ARE YOU BACKING UP YOUR DATA?

Have you ever wanted to automate a backup to a network share? If so, here’s an easy script to do just that. Copy the cope below and save it as backup.bat to your c:\ – then run the file so it copies from %1 to %2 – you can call it like this cmd -> backup.bat c:\ \\your-network-share – that would copy all the files to a network share from your C:\ drive. You can use a mounted USB drive as well as the destination drive if you want…. Personally, I use the switch “/E /D /R /H /C /Y /I” since I only want newer files and want to suppress the prompts to create new directories, etc. enjoy!

@echo off
rem COPYIT.BAT transfers all files in all subdirectories of
rem the source drive or directory (%1) to the destination rem drive or directory (%2)

xcopy %1 %2 /E /D /R /H /C /Y /I

if errorlevel 4 goto lowmemory
if errorlevel 2 goto abort
if errorlevel 0 goto exit

:lowmemory
echo Insufficient memory to copy files or
echo invalid drive or command-line syntax.
goto exit

:abort
echo You pressed CTRL+C to end the copy operation.
goto exit

:exit

It’s usually only after an event that we reflect back on things that we should have done before things went down. Hopefully, this post will encourage you to take action today, before you’re in a pinch to try and recover data, stored passwords, and other data points you’ve saved when browsing the web.

If you’re still using Internet Explorer, I strongly suggest you make the switch right now and get firefox today. It’s much safer and there are a ton of plugins that can help make your life much easier – trust me.

Today’s backup topic (there will be more in the weeks to come) is for your browser – in this case, Firefox and the backup tool of choice is MozBackup.

MozBackup

In about 45 seconds and in just 7 steps, you can backup and password protect your settings and passwords that are saved on your local installation of Firefox – in the case your computer BSODs or has a Kernel Panic and can’t recover, you’ll have your Firefox install back up and running after a simple restore process in about 45 seconds.

Step 1: Welcome to MozBackup

Step 2: Choose to backup or restore a profile

Step 3: Choose the profile you wish to backup

Step 4: Password protect your backup – yes/no

Step 5: Select the components you wish to backup

Step 6: Processing the backup (will take under 45 seconds or less in most cases)

Step 7: Report – backup was successful

And that’s it – trust me, do this once a week and you’ll never be in trouble (from the browser perspective) if your computer crashes or Firefox has any issues. All your stored passwords, history, cookies, etc. will be captured in the backup file. I would suggest emailing a copy of the file to yourself so you have a backup of your MozBackup off site.

I’ll be talking about other suggestions I have for backup options in the weeks to come, so be sure to subscribe to the swansonager feed for future talks about backup strategies. Enjoy and happy backing up!