Personal Backup Version 5.9
	© 2001 − 2018, Dr. J. Rathlev

Creating and editing a backup task

• Creating a new backup task using the wizard
• Editing the backup destination
  • Using removable drives
  • Destination on an FTP server
  • Using placeholders
• Selection of files and directories to be backed up
  • Add directories
  • Add single files
  • Display list of directories to be backed up
  • Placeholders for source directories
  • Backing up data from removable volumes
• Desktop with fully-configured task
• Removing a directory from the task
• Preview
• Extended selections
• Backup settings
• More options
• Status and error display

  Creating a new backup task

A wizard can help the less-experienced user create a backup task. The wizard will lead you through the basic settings (Start wizard button). A task created in this way can later be edited using the program desktop functions described below.
The experienced user can skip this wizard by clicking the Configure task button and entering the settings directly.

Backup wizard

You have the following choices for the backup destination: on a local drive or Windows network or on an FTP server:

• If the destination is on a local hard disk, e.g. an external drive connected via USB, or if a network share is to be used, the destination directory can be directly selected by clicking the large button. Later, the files to be backed up will be copied to this location. Using a subdirectory (e.g. Backup) is recommended for security reasons. Clicking the button with the drive icon will replace the drive letter of the destination directory by the volume name. In addition, you can insert placeholders for the date and/or time of backup into the directory name by clicking the leftmost button.
  
• If a destination on an FTP server is to be used, the required settings for the FTP connection must be entered into the dialog that opens after clicking the button.
  

Next, select the directories you wish to back up:
All basic user directories (Documents, Application Data, Music, etc.) are already preselected and can be added to the list simply by clicking the button.
Some applications (for example Starmoney) save their data in the directory Program Data. By clicking the button, the desired subdirectory can be selected and added to the list.
By clicking this button, any other directory can be selected for backup.

Then select how the files are to be stored in the destination directory: as single files using a directory structure true to original or as zip archives. On backing up to single files the user can select if files should be copied with or without compression.
In addition you can specify if the files should be verified and/or encrypted during backup.

Finally, you can specify whether you want to start the new backup automatically under a selection of conditions (more ..).

Click the Done button to store and complete the new task. The wizard will be closed. To start the new backup, just click the Start button.
 

Editing a backup task

Destination

The destination path is displayed towards the top of the program center window. It can be a local path, a network path or a directory on an FTP server.
 

Destination (local or network)

Click on the button on the right of the entry field to select a directory anywhere on your computer or on your network or edit the path manually.
Clicking the down arrow at the right of the entry field will drop down a list of recently-used destination directories for quick selection. Right-clicking this field will open a menu for editing this list.
It is also possible to insert placeholders for date and time into the path and to replace the drive letter with the volume name of a removable drive (e.g. a USB stick).
 

User logon

If you need a special account to access the destination directory, click the button and enter the username. If also a password is specified, this will be encrypted and saved in the task file. The connection to the backup directory will be made automatically. If no password is specified, the user will be prompted to enter the password for each backup.
 

Volume specifier of a removable drive

When using USB sticks or external drives as backup destination, the system may not always assign the same drive letter. To be independent from drive letters when backing up data, you can use the volume specifier of the removable media (:<volumename>:) instead.
Example: instead of K:\Backup use :Backup-1:\Backup
On backing up, the program will check whether a medium with the specified volume name (regardless of the assigned drive letter) is connected. If not, the user will be prompted to insert it.

Destination on an FTP server

If you select a destination on an FTP server, the server's name, port and the remote directory are displayed. Click the button at right to specify or edit the required connection settings.

 
General settings:

The destination directory may contain one or more placeholders for date and time.
If a password is specified in the dialog, the connection to the FTP server will be established automatically. If you leave the password blank for greater security, you must insert it manually before each backup.

