Robust File Copy for Windows

robocopy.exe available as part of rktools <-download page, can be used to copy files across the network to a Linux machine into a folder setup using Samba.

The DOS batch file below is called serverbackup.bat on my machine. It can start the Linux server using wolcmd <-download page, from Depicus.com and will copy a users folder to a folder on the server and creates a log file C:\tools\backup.log, then it shuts down the Windows PC with a 120 second delay. This delay is mostly there for testing. If the robocopy command goes belly up, the PC will try to jump right to the shutdown, which makes troubleshooting difficult. So leaving a delay is helpful as one can abort a shutdown by executing…

shutdown /a

…from the command line in Windows to stop the machine from shutting down.

I had to review how robocopy worked before deploying it in a backup script and I found an exact example of what I was looking for on Jacob Surland’s photography blog Caught in Pixels. I reviewed his post How to create a backup script using Robocopy before writing the serverbackup.bat script. I have the script downloadable here named serverbackup.bat, rename and modify as needed.

REM Wake Server, if it is already on, no harm done. It takes about 17 secs for server to start so REM robocopy will get an error and should keep retrying

REM run Depicus Wake on Lan from Command Line. Validated, Works!
 wolcmd yourmacaddr localserveripaddr 0.0.0.0 9

REM Copy User folder to \files\user on server via Samba links
 REM /MIR = purge files from dest. that do not exists in source
 REM /M Copy Archiveable files & reset attribute - not using this yet!!!
 REM /XA:SH exclude system and hidden important for user space
 REM /FFT fixes timing up for LINUX assumes FAT file times ( 2 sec granularity)

robocopy "C:\Documents and Settings\Erick_2" \\UBUNTUSERVER\Erick_Backup /MIR /XA:SH /XJ /FFT /W:1 /R:5 /LOG:C:\tools\backup.log

REM Shutdown PC when backups are done

shutdown -s -f -t 120

So far it works….

Resources

Windows Server 2003 Resource Kit Tools aka rktools

Depicus wolcmd download page

How to create a backup script using Robocopy