RCBackup v1.2.1.1 (25-Jul-22) (c)2013-2022 Rob Cranley robcranley@gmail.com About RCBackup ============== I wrote RCBackup to use as a simple tool for backing up my files to a network drive. Such applications already exist for Windows, but they either seem to be too limited, too tricky to use, covered in advertising and what not. I have used an excellent, simple little app on my Amiga for many years which does an excellent job with no messing around, and always wondered why such a thing was so hard to find for Windows. So I wrote one! The original Amiga application which inspired RCBackup was written by Daniel Westerberg, and it is simply called BackUp. You can go to http://www.onyxsoft.se/backup.html to learn more about it. Thanks Daniel! :) What Does RCBackup Do? ====================== RCBackup is a little application that lets you select a folder you want to back up, and a destination you want to back up to. There are a few options which change how it behaves, and these can all be accessed easily in the main window. It will copy the contents of the folder to the destination given based on the settings which were chosen at the start, but by default it will only copy files which are new or have been updated since the last backup to that destination. This means that, say you have a folder of 2,000 photos and are after editing 50 of them and adding 10 new ones, you don't have to copy the entire folder to your external drive, and you don't have to go trying to find the 60 photos either. Simply point RCBackup at your photos folder, your backup folder, and it will only copy those 60 photos. Usage ===== Using RCBackup is very simple. When it starts, the main window will open and show you some options which are explained below: Source ------ Select the folder you want to back up here (e.g. My Documents) Destination ----------- Select the folder you want to copy the source folder contents to (e.g. F:\Backup) Create main folder at destination --------------------------------- When this option is turned on, a folder will be created *inside* the destination folder with the name of the folder you want to back up. For example, if you choose "My Documents\Music" as the source, and "F:\Backup" as the destination, with this option turned on, a folder called "Music" will be created in "F:\Backup" if it doesn't already exist, and all your music will be put in there. If this option is turned off, the contents of the source will be copied directly into the destination folder, so "F:\Backup\Music" might be a better choice in the example above. Delete files that no longer exist at source ------------------------------------------- When this option is enabled, before actually copying your files, RCBackup will first scan through the source folder and delete any files in the destination that don't exist in the source. Useful if you have deleted some files and no longer want them in the backup folder either. Be careful! This is a one-way ticket - you can't get back any files deleted in the destination folder! Scan files before starting -------------------------- With this option turned on, RCBackup will scan through all the files it needs to copy before starting. This is what Windows does as well when you copy a folder, and it means it knows how much needs to be copied and can therefore show you a progress bar. However, if you have lots of small files, this scan can take a long time. Turning this option off skips the initial scan, speeding things up a little but means you won't get a progress bar to tell you how far along the backup operation is. Two-Way (Sync) -------------- With this option turned on, RCBackup will perform the backup from source to destination as normal, but then will do the same again from destination to source, so files at the destination which are newer than those at the source will be copied back to the source. Useful to keep two folders synchronised if you edit the files in both at different times. Include Subdirectories ---------------------- This option will go through the selected directory and each subdirectory it encounters along the way. Disable this option to only include files in the chosen location without any subdirectories. Backup Type ----------- This defaults to "Incremental", which means RCBackup will only copy the files it needs to, i.e. those which are newer than at the destination, or those that don't exist at the destination. If it is set to "Full", all files at the source will be copied to the destination, regardless of their age or if they already exist at the destination. Be careful! Even if the file is newer at the destination, it will be replaced by the older file from the source if the Backup Type is set to "Full"! Log File -------- RCBackup creates a log file called "RCBackup-Log.txt" on your desktop that documents all the steps taken by RCBackup during its last run. This might be helpful if the results aren't as you intended as you can check exactly what happened. Thanks for trying out RCBackup, if you have any feedback (good or bad) about this program, or any questions regarding its usage, please let me know: robcranley@gmail.com Rob :) http://www.robthenerd.com History ------- 1.2.1.1 (30-Sep-22) - Fixed bug that causes some files to be copied twice (sometimes resulted in an exception) - Fixed bug in the size calculations for the progress bar (sometimes resulted in an exception) - Merged completed cleaning cycle information into copying cycle information box so now only one appears after everything is complete - Fixed bug where files at the destination would be removed if a cleaning cycle was run with an invalid source directory 1.2.0.1 (01-Nov-21) - Added Include Subdirectories option (defaults to enabled) - Added proper menu strip instead of simple links - Shortened threshold for shortening paths to fit in the status bar - Fixed unhandled exception when encountering a shortcut to a directory that the program has no permission to read - Fixed rescanning of unneeded files during copy operation - Scanning option defaults to enabled - Updated message texts - Now remembers all settings from the last time it was used 1.0.1.1 (23-Dec-14) - Fixed unhandled exception error when deleting a file failed (usually because it didn't exist or was marked as read only) - Changed delete order to delete files, then folders. This now gives the correct file count because deleting the folder doesn't take the files with it without them being counted. - Added info on the logfile to the readme (feature existed but wasn't documented) - Forced the deletion of folders that aren't empty - the contents shouldn't exist anyway in a Delete operation... 1.0.0.3 (27-Feb-14) Initial public beta release