Windows Batch Script To Backup Data
Computer users who have grown up with advanced Mac and Windows computers may not be aware of it, but once, long ago, all personal computers were controlled using a command-line interface. Yes, that clunky command box on your Windows machine used to be literally the only way most people ever interacted with a computer. Command line interfaces relied heavily on small programs called ‘scripts’, which were collections of operating system commands used to perform common tasks.
Although the graphical user interfaces of today’s PCs are light-years more sophisticated and easy to use than the old command lines, there are still uses for the older method of controlling your computer. One of the most common, and well suited, applications for a command line script is data backup. Command line scripts can be automated to run at any time without any human interaction, and have few limitations. Best of all – they are a built-in part of the Windows operating system.
Why Command Line Scripts?
Why use a command-line script when there are both commercial and free backup programs out there? Well, command-line scripts have a number of unique advantages. Here are a few of them:
- Native Commands: What better way to backup data than by using the functions made available through the program which creates the data? Whether this is the operating system itself via a simple file copy command or a database command to produce a restorable binary file, the source program knows best how to back itself up.
- Ultimate Control: Since a command line script follows a simple step-by-step procedure, you know exactly what is happening and can easily modify the behavior.
- Fast: Since everything is a native command, nothing is subject to interpretation. Again, you are using commands provided by the program itself, so overhead is kept to a minimum.
- Powerful: I have yet to see a backup task which cannot be accomplished through a command line script… and I have done some funky stuff. Although you may have to do some research and trial and error if you have really unique needs, typically the built in functions and features of the scripting language you are using are more than sufficient.
- Free and Flexible: Obviously, a command line script does not cost anything (outside the time to develop it), so you can copy your scripts to any number of machines and systems with little to no time or cost. Compare this to the cost of purchasing licenses for backup software on several servers and/or desktop machines.
A Quick Overview Of The Backup Batch Script
Most people have never learned to use command-line scripting, and it is considered somewhat of a “black art”. However, it is actually a pretty simple thing to learn. Tto demonstrate the power of the command line, I am providing a simple Windows batch script that you can use to backup your important data. This configurable and customizable script does not require any knowledge (or willingness to learn) of the Windows batch scripting language, but if you decide you do want to learn more about Windows batch scripting, you’ll find this script to be a good starting place.
What the backup script does:
- Creates full or daily incremental (see below for a definition) backups of files and folders you specify in a separate configuration text file (see below).
- When a folder is named, that folder and all sub-folders are backed up.
- When a file is named, just that file is backed up.
- Compresses (zips) the backed up files. After all files to be backed up are copied, they are compressed to save space. 7-Zip is required to be installed on your system for this to work.
- Dates the compressed file and moves it to a storage location. After the backup files are compressed, the resulting archive is given a file name according to the current date and then moved to a configured storage location, such as an external drive or network location.
- Cleans up after itself. After all tasks are completed, the batch script cleans up all the temporary files it created.
Requirements:
Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista or newer
7-Zip (it’s free)
Configuration file:
The configuration file is simply a text file which contains files and folders to backup, entered one backup item per line. This file must be named “BackupConfig.txt” and be located in the same folder as the backup script. Here is an example of a BackupConfig.txt file (note, the “#” character on the first line indicates that the line is a comment; comments are always ignored when the script runs):
# Enter file and folder names, one per line.
C:\Documents and Settings\Jason Faulkner\Desktop C:\Documents and Settings\Jason Faulkner\My Documents\Important Files C:\Scripts\BackupScript.bat
The example above would backup the Windows user Jason Faulkner’s desktop (and all folders on the desktop), the folder called “Important Files” inside of My Documents (and all folders inside “Important Files”) and the file “BackupScript.bat” inside the C:\Scripts directory.
Types of backups:
- Full backup: A complete copy of all files and folders (including sub-folders) are included in the backup.
- Incremental backup: When a folder is provided, only files created or modified on the current date are
backed up. When a file is provided, it is always backed up, regardless of when it was modified.
The Data Backup Windows Batch Script
I want to emphasize this script is very basic, as all it does is create backups by a utilizing a simple file copy. There are some configuration options you can set:
- The backup storage location where the resulting compressed backup files are stored.
