just started using it about two weeks agao. See LiveBackup at http://www.storactive.com/ -- Joel Lucsy
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I have a dream of a Windows file backup tool like so: The tools runs as a service, or otherwise discretely in the background. I specify a set of directories to watch, and for each directory, I specify a list of file extensions to include in the watch, or a list of file extensions to exclude. Whenever one of the matching files gets changed, created, or renamed, the tool automatically creates a backup of that file. So far so good. I found not many, but some, tools that do just that. I want my tool to record a change history of all these files, allowing me to trace back versions of a particular file through its change history, and be able to restore any version: the OOPS! case to restore the most recent one prior to the last change, or the one from a week ago, or that two month old one, ... A bit like a source control system, but local, automatic, and transparent. Finally, and in a perfect world, that tool would even use a standard archive format (e.g. ZIP) for storage, allowing for disaster recovery without special tools therefore. Has anybody seen or heard of such a tool? TIA, Bernd
http://www.iomega.com/software/autobackuppc.html[^] There's a new version coming soon that has will also have a restore interface, comression, encryption, among other new features The maximum characters for the signature is five hundred. I was wondering how long a five hundred characters message would be, so I decided to make my signature 500 characters long. I'm sure if I had some cool html stuff in my signature, I could eat up five hundred characters, but just typing five hundred characters takes quite some time. The trick I think is finding something to say, but I'm usually a man of few words. So I guess I'll tell you what I've discovered is the secret to life. It
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try http://www.codeproject.com/csharp/Laptop\_Backup.asp doesn't do everything you want as I wasn't interested in maintaining older copies but the basics are all there all you'd need to do is add the extension code, the data management code and the storage stuff. pseudonym67 My Articles[^] "They say there are strangers who threaten us, In our immigrants and infidels. They say there is strangeness too dangerous In our theaters and bookstore shelves. That those who know what's best for us Must rise and save us from ourselves." Rush
Clickety police :-) Laptop Backup[^] Brigg Thorp Software Engineer Timex Corporation
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http://www.iomega.com/software/autobackuppc.html[^] There's a new version coming soon that has will also have a restore interface, comression, encryption, among other new features The maximum characters for the signature is five hundred. I was wondering how long a five hundred characters message would be, so I decided to make my signature 500 characters long. I'm sure if I had some cool html stuff in my signature, I could eat up five hundred characters, but just typing five hundred characters takes quite some time. The trick I think is finding something to say, but I'm usually a man of few words. So I guess I'll tell you what I've discovered is the secret to life. It
Clickety police :-) Iomega Auto backup[^] Brigg Thorp Software Engineer Timex Corporation
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I have a dream of a Windows file backup tool like so: The tools runs as a service, or otherwise discretely in the background. I specify a set of directories to watch, and for each directory, I specify a list of file extensions to include in the watch, or a list of file extensions to exclude. Whenever one of the matching files gets changed, created, or renamed, the tool automatically creates a backup of that file. So far so good. I found not many, but some, tools that do just that. I want my tool to record a change history of all these files, allowing me to trace back versions of a particular file through its change history, and be able to restore any version: the OOPS! case to restore the most recent one prior to the last change, or the one from a week ago, or that two month old one, ... A bit like a source control system, but local, automatic, and transparent. Finally, and in a perfect world, that tool would even use a standard archive format (e.g. ZIP) for storage, allowing for disaster recovery without special tools therefore. Has anybody seen or heard of such a tool? TIA, Bernd
I have written a spec for a real time backup app that does exactly this. The tricky part is a good versioning algorithm. I've also written some proof of concept code. But unfortunately it is on the back burner for a while as other product development (surfulater) has taken priority. The Backup software market is incredibly crowded so I'm not even sure if I want to there. Mind you most of it is crapware IMO.:rose: Neville Franks, Author of ED for Windows www.getsoft.com and coming soon: Surfulater www.surfulater.com