a Windows console backup utility
vsbackup2.exe is a small console backup utility for x64 Windows Vista/7/8.x/10. It utilizes the Windows© Volume Shadow Copy service und can therefore be used to backup open files. There is no special tool necessary to look into the backup and restore your files, just use whatever filemanager you like. And unlike the build in file history thing in Windows vsbackup2 does not change backup file names and/or append stupid timestamps to it. It uses NTFS hardlinks to save diskspace while backing up identical files. It is better at excluding files and/or directories then the build-in Windows file history thing
vsbackup2 makes sure your files will be copied correctly by hashing over source and destination files and compare the hash
It is, however, not suitable for backing up large and often changin' files such as virtual disk images and it does NOT support UNC path names - i.e. network drives. Backing up network drives can be done by server side software.
You use this program at your own risk. Do not blame me for any data loss.
needs updates...
Extract and copy the contens of the downloaded ZIP file to a folder on your computer. To backup your data start cmd.exe with administrative privileges. Asume, John Doe would like to create a backup of his home directory to his USB backup drive windows has assigned the letter E: (path and drive letters can be lower or upper case) he will call vsbackup this way:
driveletter:\\path\to\vsbackup2.exe --source="c:\users\john doe" --destination=e:\backup
You can now create a Scheduled Task to backup your files every day or every hour. Thats completely up to you. Just make sure you check the Run with highest privileges checkbox. But don't think you have to create that Scheduled Task, you don't. You can simply run the program and type all it's options over and over again. Or you can of course write a batch file and run that from an elevated command prompt ;) I'd at least recommend the batch file...
use option vid. See help (call the program without params - but with admin privs (should be fixed!))
Log output is written to logfile and to STDOUT and/or STDERR.
The archive contains only a 64bit windows binary
Current checksum
There is no BETA anymore. I use it. You can probably too
It is a somewhat major rewrite and now supports wilcards und checks each real copy with SHA1 checksums using OpenSSL. The libs are included in the package. Two arguments are needed:
--source=...--destination=...--x=... (multiple times) to exclude files or directories. * and ? is now supported. You may also use a full path now. Use --xf=x:\full\path\to\a\textfile to let the program read excludes from the given file (each option on a separate line). There is no help right now...
See history