- The day of the week the full backup is run (any other day would run an incremental backup).
- Location of where 7-Zip is installed on your computer. The script is automatically set to look in the default location.
If you have any suggestions or feature requests, please comment below. I would really love to do a follow up article to this post which features an updated script based on reader input. If you need instructions on how to “use” this script or set up a scheduled task, take a look at the links below the script source.
Without further ado, here it is:
Note: Since the quotes do not display correctly below (and as a result can mess up the script), I have included a plain text link below the script which you can use to get an accurate source to copy from.
@ECHO OFF REM BackupScript REM Version 1.01, Updated: 2008-05-21 REM By Jason Faulkner (articles[-at-]132solutions.com) REM Performs full or incremental backups of folders and files configured by the user. REM Usage--- REM > BackupScript SETLOCAL ENABLEEXTENSIONS ENABLEDELAYEDEXPANSION REM ---Configuration Options--- REM Folder location where you want to store the resulting backup archive. REM This folder must exist. Do not put a '\' on the end, this will be added automatically. REM You can enter a local path, an external drive letter (ex. F:) or a network location (ex. \\server\backups) SET BackupStorage=C:\Backup REM Which day of the week do you want to perform a full backup on? REM Enter one of the following: Sun, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, * REM Any day of the week other than the one specified below will run an incremental backup. REM If you enter '*', a full backup will be run every time. SET FullBackupDay=* REM Location where 7-Zip is installed on your computer. REM The default is in a folder, '7-Zip' in your Program Files directory. SET InstallLocationOf7Zip=%ProgramFiles%\7-Zip REM +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ REM | Do not change anything below here unless you know what you are doing. | REM +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ REM Usage variables. SET exe7Zip=%InstallLocationOf7Zip%\7z.exe SET dirTempBackup=%TEMP%\backup SET filBackupConfig=BackupConfig.txt REM Validation. IF NOT EXIST %filBackupConfig% ( ECHO No configuration file found, missing: %filBackupConfig% GOTO End ) IF NOT EXIST "%exe7Zip%" ( ECHO 7-Zip is not installed in the location: %dir7Zip% ECHO Please update the directory where 7-Zip is installed. GOTO End ) REM Backup variables. FOR /f "tokens=1,2,3,4 delims=/ " %%a IN ('date /t') DO ( SET DayOfWeek=%%a SET NowDate=%%d-%%b-%%c SET FileDate=%%b-%%c-%%d ) IF {%FullBackupDay%}=={*} SET FullBackupDay=%DayOfWeek% IF /i {%FullBackupDay%}=={%DayOfWeek%} ( SET txtBackup=Full SET swXCopy=/e ) ELSE ( SET txtBackup=Incremental SET swXCopy=/s /d:%FileDate% ) ECHO Starting to copy files. IF NOT EXIST "%dirTempBackup%" MKDIR "%dirTempBackup%" FOR /f "skip=1 tokens=*" %%A IN (%filBackupConfig%) DO ( SET Current=%%~A IF NOT EXIST "!Current!" ( ECHO ERROR! Not found: !Current! ) ELSE ( ECHO Copying: !Current! SET Destination=%dirTempBackup%\!Current:~0,1!%%~pnxA REM Determine if the entry is a file or directory. IF "%%~xA"=="" ( REM Directory. XCOPY "!Current!" "!Destination!" /v /c /i /g /h /q /r /y %swXCopy% ) ELSE ( REM File. COPY /v /y "!Current!" "!Destination!" ) ) ) ECHO Done copying files. ECHO. SET BackupFileDestination=%BackupStorage%\Backup_%FileDate%_%txtBackup%.zip REM If the backup file exists, remove it in favor of the new file. IF EXIST "%BackupFileDestination%" DEL /f /q "%BackupFileDestination%" ECHO Compressing backed up files. (New window) REM Compress files using 7-Zip in a lower priority process. START "Compressing Backup. DO NOT CLOSE" /belownormal /wait "%exe7Zip%" a -tzip -r -mx5 "%BackupFileDestination%" "%dirTempBackup%\" ECHO Done compressing backed up files. ECHO. ECHO Cleaning up. IF EXIST "%dirTempBackup%" RMDIR /s /q "%dirTempBackup%" ECHO. :End ECHO Finished. ECHO. ENDLOCAL
Plain text source is available here:backup
If you need help getting started with implementing this script, here are a couple of links to help you out:
This is the same script I use to backup my computer daily (with a couple of modifications of course), so I know it works very well. I hope you find it useful.
