Backup Windows Home Server Folders to an External Hard Drive

Backup Windows Home Server Folders to an External Hard Drive

Using Windows Home Server to backup computers on your local network is a great tool for your backup strategy. But what about backing up the data on the server itself? Here we take a look at using an external drive to backup some of your important data.

Adding External Drive for WHS Folder Backup

After plugging in the external drive open Windows Home Server Console and you’ll see the drive listed and that it’s not added yet. Right-click and select Add from the menu.



The Add a Hard Drive Wizard kicks off…



In the next screen it’s important to select the radio button next to Use this hard drive to back up files that are stored on your home server. Otherwise WHS will add it as additional storage for your data which is not what we want.



If the drive isn’t formatted as NTFS yet, select the radio button next to Yes, format this hard drive. If you’re not sure select this option anyway as formatting it again won’t hurt anything.

Configure Your Computer to Backup to Windows Home Server

Configure Your Computer to Backup to Windows Home Server

One of the cool features of Windows Home Server is being able to set backups of the other computers on your network to the server. Today we take a look at the process of configuring a computer on your network to be backed up automatically to WHS.

Backup to WHS

To backup a computer your network, open the Windows Home Server Console and select Computers & Backup. Right-click the computer to backup and select Configure Backup.

The Backup Configuration Wizard kicks off…

Wait while the Configuration Wizard collects information…

Choose the disks you want to backup…notice you can also choose external drives if you wish to back them up. Note that the disk needs to be formatted as NTFS, if it’s not then it won’t be displayed in the list.

Now choose the folders you want to exclude from the backup. The grayed out locations are automatically excluded but you may want to remove them from the exclude list. If you want to exclude other folders click on the Add button.

Now go through and select the folders to exclude from the backup. To reduce the size of your backups, you might exclude large media files and unimportant documents, pictures…etc. Make sure you don’t exclude your most important documents, pictures, and other data.

After you’re done excluding folders from the backup, click Next to continue.

Then you’ll have the Congratulations screen showing a summary of the backup size, the time of day backups will occur, and the backup frequency which is daily.

After the backup process completes you’ll be able to see if a computer has been backed up or not in WHS Console.

If you want to change the time of day backups occur, click on Settings in WHS Console then Backup. Under Backup Time you can change the start and end time to what fits your schedule.

To view a backup just right-click on the computer and select View Backups.

It opens the View Backups window where you can verify and manage your computer’s backups.

Conclusion

This will get you started with backups and you’ll have peace of mind knowing that your computer’s data is being backed up to the server. The process is relatively simple and the main thing is to make sure the backups aren’t needlessly large with unnecessary files (such as large multimedia files). There’s a lot more administration you can do with backups, and we’ll be taking a detailed look at managing them in future posts…so stay tuned. Remember that you can download a free 30 day trial of Windows Home Server, so if you have an extra machine you can dedicate to being a server, you might want to check it out.

Restore Files from Backups on Windows Home Server

Restore Files from Backups on Windows Home Server

If you use Windows Home Server to backup the machines on your network, your in luck if you accidentally delete important files or they become corrupted. Today we take a look at getting your data back from backups on your home server.

Open Windows Home Server Console and click select the Computers and Backup tab. Right-click on the computer you need to restore files for and select View Backups.

This will open a list of your recent backups. Highlight the one you want to open, then click the Open button in the Restore or View Files section.

If this is the first time you’re restoring a file, you’ll be asked to verify installation of the device software. Check the box next to Always trust software from Microsoft Corporation and click Install.

Now wait while the backup data is retrieved.

After the backup data has been retrieved, an explorer windows opens up to drive (Z:) which is the backup data. It’s just like if you were opening a drive on your local machine. Now you can browse through the backup and find the files your missing. You can open the files directly, or drag them onto your machine to the location you want to restore them.

Restoring your data is actually a very easy process with Windows Home Server. Of course you’ll want to make sure the computers on your network are being backed up to WHS.

Backup Windows Home Server Folders to an External Hard Drive

Backup Windows Home Server Folders to an External Hard Drive

Using Windows Home Server to backup computers on your local network is a great tool for your backup strategy. But what about backing up the data on the server itself? Here we take a look at using an external drive to backup some of your important data.

