Program Operation

The SecRep Backup Utility allows you a lot of flexibility and control over how and where you want to back up your files. When you run the program you will have four tabs to select from, Options, Backup Folder, Files To Backup, and Review Saved, each tab is explained in its own help section.

WARNING:

If you are using this program on a network you will have to map the drives, as the program does not recognize UNC paths.

You may select, as many backup folder locations as you want, just make sure you name each folder with a different name, even if they are on different drives, as the program uses the names of the folders, minus the drive designation, as names for each backup program. Do not use a “space” in the folder name. The program will consider a space as the start of a second name.

Example: If you were to name three folders “D:\Program1”, “E:\Program2” and “F:\Program3” you would be able to add each of these folders to the list of backup paths and then select a different set of files for each program to be backed up. The backup program will use “Program1”, “Program2” and “Program3” as names for each of the backup programs. The original paths for each file backed up are kept in an original path log, created by the program for each backup path you use. Using the examples above, after running the backup program you would find three text files called “Program1.txt”, “Program2.txt” and “Program3.txt”. Each of the files would contain the path for every file backed up and the program will use these lists if you should want to replace any of the files from your backup locations.

You have the option to run each program alone or run any combination or all of them at one time. If you create your backup locations on a separate hard drive you will have more security with your backups. Even if one hard drive fails you will still have your files safe on another one. If you really want to keep your files safe rent a location on the Internet and back them up there also. Of course each new location you add will increase the time the program takes to copy the files, which is why the ability to run one program at a time is included in the options, along with running the program in the background or through a command line option.

When doing a backup through the main program a form with animation will be displayed, which gives you something to watch while waiting for the program to finish, just in case you do not have anything else to do.

If you are running Windows 98 or Windows ME the animation will be much slower, due to the way these operating systems work and the API calls that the program uses. The animation will also be slow while copying only changed files, as it only responds to copying files, not checking them.

When you use the command line function to run the program the animation and progress bar are not used, since the program is run in the background. This is actually the best way to run the program, especially if the program is automated to run when the computer is not in use. You can run the program this way using the Command Line Option.

You have two options for selecting the files you want to back up, select a folder and all the files within that folder will be backed up, or select individual files and only those files will be copied. It is possible that if you select folders that contain system files in use, these files will not be copied, as the operating system will block the copy function. This is probably what happened if you notice a difference in the count of saved files and original log file.

The program allows you to select the type of backup you want to run. Backup all files each time even if they have not changed or copy only the files that have changed since the last back up. The second option has the potential to be much faster since most of the files may not have changed since the last backup.

The program also allows you to select running it in the foreground or background. To run the program in the foreground, leave the box “Run In Background” on the Options page, unchecked. If you check this box the program will run in the background.

You can also run the program using the Command Line Option and there are several ways to use this option. You may change a shortcut to run the command line option, make a batch file to run the program in the background or run the program through a task scheduler. You will find examples in the Command Line Option section of the help file.

I use all three, but prefer the batch file, as it will not go to the next program until the first one has finished. This allows me to run several programs in sequence, knowing that each one will have all the time it needs to finish.

An example of how I use a batch file is that when I am finished with the computer for the day I run a batch file, shut off power to everything, except the computer and leave. The batch file will run my File Clean program, Backup program, Defrag the computer and then shut down and power off the computer, without me having to be present.

The SecRep Backup Utility keeps all instructions in the registry and these will be removed during the un-install process. The original file list, backup list and restored files list are kept as text files in the program folder; these will also be removed during the un-install process.


Options Tab

The program starts with this tab and allows you several options, which are not available until you click on “Select Backup” and then select one of the listed backup programs to run. You may select one or several locations in the “List of Backup Paths”, by holding down the “Shift” or “Ctrl” buttons on your keyboard.

