There are many options these days for methods of data backup including proprietary software as well as many open source options too. The method you choose will depend on what you are trying to achieve as well as the platform(s) you are working with.  When looking at options, I had to keep in mind that with a tight budget, a full proprietary software option was out of the question.  By no means am I suggesting that this method is the best solution in every case, but it works well for me.

In the solution I chose, I found that I could make reliable backups using a combination of batch files along with the Windows Scheduled Tasks application and WinZip.  Although this process still relies on Windows for it’s Scheduled Tasks application, you can make this work on other OS’s with a similar application. Also, WinZip is not a free solution either, but I know that it’s fairly cheap, but if you don’t feel like spending a dime, I’m sure you can get your hands on an alternative file compression software if you really wanted to. With that said, I found this process to be an easy alternative to forking out the Benjamins for the proprietary stuff.

The process includes:

• Gathering the files to be backed up into temporary directories using a copy command.
• Creating a new folder labeled with the current date.
• Copying the contents of each temporary directory into the newly created folder.
• Zip the new folder.
• Burn DVD for off-site storage.

1. To gather the desired files, I wrote a batch file that copies the files from their current location to a temporary destination folder. I used the xcopy command which allows for a buch of options for copying. Click HERE to view a list of options. (http://www.microsoft.com/resources/documentation/windows/xp/all/proddocs/en-us/xcopy.mspx?mfr=true)

I used the following:

::/S Copies directories and subdirectories except empty ones.

::/C Continues copying even if errors occur.

::/E Copies directories and subdirectories, including empty ones. Same as /S /E. May be used to modify /T.

::/H Copies hidden and system files also.

::/I If destination does not exist and copying more than one file, assumes that destination must be a directory.

::/R Overwrites read-only files.

::/Y Suppresses prompting to confirm you want to overwrite an existing destination file.

Here is an example of how the batch file should look:

:: turn off the output display

@echo off

::set the backup command variable

set backupcmd=xcopy /s /c /d /e /h /i /r /y

::Set the folder name variable as the current date

set folder=%date:~10,4%%date:~7,2%%date:~4,2%

::create a new directory with the current date

mkdir Path_to\%folder%

::copy the directory to be backed up into the new directory

%backupcmd% “C:\pathTo\folderToBeBacked\*.*” “:\pathToBackup\%folder%”

::use winzip to zip the newly created directory

C:\progra~1\winzip\winzip32.exe -a -r C:\backupDir\%folder%.zip C:\backupDir\%folder%\*.*

While logged in as the initial user (set up during installation), after adding a new user account using the “useradd” command, I was unable to access many of the features that I was used to with the command prompt such as tab completion, colored prompts, and history scrolling.  Finally I came across a forum that solved my problem.  I found that the issue was that I was using an unfamiliar shell which did not support these features.  The shell that was used to using is the bourne again shell (bash shell), and by setting up a new user, the default shell was set to the sh shell.

To change the default shell, you need to edit the /etc/passwd file.

vi /etc/passwd

This file contains a list of system accounts, each on a separate line.  You must have root privileges in order to modify this file.  Each account has seven fields seperated by a “:” symbol.  These fields are username, password, UID, GID, User ID Info, Home Directory, and Shell Path.  The field that you need to pay attention to is the Shell Path.  Locate your user account from this list and verify change the shell path to the following:

/bin/bash

After you are finished modifying this file, log in using the modified account and type the following to verify that bash is your default shell:

echo $SHELL

This should return the following line:

/bin/bash

Enjoy all the features of using the bash shell!