Adding External Drive for WHS Folder Backup

After plugging in the external drive open Windows Home Server Console and you’ll see the drive listed and that it’s not added yet. Right-click and select Add from the menu.

The Add a Hard Drive Wizard kicks off…

In the next screen it’s important to select the radio button next to Use this hard drive to back up files that are stored on your home server. Otherwise WHS will add it as additional storage for your data which is not what we want.

If the drive isn’t formatted as NTFS yet, select the radio button next to Yes, format this hard drive. If you’re not sure select this option anyway as formatting it again won’t hurt anything.

Create a name for the hard drive…

At the warning screen go ahead and click finish. If you want to make any changes at this point you can go back and make them.

Now wait while the drive is formatted and added to the server.

The drive has been successfully added and you can click Done.

Now when you go into WHS console you’ll see the drive added under Server Backup Hard Drives.

Backup Folders to External Drive

Now that the drive is set up and ready to be used it’s time to back up server files to it. In WHS Console go to Computers and Backup and you’ll see your server listed as Not backed up under Status. Right-click on the server and select Backup Now.

Here you can go through and decide which folders of data you want to be backed up to the external drive we just added. Check the box next to Remember these setting for future backups then click Backup Now.

The backup starts and you can hide the progress box or stop the backup at any time if you need to.

The amount of time it takes to backup will vary depending on the amount of data being backup. When it has successfully completed, you can close out of the Backup Now screen.

Go back to WHS Console and you’ll see the server has been backed up with the time and date.

Remove Drive

You might want to remove the drive and store it in a safe place. The best method for removing the backup drive is to going into Server Storage, right-click on the drive and select Remove.

Then you’re presented with the the choice to temporarily remove it or stop using it for backups. If you plan to use it again select to temporarily remove it.

If you ever need to get you data back from the external drive, you don’t need to add it back to WHS. You can plug it into any computer. When you open the drive you’ll see the backed up Shares and you can get the files you need.

This is a good process if you want to manually backup the data on your Windows Home Server from time to time.

Windows Home Server - Backup to LAN

Windows Home Server - Backup to LAN

Steps :

1. Selected a NAS whose file system supports large file sizes (important for video backup - don't get a cheap NAS with FAT32! I chose a Buffalo LinkStation Live.)
2. Created a new WHS user named 'backup' with full permissions to every share on the WHS.
3. Created a new NAS user with the same name/password as the WHS backup user
4. Created new share(s) on the NAS and gave only the backup user access (important, since the data on the NAS won't inherit the security permissions from the WHS - don't want everybody on your network to see the backup data)
5. Install robocopy on WHS (simply copy robocopy.exe to C:\Windows\system32 or similar)
6. On WHS, create scheduled task for each share to be backed up:


robocopy \\whs\share \\whs_backup\share /COPY:DAT /E /FFT /DCOPY:T /R:0 /W:0 /TS /FP /NP
/LOG:\\whs_backup\share\backup.logCommand line explanation:
/COPY:DAT - since your NAS doesn't have NTFS, the only thing you can reliably copy is the data
/E - subdirectories included
/FFT - since we only want to copy files that have changed since the last backup, and since NAS doesn't have NTFS, have to use this option to ensure the timestamps are selected correctly (this was the hardest thing to figure out!)
/DCOPY:T - copies timestamps on folders too
/R:0 - don't retry locked files (don't want the automated backup to hang)
/W:0 - don't wait between retries
/TS /FP /NP /LOG - log file settings (really useful to figure things out when it's not working!)
(Note that I didn't use the /PURGE option; I want to keep files that might have been accidentally deleted in the source. Might be a good idea to run a purge job occasionally, though, especially if the NAS starts to fill up.)

7. Made sure the scheduled task was set to run as the backup user - required for read/write permissions to the NAS folders
8. (Not sure if this is necessary) Went into the WHS control panel users panel and made the backup user a member of the backup operator group
9. (Optional) Installed the WHS Advanced Admin Console add-in so I could remotely check/modify scheduled tasks, and can browse to NAS shares via 'My Network Places'

That's it - it's been running like clockwork for two months now, backing up several hundred gigs of data and several thousand files in a 6-client small business network. The NAS is physically located in an adjacent building (wireless bridge connects the two), so should be protected even if one of the buildings gets hit by lightning.

