Re: off-topic: scheduled backup to external hard drive

["Patricia M. Godfrey" PriscaMG@xxxxxxxx]

Norman Bauman wrote:
> My problem, though, is how do I write a batch file to do what LapLink does:
> Copy files from one computer to another through the serial port?
You could probably do it with port mapping, but it sounds an awful
kludge. Once you get a network properly set up, it's perfectly easy to
copy from a drive on one PC to a drive on the other from the command
prompt or a batch file. Having named each PC and enabled sharing (THAT
was the other step I forgot on my previous post), you simply use the
full path name, which includes the PC's name. E.g.

xcopy \\Petra\Petradat\*.* f:\PetraBU /s /v
Assumptions: you have a drive (physical or logical) on Petra on which
you have enabled sharing and given it the share name Petradat. F: is the
backup drive on the PC on which you're running the batch file or
command; and you've created a folder on it to keep files from Petra
separate from files from other PCs
I have a rather spaghetti-like set of batch files that call VBscripts
that create batch files that I use to archive each week's data files at
the paper to CD-Rs. The VB Scripts get the system date, parse it, and
write a batch file that runs XCOPY with the /D switch. Then, when the
batch file is run the next week, it backs up everything that's changed
since the XCOPY batch file was written, then calls the VB script to
write next week's batch file with this week's date. As I say, spaghetti
code at its worst, but it works.
> (As I understand it, the freeware XXCOPY can copy system files that XCOPY32
> can't. If I remember correctly, I once copied a Win98 installation from one
> hard drive to another with XXCOPY, and it booted up on the new hard drive.
> So you could use it instead of Ghost. XXCOPY has a much longer help page.)
Now that, if true, is quite remarkable. Because Big Brother Bill
definitely does NOT want you doing that, and has done everything
possible to prevent it.
By the bye, under Windows, XCOPY calls XCOPY32 if it needs it, so you
don't need to type the 32. Watch sometime, on a slow machine: the title
bar of your DOS window will change from XCOPY to XCOPY32 while the job
is running.


Patricia M. Godfrey
priscamg@xxxxxxxx