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Number   :  4554
Date     :  2003-05-08
Author   :  Kan Yabumoto
Subject  :  Re: A folder named %date% and a Differential Question
Size(KB) :  3



Hans:

For having a separate set of backup copy for the previous
seven days, I suggest the following:

xxcopy \src\ \backup\daily/$WWW$\ /clone/yy

This one-line command performs daily backups by the day-of-week
incrementally. You may run this program as many times a day
as you want, or as few as once a day. The first week, you
will have seven different "full" backups.

\backup\dailySUN\
\backup\dailyMON\
\backup\dailyTUE\
...
\backup\dailySAT\

When you run the command on Tuesday, it will choose the
Tuesday directory for the destination. That is, if you run
the command just once a day, the operation is an incremental
backup relative to the file set of one week ago.

You may extend the same idea for a monthy backup regime.

xxcopy \src\ \backup\month/$MON$\ /clone/yy

You will have

\backup\monthJAN\
\backup\monthFEB\
...
\backup\monthDEC\

Alternatively,

xxcopy \src\ \backup\/$yyyy-mm$\ /clone/yy

which will yield,

\backup\2003-01\
\backup\2003-02\
...


If you run this script the same way as the day-of-the-week
backup once a day, this month's directory reflects last
night's file set but as you enter a new month, the
previous month's directory will have the image of the
very last backup of that month. You may choose running
this script only once a month at the end (or the beginning)
of the month.

The beauty of using the macro is that one command will
handle day-of-the-week or monthly backup by itself and
you need not change the backup script by the day or by
the month.

The /CLONE switch is probably most suitable since it
is good for the first time (as if it were a full backup)
and also good for subsequent backup (as an incremental
backup). It removes any files that are no longer present
in the source. If you use /BACKUP instead, you will start
accumulating junk files.

In any of these cases, I suggest using the exclusion
feature (/X) to avoid wasting time/space/wear-and-tear
for lots of useless files. For example, having
/X*\*.IE5\ is highly recommended for backing up directories
that may contain Internet Explorer's temporary files which
occupy a substantial amount of space. An exclusion item
that does not apply to the source directory would not
hurt nor significantly slow down the process because in
a case like this, XXCOPY checks the list of exclusion
items at the beginning and eliminates useless entries
in order to optimize the operation.

At any event, having a good set of backup files are
not only useful in its own right, but will promote
more frequent deletion of files. By knowing you have
redundant backup file sets to fall back, you can be
more aggressive in file removal. A good backup should
go hand in hand with good house-keeping ---- frequent
deletions of unneeded files. All of us are guilty one
way or another for not doing enough --- I think most
serious computer users run their system with 95% disk full.

Kan Yabumoto.
============================================================

At 2003-05-07 07:39, you wrote:
>Hi All,
>
>I read with interest Jon's solution to delete the oldest folder and would
>love a copy of his batch file.
>
>I am trying to get my head around the best approach to a differential
>backup. The steps I see are
>
>1. Make a full copy on say Friday night.
>2. If something has changed by Monday night, copy it to the Monday directory.
>3. On Tuesday night files changed since Friday OR Monday should be copied
>to Tuesday directory.
>4. On Wednesday night files changed since Friday OR Monday OR Tuesday
>should be copied to Wed directory.
>
>etc



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