Enjoy!
30 thoughts on “Windows Batch Script To Backup Data”
Copying: C:demo01
1 File(s) copied
Copying: C:demo02
1 File(s) copied
Copying: C:ScriptsBackupScript.bat
The system cannot find the path specified.
0 file(s) copied.
Done copying files.
Can you help me? it’s show error: “The system cannot find the path specified.
Location temp backup: C:UsersHAO~1.LUOAppDataLocalTempbackup
Thanks a lot !
d:\www
but except d:\www\cache
Thanks.
Your proposal should be easy to implement, inexpensive, powerful, reliable and documented. Assuming you have a networked windows and Linux machine ready, you should be able to use your project to set up your own automatic backup system in a short time.
Please advice
I had fun using this script on Vista. I cannot get Jason Faulkner’s backup script to run on Windows 7 unless I run manually from an elevated prompt in the right directory. When setting the appropriate rights on the bat-file itself and just executing it, the script dies within the first few seconds. Trying every available parameter and option that i could think of, It still dies as a scheduled task in the new Windows 7 task scheduler. That sort of sucks, because I know of no other backup utility that allows me to set different times for full and incremental backups (incremental backups btw also not working on windows 7).
source folder
\Folder1\sample.txt
destination backup folder
\Folder1\sample.txt
each time the backup is initiated, I only need the added or modified files are the only one that is copied onto the backup destination…
is this possible?, I don’t need any date or what so ever at this time of trying scripting for the first time?…
can anyone give me template script of what I want to do?..
the file to be copied is as it is…copied as original not compressed in zip or rar…
thanks in advance
Now, is there away to Exclude a files or folders?
I have few Vmware folder(BIG size) and few temp folder, which i dont want to back it up.
TY
k
Also the output file should be like xxxxxx_Mar2010.rar
Thanx
SET FileDate=%%b-%%c-%%d
to
SET FileDate=%%b-%%c-2010
For some reason it does not want to include the year but the above works.
I however cannot use variables like %username% or %appdata% in the “BackupConfig.txt” file.
Any idea why not?
Im a newbie in netbackup system. Would like to ask some assistance about scripting. We have an existing Replication Manager (RM) that is doing the cloning of disk. and when the cloning is finish we then perform a backup. But we usualy encounter an error. It s because that the cloning is not yet finish and the backup schedule starts already. My boss ask me to create a script that will call to backup the disk after it finish the cloning. I see that we can put the script in the RM system to call it after if finish the cloning. My problem is that scheduling on backup.
we have Daily backup, Weekly backup and every 28 of the month fullbackup.
for daily = 1 week retention
for weekly = 2 weeks retention
for 28th of the month = 1 month retention.
How to create a script that will check if is Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday = Daily; Sunday will be Weekly and every 28th of the month is Monthly backup.
Please help me if you have a script that I can use for this setup.
Thank you very much,
Regards,
Mike
email :[email protected]
Any ideas?
Thanks,
IF NOT EXIST %filBackupConfig% (
to
IF NOT EXIST “%filBackupConfig%” (
Config file:
c:\test1 <– no backup
c:\test2 <– backup
c:\test3 <– backup
The first line may be empty.
Hope this helps and thanks for your script.
I have Windows Server 2003
also tried on Windows 7. same result.
REM Backup variables.
FOR /f “tokens=1,2,3,4 delims=/ ” %%a IN (‘date /t’) DO (
SET DayOfWeek=%%a
SET NowDate=%%d-%%b-%%c
SET FileDate=%%b-%%c-%%d
)
To this:
REM Backup variables.
FOR /f “tokens=1,2,3 delims=/ ” %%a IN (‘date /t’) DO (
SET DayOfWeek=%FullBackupDay%
SET NowDate=%%c-%%a-%%b
SET FileDate=%%a-%%b-%%c
)
This will cause the script to run a full backup every time, but since you do not have the day of week, there is no way to avoid it.