Once you have selected a path from the “List of Backup Paths” the other options will become available and they are:

“Run in Background” check box. Checking this will instruct the program to run entirely in the background. Leaving it unchecked will open up the animation screen, for you to watch, while the program is running.

“Backup All Files” check box. Checking this box will instruct the program to delete the present backup folders and then copy all the designated files to new folders. Leaving it unchecked will instruct the program to check each file listed, against the ones in the backup folders and only copy the ones that have changed.

“Output Message To Screen” check box. Checking this box will instruct the program to show you a list of all the files copied when the program has finished. Leaving it unchecked will instruct the program to close without showing any message. The backup log file is written and a shortcut created on your desktop, regardless of which selection you make.

“Run Backup” button. This will start the backup program and run it in the way you have selected. When it has finished the program will delete the previous backup log and write a new one, listing all the files copied, along with the date and time. This allows you to check that the program completed successfully if you ran it using a batch file or task scheduler.

“Help” button. This button will open the help file.

“Donation” button will open your browser and take you to a PayPal site where you can make a donation, in case you would like to help defray the cost of writing, maintaining and making the program available through the Internet. You must have an active connection to the Internet for this button to work, if not you will get a message that you must connect to the Internet before using.

“About” button will open a form with a little information about the program.

“Close” button will close the program with no other action taken.


Backup Folder
Backup Folder Tab

This tab shows all the drives and folders on your computer and you can select the folders you want to use for storing your backups. The buttons “Add Folder To List” and  “Create Folder” will not be available until you click on a directory location.

You may select as many folders as you want, just remember that all files will be copied to each folder and the more locations you have the longer the backup will take to run. Once you have selected the folder you want the backup saved to, click on “Add Folder To List” and your selection will be saved.

The “Create Folder” button located on this tab will allow you to create a new folder for your backup at any location you want. The program will use the selection in the Directory box as the first part of the path and then will ask you for a folder name. This folder is then created in the path selected and will appear in the file list. You may then select the new folder for your backup location and click on “Add Folder To List” to save it.

To remove a folder from the saved list, double click on the entry.


Files To Backup
Files To Backup Tab

This tab shows all the drives, folders and files on your computer and you may select any folder or file you want to be added to your backup list.

In the upper right corner of this tab you will see a list of your backup locations and you must select one of these before you can make any other selections on this page. Once you have selected a backup location you may then select files to be added to that location. When you click on the folders in the directory list, the button “Add Folders To List” will be available and clicking on the files listed in the file list box, the button “Add File To List” will be available.

If you click on a file after adding it to the list, the button “Delete Entry From List” will be available. You can make multiple selections from this list, to delete, by holding down the “Shift” or “Ctrl” buttons on your keyboard while making the selections. When you click on the “Delete Entry From List” button you will be warned that you are about to delete files, if you click “Yes” you will then be given three choices, “Only Entry”, which will only remove the file from the backup list, “File Also” which will remove the entry from the backup list and also remove the file(s) from the backup location you selected, “Cancel” which will cancel the operation, without changing anything.

These options are available to give you as much control as possible over all your backup files.


Command Line Option

The program has been written to accept command line parameters and gives you the option of running the program through a batch file or task scheduler, without having to be physically present when it runs.

Important Note: If you are using the command line option and do not list any program names and also have more than one backup path, when the backup program runs it will copy to all the paths listed under “Backup Folder”. If you have more than one backup path and want to use the command line option, be sure to enter the name of the path you want to copy or the program will run them all.

The command line allows you to list commands the program will follow, just as if you had the program open and were clicking on different options within the program. (See Examples listed below)

This program will accept up to 100 characters in the command line and I doubt that you will need that many, but it has been written to allow you a lot of options through the command line. You start the command line with a forward slash “/”, and then each separate part of the commands should be separated by a forward slash “/”.

The first letter of the command line must be either an “A”, for backup all files, or “C” for backup changed files only. The next part of the command line will be the names of the backup programs you want to run. The names the program will use are the backup paths, minus the drive designation.

