Backup Your Files With No Subscription Costs *DIY GUIDE* in English

Here's a simple way to backup your files reliably and safely without paying for a cloud subscription. You only need a drive that's big enough to hold the data you cherish and there's no resident software that needs to be running all the time too!

You'll know it's working as you can easily check the destination drive - which is extra reassurance.

Backup just means having a reliable copy of your important data in more than one place and I've been using this script for 20 years to backup my files.

Reliable means that you can check its working so if you do ever need it it'll still be working.

You can also make a copy of the backup drive data for extra data security and peace of mind.

The script uses the XCOPY command that's free and included with all versions of Windows so althoguh I'm using Windows 11 in the video, this will work for Windows 10 and any other version of Windows you might be using. Here's how I've configured it.

By using the XCOPY /e /y /q /m {source} {destination} command...

/e --- Copies directories and subdirectories, including empty ones.
/y --- Suppresses prompting to confirm you want to overwrite an existing destination file.
/q --- Does not display file names while copying.
/m --- Copies only files with the archive attribute set, then turns off the archive attribute.

So all files and folders in the source folder that have their archive attribute set are copied to the destination folder - including everything in subdirectories and empty folders. It also copies the directory tree as it is in the source folder.

It doesn't flood the window with filenames as it does this, and it doesn't pause to ask for permission to overwrite existing files. The the archive attribute is then turned off and the file won't get copied again unless it gets changed.

The destination assumes the backup drive is D: and that you've made the folders as shown in the video. You're free to edit and modify - just remember the " on the source path or you'll get a problem with spaces in folder names.

Note that all new files automatically have the archive attribute set, so it backs up everything that's new or changed each time you run it.

Just remember to consider that since it overwrites automatically, it replaces files with the newer versions - this could be a problem if you delete something from a file and want it back after you've run the backup.

Apart from that, you can just plug the drive in, run it and walk away.

I'm never going to get rich from this, but it is nice to get something... So if you've watched this video and it influenced or helped you then please click Like and Subscribe.

You can also buy me a coffee using the Ko-fi link if you think I deserve one...

#backup
#email
#pc
#windows
#free

[sterntechdaddy]

If you use Office 365 and have Outlook installed then... it depends what flavour of email you're using - IMAP or POP.

For IMAP email accounts you don't need to backup the emails. They are stored on the server of the company that supplies your email. Note that Microsoft Exchange is Microsoft's version of the more general IMAP - so its a remote server based system too.

For POP it's different. These emails are taken from the server and stored locally in PST files. By default, Outlook creates a folder in your Documents and puts the PST file there. I find this a problem because PST files can get very large over time and each time you run Outlook the PST file will change as emails arrive. The whole file gets marked as changed even if just one email arrives.

So this script will backup the PST file every time - and if it's several GB then that will slow the backup down a lot.

I have moved my Outlook PST file to a separate folder on C: and have a separate script to back it up. I like PST files as I have emails going back many, many years and don't really want to pay extra for a larger IMAP mailbox on my domain.

What is important for both IMAP and POP is the autocomplete - this is the data associated with then email addresses that Outlook remembers. This data is stored in a file that starts with Stream_Autocomplete and then has a random set of letters and numbers in the name. For Office 2021 you'll find yours here:




You can add that to the script and tweak it so it gets copied too.

;)

Note that if you're not sure if you''re using IMAP or POP email then you'll probably be using IMAP. Most ISP's and email services like GMail push you towards IMAP emails for a couple of reasons...

1. Tech support is easier as front line technicians just need to know about Webmail access rather than having a detailed understanding of all the POP compatible email clients that might be on your computer.

2. They can up sell mailboxes - as you get more emails, your mailbox can get full. You either delete them or get a bigger mailbox. Business accounts get hit by this more than home users.

3. People are using email on multiple devices more often now. With IMAP the email on your phone and computer will fully synchronize. POP doesn't do that.

4. Getting customers to use IMAP on their phones and tablets is much easier - you just enter the email and password and the server settings are automatically configured on the device. This is also true for IMAP accounts in when you set them up Outlook, but fiddling about with incoming and outgoing servers, their ports and security settings is really irritating on a phone if the settings aren't configured automatically!

So most devices will use IMAP and you'll need to deliberately jump through a few configuration hoops to get POP working - both in terms of setting up Outlook, and a tweak of the mail server settings to allow POP access. I think GMail, for example, has POP access disabled by default.

In summary, you don't need to backup IMAP emails, but you can backup POP. For both, there's autocomplete data. And you definitely should back that up.

Hope this helps.

[Cloudwraith]

For your backup script, you can use the variables %homedrive% and %homepath% to give you your current user path instead of having to do the replace on the &. Good video!

[jaseman]

I have all my data in VHDX files with bitlocker enabled. When I want to backup - I just unmount those drives and copy and paste the VHDX files to external hard drives. For my home stuff I do this once every season (Winter, Spring, Summer & Autumn). So over the year I have 4 full backups. Potentially I could lose a maximum of 3 months worth of files in a disaster situation. I could do it monthly - but I only have 4 external hard drives and I don't really want to pay for 12 of them. I never do incremental backups. The good thing is - if someone got hold of my backup drives - They won't be able to access the data without the bitlocker password.

[DrQuadrivium]

Excellent.... but might have frightened the horses!

[worsdors]

Thank you very much ! Just one question.... can I add my outlook ? if that is possible then it is 100% perfect ! If I can do my outlook 365 can you assist me ? Congrats !

[alexizy]

Hey I really need your help, I bought a laptop with freedos on it. I installed the windows 10 just the way you show in your another video. It can't even detect wifi and many other things in device manager, it also has no drivers whatsoever, can you help please?