• Options:
  • Use passive mode: Using passive mode, the server will define the port for data transfer, otherwise the client will define this.
  • Force UTF-8 encoding: Some servers support a file transfers using UTF-8 encoding, but do not announce this capability after establishing the connection. This is inconsistent with the specification of RFC2640 Section 3.2 but in this special case you can force the encoding of the client side to UTF-8 by checking this option. If, in addition, the server must also be switched to UTF-8, use the option Send OPTS command for UTF-8 described below.
  • Use IPv6: Some servers require a connection using the IPv6 protocol. Click this option to switch to the IPv6 address mode.
• More options:
  The following options (see screenshot above right) are only required if problems arise from the FTP connection (see here). Unfortunately the available servers do not all follow the recommendations (RFCs) for the FTP protocol consistently. The following options are a workaround for these shortcomings.
  • Send OPTS command for UTF-8: A server supporting UTF-8 must inform the client about this after establishing the connection and automatically switch to this mode (see RFC2640 Section 3.2). Unfortunately there are servers indicating the support of UTF-8, but nevertheless requiring an OPTS command to enable it. If this is the case, this option must be selected.
  • Force EPRT/EPSV for IPv6: If the connection to the FTP server was established using the IPv6 protocol (see above), the data transfer usually requires the EPRT and EPSV commands, instead of PORT and PASV used for IPv4. By default, the server should inform the client about this in reply to the feature request (FEAT command). Unfortunately there are servers that do not follow this recommendation. If this is the case, you must switch over to this manually by clicking this option.
  • Use HOST command: Many Internet providers use the same FTP server IP for all users. The HOST command is used to assign the user's server space.
• Time zone
  On time-zone spanning FTP connections it is sometimes necessary to adjust the time offset manually for reliable timestamp comparisons.
• Secure data connection: Data transfer using TLS/SSL (FTPS):
  • No: All data will be transferred unencrypted.
  • If available: On connecting, the server will be interrogated as to whether it supports TLS/SSL. If so, the data transfer will be encrypted (explicit method), otherwise unencrypted.
  • Require: It is expected that the server supports TLS/SSL (explicit method). If not, the connection will be canceled.
  • Always: All data transfers will be encrypted (implicit method). If the server does not support this method, then connection will fail.
  For a secure connection the option Require is recommended.
• Write communication log to file:
  For debugging purposes, communication with the FTP server can be logged. This option will not be saved permanently. The log is written into the file PbFtp.log located in the same directory as the other log files (see here). Use the Action menu to view or delete this file.

Clicking the Advanced settings button will open the following page.

• Filenames:
  • Change to lower/upper case: Unix/Linux systems differentiate between lower- and upper-case characters in filenames. You can specify whether you wish to change all file and directory names to lower or upper case prior to data transfer.
  • Allow quoted filenames: Filenames with spaces will cause errors on an FTP transfer. Some servers allow filenames within quotation marks (as is common under Windows).
  • Character encoding: As there are still FTP servers that do not support UTF-8 encoding, you can specify that certain characters are to be replaced by a numeric code as is usual in URL addresses (e.g. a space = %20).
• Use Proxy server: If a proxy gateway is required to connect to the FTP server, you can specify the desired settings here.
• Establishing the connection:
  • Maximum number of attempts: Specify the maximum number of attempts to connect to the FTP server. If this fails, the backup will be canceled.
  • Maximum waiting time to establish the connection: Specify the maximum time to wait for a reply from the FTP server after sending the connect command. If establishing the connection fails, further attempts will be made until the maximum number is reached (see above).
  • Maximum waiting time for server response: Specify the maximum time to wait for a response from the FTP server after sending a command.
  • Send command to keep connection alive: With some FTP servers or firewalls it can happen that during lengthy data transfers the control channel will be closed due to inactivity. Enabling this option, a selectable FTP command (NOOP, PWD or SYST) will be sent periodically at adjustable intervals to prevent this issue (default: 5 min = 300 s)

You can find more information about FTP on Wikipedia.

Using placeholders

Clicking the button causes the dialog box (reproduced on the right) to appear, in which a placeholder in the format "%sss%" is added to the directory name, with "%sss%" being replaced with current values on backing up:

• %date% - date in the format "yyyy-mm-dd" (e.g. 2011-08-03)
• %yaw% - year and week in the format ""yyyy-ww" (e.g. 2011-31)
• %dow% - day of current week in the format "Mon, Tue, Wed, Thu, Fri, Sat, Sun"
• %ldow% - day of current week in the format "Monday, Tuesday, etc."
• %dnw% - day of current week as number (Monday = 1, ..., Sunday = 7)
• %day% - day of current year in the format "ddd" (e.g. 1 = January 1)
• %week% - week of year in the format "ww" (i.e. 01 .. 53)
• %dom% - day of current month in the format "dd" (i.e. 01 .. 31)
• %wom% - week of month in the format "w" (i.e. 1 .. 6)
• %month% - month of current year in the format "mm" (i.e. 01 .. 12)
• %lmonth% - name of the month in the format "January, February, etc."
• %year% - current year in the format "yyyy" (e.g. 2004)
• %time% - current time of day in the format "hhmmss" (e.g. 215325)
• %hour% - current hour in the format "hh" (e.g. 17)
• %minute% - current minute in the format "mm" (e.g. 43)
• %d#n% - n (= 2..9) alternating days in the format "n" (e.g. %d#2% is replaced by 1 on odd days of the year, by 2 on even days)
• %w#n% - n (= 2..9) alternating weeks in the format "n" (e.g. %w#4% is replaced by 1 in the weeks 1,5,9,.. of the year, by 2 in the weeks 2,6,10,.., by 3 in the weeks 3,7,11,.. and 4 in the weeks 4,8,12,..)
• %m#n% - n (= 2..9) alternating months in the format "n" (e.g. %m#3% is replaced by 1 in the months 1,4,7,10, by 2 in the months 2,5,8,11 and by 3 in the months 3,6,9,12)
• %username% - Name of the logged-on user
• %computername% - Name of the computer
• %volume% - Volume name of source (only available if all source directories are on the same drive)

