How to use the back-up script?

Description

Everyone knows backing up your computer is important, yet most people do not do it. Computers experience problems. If you have important files on your PC then it is imperative to back them up.

Before you can start to back-up the data on your computer, you have to know where you saved your data. Sometimes your saved documents are not saved on the location you expected.

Sometimes, users prefer to store their (valuable) data on a local disk on their computer.  Especially laptop users, who want to access their data when their laptop is not connected to the Vlerick LAN. Storing data on a local disk, is not promoted by the IT-staff due to the fact that no back-up of the locally stored data is made on a regular basis.  Only when the user takes the initiative to make a back-up, a back-up of the locally stored data is made. Due to the fact that no back-up is made on a regular basis, the IT-staff can not guarantee that the data can be recovered in case of a system crash.

Solution

The IT-department has developed a back-up script to assist you in backing up your locally stored data. This FAQ describes how to use this script.

  1. How can I use the Back-up Script?
  2. Which data did I back-up?
  3. Where is my back-up stored?
  4. Clean up old back-ups
  5. Possible error messages
  6. Important Notes

1. How can I use the Back-up Script?


Note: You can only use the back-up script when you are on campus.

  1. Choose Start > All Programs >  Backup Computer
    (if you don't see this option, please open an Altiris helpdesk call)
  2. You start the script.

     
  3. You see a pop-up, indicating to close all open files and programs (Outlook, Office, ...). At this point, you can cancel the back-up and run the script again.

     
  4. You see a window, indicating the progress of the back-up.
    At this point, do not start any programs and do not open any files.

     
  5. At the end, you receive a pop-up which tells you that the back-up is successfully completed.

     
  6. A summary of the back-up is displayed.
    Please take a good look at this file, it lists all the possible errors and data not saved.
    To see if the back-up was successful, check all numbers in de columns 'FAILED' in this log file, these must all be 0.

2. Which data did I back-up?

The script will back-up all data stored in the folders (and subfolders):

  • C:\Documents and Settings\YourUserName\Desktop
  • C:\Documents and Settings\YourUserName\Local Settings\Application Data\Microsoft\Outlook
  • C:\Documents and Settings\YourUserName\Application Data\Microsoft\Signatures
  • D:\Users\YourUserName

All files, located in any other location on your computer will not be copied!!

3. Where is my back-up stored?

All files are stored on an additional share, your back-up share.
The share is located on \\vlersrv23\YourUserName_b$ (b = back-up)
If you do not know how to map a network drive, please read this FAQ file: 'How do I map a network drive?'

On your back-up share, you will find two folders:
  • Documents and Settings
  • Users

These folders are a replica of those on your own computer.

4. Clean-up old  back-ups

The back-up share is a read-only share.
If needed, you can copy files from this share to your computer.

It does not make sense to keep all previous back-ups. When you take a new back-up, only files changed since the last time you ran the script are copied. Files deleted on your pc are deleted on your  back-up share as well, so there is no backup history! You cannot restore files from an earlier  back-up if those files are yet to be removed from your computer and you have run the backup script again.

It is important to know that this script only means to back up the most critical data, stored on you computer locally.

Really critical data should always be stored on your personal or group share!
Old data should be archived on a CD-ROM.

5. Possible error messages

Error on mapping back-up share

The script can only be run when your connected to the Vlerick network (campus Ghent or campus Leuven). If you receive this error, please check your network connection.

Back-up share not ready

The script only runs successfully when all open programs and files are closed, including those on your network drives. If you receive this error, please close all open programs and files and run the script again.

No permission to write to back-up share

If you receive this error, there is something wrong with your permissions to access the  back-up share. Please contact the helpdesk.

Back-up share has not enough free disk space

If you receive this error, there is not enough space on your  back-up share.

The data you want to  back-up is too big to fit on the  back-up share. Please clean up your locally stored data (archive old data to CD, clean up temporary files, ....) and run the script again.

6. Important Notes

  • The script can only copy data from one computer. If you use more than one computer and store data locally on these computers, please contact the helpdesk.
  • If you know your files are not listed in the above mentioned folders, please move them to the folder D:\users\YourUserName BEFORE taking the  back-up (for example: pst-files, templates, ...).

In case of a problem do not hesitate to contact the helpdesk at +32 92 10 97 24.

 


Author: DVSM\rafnou | Modified by: DVSM\rafnou, Monday June 25, 2007 14:43:47 +0200