Example: If you selected a backup path “H:\Program1” the name the program would use is “Program1”. If you selected another path to be “D:\Program2” the name the program would use would be “Program2”. In essence the program name will be the folder you have designated to save the files in, minus the drive designation. If you have any doubt as to the name you should use, look in the folder “C:\Program Files\SecRep\BackupUtility” and you will find a text file for each backup location you selected. This text file is created when you run the backup program and contains the original path list. There are three names you should not use; they are “Backup Log File”, “Command” and “Replaced File Log” as these three names are used as text files by the program.

The last part of the command line is optional and would be the letter “S”. When you run the program from the command line it would normally close when finished, with no message output to the screen. But if you include the letter “S”, in the command line, a list of all the files saved will be shown when the program has finished and you will have to click the “Close” button to end the program. This option would only be useful if you are running the program in the background, while doing something else on the computer and want to know when the backup is finished.

You can run the program in the background, manually, by adding the command line parameters to a program shortcut. Once you have made a shortcut, right click on it and then click on “Properties”. In the Target Box you will find the path to the executable, which looks like this:

"C:\Program Files\SecRep\Backup\SecRep Backup.exe"

To change this to run the program, copying all files to only one path and then show the list of files, the path would look like this:

"C:\Program Files\SecRep\Backup\SecRep Backup.exe" /A/Program1/S

Only the path is in quotation marks, with a space between the last quotation mark and the first forward slash, you do not need any spaces between the commands, only the forward slash.

To run several programs, backing up only the changed files and then closing with no message output to the screen the path would be:

"C:\Program Files\SecRep\Backup\SecRep Backup.exe" /C/Program1/Program2

You can make one shortcut to run all the programs, just one program or any number of programs that you want. If you want complete control make a shortcut for each program and rename the shortcut and change the icon of the shortcut to something you recognize and then run the backup up in the background anytime you want, just by clicking on the shortcut you made.

Be aware that when this program is running it will at times use close to 100% of your CPU and I would strongly recommend running the program when you are not going to be using the computer. To do this you would run the program through either a batch file or task scheduler.

To run the program from a batch file the paths must be copied exactly as listed in the examples, with the path in quotation marks and then the command line options separated with a forward slash. If you were to list the paths, without the quotation marks, you would get an error that the file could not be found. Batch files are similar to DOS programs and will not work with long file names, unless they are included in quotation marks.

If you use a task scheduler to run the program just follow the instructions included with your scheduler.

If you run the program this way, without the “S” in the command line, the program will start, copy all files, create the backup log and then close.


Review Saved Files
Review Saved Tab

When opened this tab will show a list of all your backup locations in the top box. After selecting one of the locations you will have several options:

“Show Saved Files” when clicked this button will run a scan of the selected backup folder and list all files located in this folder. If you have a large number of files saved it may take several seconds for the list to be created. The caption of the button will be changed to “Replace Selected Files”, but will not be enabled until you click on a file. You may select multiple files from the list created, by using the “Shift” or “Ctrl” button on your keyboard while making the selections. When you click on a file in the list the “Delete Entry” button will also be enabled.

When you click on “Replace Selected Files” the program will find the path in the original file list and then replace that file with the saved copy. “Delete Entry” will delete the selected files from the backup location and remove them from the original file list, but only for that backup location.

“Show Original Paths” will show you a list of all the original paths for the files in the selected backup location. When you click on a file or files in this list the “Delete Entry” button will become active. This button will now delete any selections made from the original path list.

Do not delete any files from this list, unless you no longer want to replace the file or have deleted the file from the saved folder, and did not remove it from this list at that time. Once the path is removed from this list the program will no longer be able to replace the file.

You may select either an individual file, or sequential files by holding down the “Shift” button, on your keyboard, while selecting, or separated files by holding down the “Ctrl” button, on your keyboard while selecting.