Echo.|Command /C Date|Find “Current”
but need to be modified.
# backup files
\\Fs-data\data2\OVI\Safety Management\BRU referentielijst.xls
\\Fs-data\data2\OVI\Safety Management\[INC] Incidenten\[DOS] Dossiers\INC-DOS-0041 hazard log.xls
**UPDATE:** Actually, it seems my problem was due to an “Access is denied” error that was not being shown by the script. Attempting to run `dir “!Current!”` (where !Current! is the UNC path I was trying to back-up) showed the error.
the first line is always ignored .
# backup files
“\\Fs-data\data2\OVI\Safety Management\BRU referentielijst.xls”
“\\Fs-data\data2\OVI\Safety Management\[INC] Incidenten\[DOS] Dossiers\INC-DOS-0041 hazard log.xls”
It doesn’t matter if I use quotation marks, the files just won’t backup. I can get the file to work when putting in:
\\Fs-data\data2\OVI\Safety Management, however that backups the entire subfolder structure as well, while I only want to backup these 2 files.
Can somebody help me?
COPY /v /y “!Current!” “!Destination!”
with this:
XCOPY “!Current!” “!Destination!” /v
For some strange reason, there must be an existing environmental variable because my backups always include Picasa3 folders; namely: “\CDPrep” and “\Picasa2AlbumsTemp”. The strangeness of this is that the BackupConfig.txt only contains ONE directory to backup. Any thoughts?
Basically you use the FTP command in your script (this is a tool built into Windows) and then pass it a file which has the FTP server name, password and then the subsequent transfer commands each on a single line.
There are plenty of pages out there which explain how to use this, so google help regarding the Windows FTP command and the command line and you can see some examples.
My output is 1.6gb and I wanted to compress it to make it smaller, and create it in a *.7z. Is that possible? Thanks so much!
http://www.pcmech.com/article/windows-batch-script-to-backup-data/comment-page-2/#comment-19582
I love this script. =D
Thank you.
The system cannot find the path specified.
0 file(s) copied.
I tried to debug it and could see that the destination path is showing as follows:
C:\DOCUME~1\ADMINI~1\LOCALS~1\Temp\backup\C\USB\backup\Test\PHPTest
The same path is for directory copying however it works perfectly but not while copying the single file.
The code which needs review is as follows:
…
FOR /f “skip=1 tokens=*” %%A IN (%filBackupConfig%) DO (
SET Current=%%~A
IF NOT EXIST “!Current!” (
ECHO ERROR! Not found: !Current!
) ELSE (
ECHO Copying: !Current!
SET Destination=%dirTempBackup%\!Current:~0,1!%%~pnxA
REM Determine if the entry is a file or directory.
IF “%%~xA”==”” (
REM Directory.
XCOPY “!Current!” “!Destination!” /v /c /i /g /h /q /r /y %swXCopy%
echo !Current!
echo seperator
echo !Destination!
echo dirend
) ELSE (
REM File.
COPY /v /y “!Current!” “!Destination!”
echo !Current!
echo seperator
echo !Destination!
)
)
)
…
Any idea?
It seems COPY does not create the destination path for the file. Tried using XCOPY but it prompts since it doesn’t know if it needs to create a file or folder. I pipe the ‘f’ in since we know it is a file. It seems to work but there might be a better way?
COPY /v /y “!Current!” “!Destination!” —> echo ‘f’ | XCOPY /v /y “!Current!” “!Destination!”
The best way to figure out the required input in your language is to run the adjusted batch script from an (elevated) command prompt and see what pops up.
The original line in the script is:
COPY /v /y "!Current!" "!Destination!"
Paul suggests:
echo 'f' | XCOPY /v /y "!Current!" "!Destination!"
In my case (in Dutch) this becomes:
ECHO B | XCOPY /v /y "!Current!" "!Destination!"
Note that i’ve left out the single quotes around the input “B”. The script will run with the quotes (sort of) but they’re superfluous.
(Please ignore any code-tags with the examples)
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