Re: Automated backup on Windows external drive

[EricZolf]

Hi,

based on my below requirements, I've created [1].
Any feedback from someone more familiar with batch scripting under 
Windows is more than welcome.

Else, regarding the autorun feature, I've given up, my setup sees only 
like this in the root of the drive:

rdiff-backup\rdiff-backup.exe
backitup.bat
backitup.txt
autorun.inf
rdiff-backup.ico
BAK__COMPUTERNAME__USERNAME

with autorun.inf reading like this:


[Autorun]
Icon=rdiff-backup.ico
Label=MyDrive RUN backitup.bat


(the label must be 32 characters or less to appear in its entirety)

So the user must still actively start the back-up, but that's probably 
anyway better, even though a more fanciful approach could have been nice 
[2] (if someone understands them).

KR, Eric

PS: if you have other fancy usages of rdiff-backup, don't hesitate to 
share them with the crowd, and/or create a PR accordingly.

[1] https://github.com/rdiff-backup/rdiff-backup/pull/1004/files
[2] https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/shell/autorun-cmds

On 17/05/2024 12:29, EricZolf wrote:
> Hi,
>
> as I offered a laptop to my daughter, I want also to offer her a "backup".
>
> My idea would be to have an external (SSD/USB) drive with rdiff-backup 
> and a BAT-script on it, which would make sure that, when started, it 
> backs up the current user's directory to a sub-directory of the drive 
> (i.e. the place where the script lies).
>
> Extra-points for starting automatically the script when plugging in the 
> external drive (is autostart still a thing in Windows 11? Security-wise 
> not optimal...), and for having a window pop-up as long as the backup 
> runs so that the user knows to not unplug the drive (the CMD terminal 
> would be just fine).
>
> Has anybody already implemented something like this and could share the 
> details? Is it at all possible under Windows? I would have written the 
> script in 5min on Linux, but here I'm lazy.
>
> Thanks, Eric