data backup using xcopy

2009-02

How-to-document

Data backup on external hard disk

using XCOPY

How-to-document Data backup on external hard disk using XCOPY

Please feel free to copy, forward or publish this document

2

Inhalt

1. Abstract.................................................................................................................... 3

2. Introduction ............................................................................................................. 4

2.1 What is this all about .....................................................................................................4

2.2 What will you read in the following chapters......................................................................4

2.3 Language......................................................................................................................4

2.4 Copyleft and suggestions................................................................................................4

3. First step: Where are your files? .............................................................................. 5

3.1 Find your default path ....................................................................................................5

3.2 Find your data...............................................................................................................6

4. Create myxcopy batch file ........................................................................................ 8

4.1 Open a new file in Editor / Notepad..................................................................................8

4.2 Enter the command text ...............................................................................................11

5. Run your backup .................................................................................................... 12

5.1 First backup ................................................................................................................12

5.2 Following backups........................................................................................................14

5.3 Deletion of files ...........................................................................................................14

5.4 Edit myxcopy.bat.........................................................................................................14

6. Additional Information ........................................................................................... 15

6.1 Using Backup programs................................................................................................15

6.2 XCOPY on the web .......................................................................................................15

6.3 My personal backup file ................................................................................................15

7. Disclaimer .............................................................................................................. 16



3

1. Abstract

Any kind of data can be lost or damaged. In computer centers, data backups are performed regularly

by administrators. Especially for laptops and personal computers, the user himself should take

responsibility for data backups. As nowadays external hard disk drives are fairly cheap, it is

recommendable to buy an external hard disk and to run backups regularly.

The purchase of a hard disk is one part; the execution of the backup is another one. In order to be

encouraged to run the backup regularly, the backup procedure should be easy and fast. The strategy

to make backups fast is to make full backup first and then run incremental backups which are much

faster. The full backup means to copy all files onto the external hard disk. On a normal business

computer, this (first) backup can take several hours. The following backups are only incremental

backups; this means that only files that are new or have changed since the last backup are copied to

the external disk. On an average business computer, a weekly backup consumes normally between

five and fifteen minutes.

To execute the backups, a lot of good software products are available for purchase and also as

freeware.

Another possibility to execute regular backups is to use the windows command XCOPY. XCOPY is a

command line program which runs on windows in CMD.EXE. People who remember a few things from

the ancient MS-DOS times can easily create a batch file for regular backups with one simple line. The

line text is: XCOPY "D:\Documents and Settings\MY.USERNAME\My Documents\*" "E:\MYBACKUP\My Documents\" /C/E/H/D/Y

MY.USERNAME and the letters of the disks have to be changed to the current values of the individual computer.

Then, this batch can be used both full backup and following incremental backups.



4

2. Introduction

2.1 What is this all about

The intention of this document is to show a very short and very simple way to do data backups on a

Windows computer without installing any software.

If you can still remember a few things from the DOS times, you will find an easy and fast way to

backup your data.

If you are interested in more sophisticated batch programs for backup, try to search the web with the

Keywords “XCOPY BAT”.

2.2 What will you read in the following chapters

In chapter 3 “First step: Where are your files?” you will see how to find the technical names of folders

you want to back up.

In chapter 4 “Create myxcopy batch file” you will see how to create a batch file for data backup.

And in chapter 5 “Run your backup” you will see how to actually execute the full backup and the

following incremental backups.

2.3 Language

The hardware on which this document was created was set up in German. Please apologize the

German hardcopies.

2.4 Copyleft and suggestions

Please feel free to copy, forward or publish this document, especially if you like it.

If you have any suggestions, corrections or improvements, please send an email to:

[email protected]



5

3. First step: Where are your files?

3.1 Find your default path

At first, you need to know where your files are located on the hard disk of your PC or laptop.

To do so, you click on Start

Next click on Execute (or “Ausführen” in German):

In the popup-screen, enter “cmd”:



6

The command window appears:

Here you need to remember the path where “CMD” takes you. In my case, it is:

“D:\Documents and Settings\MY.USERNAME”. In your case, it will be your username instead

of my username. And it will probably start with a “C:” instead of a “D:”. The “C:” or “D:”

indicate the disk drive on which you data is located. Whether it is “C:”, “D:” or something

else, depends on the setup of your computer.

3.2 Find your data

Next, you need to get the name of the path where your user data are stored. To do this, you

start the Windows Explorer.

If your screen looks like this without address bar, you have to switch the address bar on:

In order to switch on the address bar, you click on “View” (German: Ansicht) in the menu:



7

Here you go to “Toolbars” (German: Symbolleisten) and you switch on the address bar:

Now, the address bar is displayed. But the entry “My Documents” or “Eigene Dateien” in

German does not really help:

How you can find out the technical path name is explained in the next step.



8

To find the technical path name, go to the folder that you have seen in step one in

chapter 3.1. Remember? For me, it was “D:\Documents and Settings\MY.USERNAME”:

Normally, you would like to backup the files that are under “My Documents”.

