TMG-L Archives

Archiver > TMG > 2003-08 > 1060131404


From: "Stuart Armstrong" <>
Subject: RE: [TMG] backing up things
Date: Tue, 05 Aug 2003 18:56:44 -0600
References: <001a01c35b61$787c8e50$6401a8c0@homeoffice>
In-Reply-To: <001a01c35b61$787c8e50$6401a8c0@homeoffice>


Preliminary tentative final batchfile for backing up things.

The list won't take attachments but this can easily be copied and pasted into a text file.
In windows 98 the way I do it is to create a .TXT file on the desktop and then open it with Notepad.
You can then paste the text below into it and save it.
At some point you must change the extension from .TXT to .BAT
You'll get a warning but that's OK. Ignore it.
From then on you can edit the batchfile by right-clicking and selecting EDIT.

You MUST edit this batchfile and put in the proper folder names for your configuration. Folder names you'll need to know are the TMG installation folder, the Report folder location if different from the default, your project folders, and the backup folder you intend to use.

Go through the batchfile line by line and edit as necessary. It's not hard to figure out what the batchfile is doing. If you understand what each line does you'll know when you need to edit it. It's not as hard as it looks, but be very precise with the spacing and punctuation etc.

I have three projects, each in its own folder. If you have fewer or more than three projects you have to remove or add lines accordingly in several places. There is an obscure batchfile command to automate this but I don't remember how to use it.

tmgb is the same folder that I have specified for data files backup within TMG, so these configuration backups will end up in the same folders with the data. It is necessary to create sub-folders for each project's configurations because some of them might have the same name and overwrite each other.

I use an on-disk backup folder and then copy its entire contents to an external disk drive daily. I use a batchfile for that too, and it's programmed in the task scheduler to go off every night at 1:00AM. It also does automatic unattended rotating of 4 backup copies on the external harddisk.

One easy way to save backups is to create a backup folder on your desktop (NOT a shortcut), and a shortcut icon to the backup disk. Then just drag and drop the backup folder to the icon of the backup disk. It must be on another disk or disk partition or it will just move it rather than copy it.

Test the results before you trust it. Otherwise you might think you have backed something up when you haven't.

The first line: @echo off is a command to supress echoing all commands to the screen when the batchfile is running. It is optional. Lines that begin with rem are just remarks and are ignored by the program. They can be deleted if desired. But I strongly advise you read them.

The line which reads "cd ... " etc is critical. It means change to the directory TMG is installed in. If this line isn't correct, the rest of the batchfile will not be able to find any of the files you want to back up. That's because, to shorten the lines and simplify the batchfile, I've used relative addressing rather than typing in the complete path on every line.
-------------------------------------------------------

@echo off
rem filename tmgbu.bat
rem TMG Settings and Configuration BACKUP
rem Assumes TMG installation is in c:\The Master Genealogist
rem Assumes TMG backup is to e:\tmgb\
rem Assumes copies of TMG installation file and update file -
rem are in the program directory.
rem Assumes project folders atlantic, cumberland, and mexico
rem You must edit this file and put in the appropriate -
rem folder names in all instances.
rem Put quotation marks around all folder names that -
rem contain spaces.
c:
cd c:\"The Master Genealogist"
rem create the backup folders and subfolders
md e:\tmgb
md e:\tmgb\config
md e:\tmgb\reports
md e:\tmgb\atlantic
md e:\tmgb\cumberland
md e:\tmgb\mexico
rem backup the setup files
xcopy tmg5setup.exe e:\tmgb\config\ /y
xcopy tmg5update.exe e:\tmgb\config\ /y
rem backup the global configuration files
xcopy app.ini e:\tmgb\config\ /y
xcopy *.lo e:\tmgb\config\ /y
xcopy *.tbr e:\tmgb\config\ /y
xcopy webplaces.txt e:\tmgb\config\ /y
xcopy webother.txt e:\tmgb\config\ /y
rem backup the report configurations
xcopy reports\*.rpt e:\tmgb\reports\ /y
xcopy reports\*.xpt e:\tmgb\reports\ /y
rem backup the project-specific configurations
xcopy projects\atlantic\*.flp e:\tmgb\atlantic\ /y
xcopy projects\cumberland\*.flp e:\tmgb\cumberland\ /y
xcopy projects\mexico\*.flp e:\tmgb\mexico\ /y
xcopy projects\atlantic\*.acc e:\tmgb\atlantic\ /y
xcopy projects\cumberland\*.acc e:\tmgb\cumberland\ /y
xcopy projects\mexico\*.acc e:\tmgb\mexico\ /y
rem /y=overwrite without prompting

-----------------------------------------------

I've tested this batchfile and I think everything is OK. But there are one or two items I don't have so I am assuming this will work when I do have them.

Xcopy returns an error message when trying to create a folder with a long name that already exists. Normally it just reports that the folder already exists but if it has a long name it reports cannot create directory. However the batchfile seems to work despite the unexpected warning.

Now do you begin to see why I think this process ought to be automated in TMG? TMG4 had a workable configuration backup scheme. I'd like to see something similar in TMG5. Admittedly, almost no one does this. Microsoft Word does not to my knowledge provide any means for backing up the document templates you spent so many hours perfecting and you have to be a detective to even locate the files. If I ever lose my Word toolbar macros I don't know what I'll do, because I only got the macros to work by accident! But I'd hope TMG would pioneer complete and total configuration backup.

IMHO, all project-specific configurations should be backed up with the data files, in a separate file if necessary, but in the same folder. And copies of the latest global configurations should be added as well with each project backup, as a separate file. So each backup from within TMG would create at least 3 files: the project data backup, the project configuration backup, and the global configuration backup. It should be automatic, as part of the normal project backup, not a separate operation. The restore process should be similar to TMG4.

whew! i think i got too long-winded about this

Stuart Armstrong
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web page: http://cgi.aros.net/~stuarta

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