Placeholder for Windows environment variables: In addition you can use any Windows environment variable as part of the destination path. Insert the placholder %evar(<name>)% manually. The expression inside the brackets (<name>) should be replaced by the name of the environment variable, e.g. %evar(HOMEPATH)% or %evar(TEMP)%.

Example: X:\Backup\Data-%date% ⇒ X:\Backup\Data-2004-10-17
Hence another backup directory will be generated each day.

Selection of files and directories to be backed up

Add directories

Next, select the directories to be backed-up. Click on the Directories tab and select the desired directories you wish to back up. If you select only one directory, it will be displayed in the upper field and can be added directly to the task by clicking the button.
If you select more than one directory (possibly from libraries), after clicking the button these will be displayed as a list prior to being added to the task. You can check and optionally deselect individual directories. A click on the OK button will add the directories to the task one after the other.

If you wish to inspect the files contained in the selected directory, click this button. The dialog box option Show files allows you to display a file list, but you can select only one directory.

Add single files

From version 5.8.5, you can directly select one or more files from a directory for backup. Although this was possible with earlier versions, some manual adjustment of the required filters was necessary. The current version will perform this automatically. Clicking the button will open a dialog to select one or more files to be backed up. The directory containing these files will be added to the backup task, all subdirectories will be excluded from backup and the required file filters such that only the selected files will be backed up.

Display of directories to be backed up

The names of all selected directories will be added to the task list in the center. Long names will appear abbreviated in the task directory list such that the beginning and end of the path will remain visible. Moving the mouse over a such a name will display the full path as a tooltip.
The checkbox on the left can be cleared by clicking to exclude the selected directory from backup temporarily without removing it from the list. If you wish to resume the backup for this directory just click the checkbox again.
After each directory name, additional info is displayed in an abbreviated form to indicate the subdirectories selected and any filter settings for file and file types:

• (-n): There are n subdirectories excluded.
• (+n): There are n subdirectories selected.
• (all): No file filter has been specified.
• (only FF): A file filter FF (e.g. [AB]*) has been specified to select certain files (See Standard file filter)
• (except FF): A file filter FF (e.g. [AB]*) has been specified to exclude certain files (See Standard file filter)
• (from/to date): A time slot has been specified under the Files tab.
• (U): Only files that were created or modified after the time of the last backup of this task
• (</> size): Only files matching a predefined size (e.g. <16MB or >1kB) will be backed up.
• [+/-attr]: Certain attributes (e.g. [+a-r]) will be included or excluded.
• [I]: A type list has been specified via the option "Only these" under the Types tab.
• [E]: A type list has been specified via the option "All except" under the Types tab.

Clicking one of the listed directories will display the tree of all subdirectories or, dependent on the user's selection, the file filters or file types in the program bottom window (see more). Doing this click for the first time after opening the task, will additionally scan all these subdirectories for new and changed files and update the display for file count and volume.

Disabled entries
On loading a task or clicking one of the listed items, the program will check wether the associated directory still exists. For example, it could have been deleted or renamed in the meantime, or is a disconnected external drive. Such a directory will be disabled in the list and displayed in gray. To prevent the selection settings from being changed, it is no longer clickable. As soon as the directory becomes available again, the item will be reenabled automatically. If you want to remove from the task all directories no longer available, use the item from the associated context menu.

Order of entries

Clicking the left button will rearrange the directories to be backed up into an alphabetical order. Clicking one of the other buttons will move the selected entry one row up or down.