4. Create myxcopy batch file

4.1 Open a new file in Editor / Notepad

In order to create our batch file, start the Editor (or Notepad). First, go to “Start”, then to

“Programs”:



9

Next, go to accessories (German: Zubehör) and start the program “Editor”:

First, save your file:



10

Please save the file in the same folder that you have found when entering “CMD” for the first

time (see chapter 3.1):

Please give the file a name like “MYXCOPY.BAT”.

• The .bat -ending tells Windows that the file is executable

• The name should be different from XCOPY. (Otherwise I think the command

interpreter will be confused.)



11

4.2 Enter the command text

In your file myxcyopy.bat enter text like the following:

XCOPY "D:\Documents and Settings\MY.USERNAME\My Documents\*" "E:\MYBACKUP\My

Documents\" /C/E/H/D/Y

What is the meaning of this and what do you have to change?

• xcopy tells the command interpreter to call the DOS-program XCOPY

• "D:\Documents and Settings\MY.USERNAME\My Documents\*" is the source location where

xcopy copies from.

It needs to be in quotation marks, otherwise xcopy can not understand the blank signs in the

folder names.

Please change the “D:” to your drive letter.

Please change MY.USERNAME to your username.

• "E:\MYBACKUP\My Documents\" is the target location, i.e. the disk and the folder where you

want xcopy to put your files.

Please change the “E:” to the letter of your external drive.

• /C/E/H/D/Y are switches that control the execution of XCOPY. They mean:

/C – Continue copying even if an error occurred (can happen if a file is opened by another

program)

/E – Copy all subfolders even if they are empty

/H – Copy hidden files

/D – Copy files if the source file is newer then the existing target file

The /D is very important. It allows making “incremental” backups, which means that after the

first full backup only new files and changed files are copied.

/Y – Overwrite existing files without asking

Please save this file and close Notepad.



12

5. Run your backup

5.1 First backup

To run your backup batch program, click on Start , then Execute (German: “Ausführen”):

Enter “CMD” and click OK:

On the command screen, enter the name of your batch file:



13

When you hit the <ENTER> key, the execution should start. The command in your batch file and the

files that are copied are displayed:

When the copying has finished, you are told how many files were copied:

To finish and close the “CMD”-window, type “exit” and press the <ENTER> key:

If you run this backup for the first time, all your files will be copied. This will probably take some

hours. How fast it really is depends on your hardware. Experience shows that 80.000 files with a total

volume of 30 GB take about two to three hours for a full backup.



14

5.2 Following backups

For following backups, you can use the same batch file myxcopy.bat without any changes!

Start the same way as for the initial backup (Start, execute, CMD). If you run the next backup with

myxcopy, only new files and files that were changed after the last backup will be copied. For the

following demo, I changed two files and added one file:

As a rule of thumb, to run the backup with one weeks amount of changed and new files takes about

ten to twenty minutes.

5.3 Deletion of files

If you create your backup batch file as shown, it will not delete any files. If you delete files on your

computer or change file or folder names, you have to do it also manual on your backup hard disk.

5.4 Edit myxcopy.bat

In order to edit your batch file, right-click it and then choose Edit (German: “Bearbeiten”):

If you choose open, the execution will start immediately.



15

6. Additional Information

6.1 Using Backup programs

Question:

There are plenty of backup programs available. Why not use one of these?

Answer from the author:

To run your backups regularly, use whatever tool you like. To do it with XCOPY is just one of many

possibilities.

For me, there are only two things really important about backups:

• Do backups of your data!

• Do the backups regularly!

6.2 XCOPY on the web

If you type “xcopy bat” into any search engine, you will get plenty of information. You will also find

much more sophisticated ways of creating batch programs using XCOPY.

In this document, all the additional features and possibilities were ignored. Just one line of text and

your valuable data is saved!

From this document, you get a very simple working example of how you can use XCOPY for data

backup. The intention of this document is not to give you a lesson on batch programming.

6.3 My personal backup file

Besides the folder “My Documents”, probably you might whish to back up some other folders or files.

If you whish to back up the folders “Desktop” and “Favorites” and also the batch files that you have

created, your backup batch file could look like this:

If you like to have the text for copying:

xcopy "D:\Documents and Settings\MY.USERNAME\My Documents\*" "E:\MYBACKUP\My Documents\" /C/E/H/D/Y

xcopy "D:\Documents and Settings\MY.USERNAME\Desktop\*" "E:\MYBACKUP\Desktop\" /C/E/H/D/Y

xcopy "D:\Documents and Settings\MY.USERNAME\Favorites\*" "E:\MYBACKUP\Favorites\" /C/E/H/D/Y

xcopy "D:\Documents and Settings\MY.USERNAME\*.bat" "G:\BEPCACT\" /C/E/H/D/Y



16

7. Disclaimer

The author has been using this way of backing up data successfully for many years. Nevertheless, no

guarantee or promise can be given that this approach also works on your specific hardware or

software.

You are strongly encouraged to check if all data has been backed up completely and if the copied data

is useable.

If you follow the advice given in this document, you agree to the following:

The correctness, completeness and usability of any data is the users own responsibility. The author

can not take any warranty or responsibility and can not be held liable for any data loss or other

damage.