| Xcopy.exe and CD ROM Backups Xcopy is a dos command found on computers running the Windows operating system. It is located in Windows XP in the C:\windows\system32 directory. If you have trouble finding it in your Windows operating system use the Search or Find command and entering xcopy.exe and search or find the command. Once you find the command right click on xcopy.exe and copy it and then using the right click on your mouse paste it into a directory of your choice. Examples of the command are included in this article. The dos command xcopy.exe will copy files in Windows or DOS modes. It can copy entire files or incrementals changes in a file and add them to and existing backup. This allows you to copy only changes in your file. This saves times and large backup in that you don't have to copy the entire files when you backup your data. You can put the xcopy.exe command in a batch files and incorporate it in your Windows scheduler and backup automatically at any time. You can also incorportate it in a short cut icon on your desk top that allows you to manually backup by clicking on the icon. Xcopy has it greatest advantage in a network environment in that you can backup your files to other hard drives on your network. If you do not have access to a network for backups you can add a second hard drive on your computer for backup purposes. Xcopy.exe does not compress your backup data. This uncompressed version of a backup offers the advantage of accesing the backup data at anytime and viewing the data. Of course the disadvantage is that it takes up ;more space on your hard drive. With todays large drives this is usually not a problems. CD ROM or DVD ROM Backups Once your file is copied to a hard drive you can make an additional backup with a CD ROM or DVD ROM. The choice of CD's depends on the amount of data your are backing up. You can use a CD ROM for up to 650megabytes. Some backup applications allows you to span these disks and make any size backups. The DVD allows you to make backups up to 4.7gigabytes on one disk plus you can also span a backup over multiple DVD disks. Hard drives, CDs, and DVDs are the most reliable and easily used backup media. They also allow for quick muliple backups by copying from drive to drive, CD and DVD to CD and DVD. Current IRS laws requires that most accounting and record data be kept for seven years. CDs are ideal for this purpose. Keep in mind that when you backup to CD you may have to use the Windows dos command attrib.exe after you restore your data to a hard drive so that the data can be written too. This is because CD ROMs store the data in a file ready-only format The file attributes have to be changed back to archive. You can also change a file attribute by right click on file name and selecting properties and changing the attribute that way. In large files it best to use the attrib.exe because it will change all records in an entire directory by simply using the command. The attrib.exe command is also located in c:\windows\system32 directory. Examples of Using xcopy.exe Xcopy.exe has may options associated with it for backing up files. You can view the various options by executing the command xcopy/? Commads must be executed at the DOS PROMPT. xcopy c:\*.wav/s e:\AllWaveFiles\*.*/s Copies all files with extension of wav to e drive folder AllWaveFiles. xopy c:\*.wav e:\AllWaveFiles\*.* The folder must be created first. xcopy "c:\filename1" "d:\filename1/s/y/f" Coping File xcopy "c:\folder1" "d:\folder2/s/y/f" Coping Folders. Most often used. Example of coping a folder name folder1 to folder location named databk010103 The new folder will be created if it does not exist not s option. xcopy "c:\program files\folder1" "d:\databk010101/s/d/y" Note: The copy to folder has the current date of your backup 01/01/03. You can use any folder name but using the date makes it easily found at a later time. You must include quotations marks as shown above. Also note the options at the end of the command /s/y/f . Note the various in the help command xcopy/? Some Common Options for Xcopy.exe /s Copies all folders and subfolders but not empty ones. Creates folder if it does not exist. /d Copies only record changes and adds new records. /e Copies all folders and subfolders including empty ones. /i Does not ask if copy is file or folder. /q Supresses the display of the files or folders being copies. /y Does not ask if you want to over ride existing files or folders. Use this when you are using a scheduled automatic backup. /f Displays from and to locations when you are backing up. Using Batch File With Xcopy. A batch file is a regular text file. (Saved as with file extention .bat) that includes a dos command. They are usually create with the Note Pad application included in Windows. Other wordprocessors can be used but the file must be saved as type .bat (Note file extention of .bat). This is how you create a batch file: Open your wordprocess or Note Pad which is included in your Windows systems under Accessories. Next type in your copy commmand xcopy "c:\folder1/s/y/f" "d:\folder1/s/y/f" The SAVE AS myfile.bat Note: File save with the .bat extension If you edit the file later ALWAYS right click on file and select EDIT. If you dont file will execute when you click on it. You can not include your batch file in your Windows scheduler for backup at anytime. If you want to manually backup just click on file and it will execute. You can create an icon on your desktop for this purpose. Using the Attrib.exe You can view the options with this file by typeing attrib/? The most common use after restoring data from a CD is attrib *.* -r+a This allows you to write to your data after you restore it from a CD. Some data does not require this command. You must locate this command in the directory where the files you want to change are located. You can also create a shortcut on your desktop to execute the file batch file at on your desktop. Tapes Tape formats change overtime as well as tape drives. As such long data storage cannot be reatored since tape drive no longer exists or the format has change. This is not true for CD, DVD, and hard drive backups. Also CDs,DVDs, and hard drives can be read by any computer. You cannot really know if a tape drive is working until you restore your data. If the tape is bad you really have a problem. This is not true with CDs and DVDs since if you use Xcopy you can read and verify their accuracy. If you want you can compress files that are xcopied with PKZIP which is available on the Internet for free. General accounting standard require that records be kept for at least 7years. Will the tape reader be available in 7 years ???? Entire Drive Backups can be peformed with Symantec's Ghost which will backup drive to CD, DVD, and other hard drives. You usually on make one backup of entire drive then just backup data changes as shown above. Restore entire drive then restore data in the event of computer or data loss. |