Possible placeholders for source directories

Clicking the button at the top on the right will open a dialog box. All placeholders are in the format "%sss%". These will be replaced with current values on backing up (see screenshot on the right):

• %perspath% - Path to the My Documents user directory
• %apppath% - Path to the Application Data (..\AppData under Windows 7) user directory
• %profile% - Path to the user profile (e.g. C:\Users\<Name> under Windows 7)
• %desktop% - Path to the user desktop folder
• %favorites% - Path to the user favorites folder
• %progfiles% - Path to the programs folder depending on the running version of Personal Backup: the 32-bit version returns C:\Program Files on 32-bit systems and C:\Program Files (x86) on 64-bit systems, the 64-bit version returns always C:\Program Files (e.g. C:\Program Files)
• %progpath% - Path to the Personal Backup program installation folder
• %username% - Name of the logged-in user
• %computername% - Name of the computer

	Other environment variables:	Windows Vista/7/8/10	Windows XP
	%appdata%	C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Roaming	C:\Documents and Settings\<username>\Application Data
	%localappdata%	C:\Users\<username>\AppData\Local	not available
	%allusersprofile%	C:\ProgramData	C:\Documents and Settings\All Users
	%public%	C:\Users\Public	not available
	%programfiles%	C:\Program Files	C:\Program Files
	%commonprogramfiles%	C:\Program Files\Common Files	C:\Program Files\Common Files
	%programfiles(x86)% *	C:\Program Files (x86)	C:\Program Files
	%commonprogramfiles(x86)% *	C:\Program Files (x86)\Common Files	C:\Program Files\Common Files
	%programdata%	C:\ProgramData	not available

    ^* only available on 64-bit systems

Backing up data from removable volumes

If you want to back up files from a removable drive (e.g. a USB stick) you cannot be certain that the same drive letter will always be assigned. In such a case, using file synchronization on backup may result in loss of data in the backup directory.

To prevent this, the program saves the volume name (if assigned) with any directory to be saved and located on a removable drive when creating a new task. So it is strongly recommended to assign a unique volume name to any used removable drive. Right-clicking on a drive in for example Windows Explorer and selecting Properties will allow you to do so.
Before a backup starts, the program checks whether this drive is present. If not, the backup will be canceled.
Note: If the backup method is set to Separate directories for drives, the name of the root directory at the destination will be generated from the volume name (e.g. G:\Backup\Daten-1\..) instead of using the drive letter (e.g. G:\Backup\DrvK\..) as applied for fixed drives (see more).

Desktop with fully-configured task

Removing a directory from the task

To remove a directory from the task list, click on the button. Optionally, also all files backed up from this directory can at the same time be deleted from the backup task destination.

Preview

Right-clicking the list of selected directories will open a context menu with several preview options

• Show all selected files: Show all files that are selected for backup using the current filter settings. Which of these files really will be backed up will be decided later, on performing the backup.
• Show all excluded files: Show all files that are excluded from the backup using the current filter settings.
• Show all files to be backed up: This item is only available if solely files with the archive bit set should be backed up. All these files will be displayed.
• Show all files not to be backed up: This item is only available if solely files with the archive bit set should be backed up. All files with this bit not set will be displayed.

Extended selections

In the program bottom window you can make more detailed selections for

• Subdirectories
• Files and attributes
• File types

Advanced settings

In most cases you can use the default settings for a backup, but the more experienced user may prefer to configure the many individual options.

• Backup destination: In separated files or in zip file(s).
• Backup mode: Update (using timestamp or archive bit) or configured as an alternating schedule (full and differential or incremental).
• File processing: Copy as-is, or use compression and/or AES encryption.
• Options: Copy alternate file streams, document summaries, file permissions, verify backed-up files, etc.
• Synchronization: Delete from the backup destination files that no longer exist at the source.
• Security backup: Older versions of files are renamed instead of being deleted (with a definable number of previous versions).
• Mail delivery: Automatic mail delivery after backup with status and optional log.
• External programs: Execute any external program or script before and/or after a backup.

Status indicator

At the top of the program center window, key information about the current task is displayed:

• Name of task
• Total number of files and the storage capacity required for these (before compression)
• Time and date when last backed up

Errors during backup

There can be many different reasons for errors that arise during a backup. After each backup, the status windows will display whether errors occured and how many. Detailed information about errors will be found in the log file. If a file could not be copied due to an error, its previous version will in any case be retained at the destination.

Notes

To accelerate the loading of a task, the number of files, the required storage capacity and the type list for the selected directories are not all updated immediately. By default, only the first directory will always be scanned for new files. You can uncheck the option Scan directories in the dialog called from Preferences ⇒ Program start ... in the main menu to disable any scan after opening a task. In this case, a scan is started not before one of the directories to be backed up is left-clicked.