Restore process (which I haven't had to use yet) is simply connecting to the NAS as the backup user (password required!) and browsing for the desired files.

for : Backup Windows Home Server Folders to an External Hard Drive

Kill Processes from the Windows Command Line

Kill Processes from the Windows Command Line

If you are familiar with linux/unix, you will be very accustomed to the ability to kill (and start) processes from the command line. Linux gives you a very rich set of command line tools that simply don’t exist on Windows by default.

Enter the Command Line Process Viewer/Killer/Suspender utility from the Beyond Logic website. This is a simple command line utility that lets you perform a number of utilities including viewing a list of processes, killing processes, and even changing the priority of a process.

Syntax:

process -k “Process ID”

process -k “Process Name”

Example usage:

> process -k “notepad.exe”

Command Line Process Viewer/Killer/Suspender for Windows NT/2000/XP V2.03
Copyright(C) 2002-2003 Craig.Peacock@beyondlogic.org
Killing PID 2304 ‘notepad.exe’

OR:

> process -k 2192

Command Line Process Viewer/Killer/Suspender for Windows NT/2000/XP V2.03
Copyright(C) 2002-2003 Craig.Peacock@beyondlogic.org
Killing PID 2192 ‘notepad.exe’

Generate a List of Installed Drivers from the Command Line

Generate a List of Installed Drivers from the Command Line

We’ve already covered how to take a quick look at the list of installed drivers using DriverView, but what if you are on a machine that doesn’t already have that software installed? There’s a command line utility that comes bundled with Windows Vista or XP that gives you similar output.

It’s also useful if you are a command line junkie and have cygwin installed… you can just pipe the command through grep and quickly see exactly what you are looking for.

Running the command with no parameters will give you the default output:

To get verbose output you can use the /v parameter:

driverquery /v

Or to output in list or csv format instead of the default table format, you can use the /FO switch

driverquery /FO [list, table, csv]

So for instance, if you ran the following command to give you verbose information in list format:

driverquery /FO list /v

You should see output similar to this:

If you have cygwin installed you could pipe this through grep, but you should be able to pipe the output into a file, for instance like this:

driveryquery > test.txt

Always useful to know how to use the command line!

How to automate FTP uploads from the Windows Command Line

How to automate FTP uploads from the Windows Command Line

Windows has included batch files since before it existed… batch files are really old! Old or not, I still find myself frequently creating batch files to help me automate common tasks. One common task is uploading files to a remote FTP server. Here’s the way that I got around it.

First, you will have to create a file called fileup.bat in your windows directory, or at least inside some directory included in your path. You can use the “path” command to see what the current path is.

Inside the batch file, you will want to paste the following:

@echo off
echo user MyUserName> ftpcmd.dat
echo MyPassword>> ftpcmd.dat
echo bin>> ftpcmd.dat
echo put %1>> ftpcmd.dat
echo quit>> ftpcmd.dat
ftp -n -s:ftpcmd.dat SERVERNAME.COM
del ftpcmd.dat
You will want to replace the MyUserName, MyPassword and SERVERNAME.COM with the correct values for your ftp server. What this batch file is doing is scripting the ftp utility using the -s option for the command line utility.

The batch file uses the “echo” command to send text to the ftp server as if you had typed it. In the middle of the file you can add extra commands, potentionally a change directory command:

echo cd /pathname/>>ftpcmd.dat

In order to call this batch file, you will call the batchfile using the fileup.bat name that we gave it, and pass in the name of a file as the parameter. You don’t have to type the .bat part of the filename to make it work, either.

Example:

> fileup FileToUpload.zip

Connected to ftp.myserver.com.
220 Microsoft FTP Service
ftp> user myusername
331 Password required for myusername.

230 User myusername logged in.
ftp> bin
200 Type set to I.
ftp> put FileToUpload.zip
200 PORT command successful.
150 Opening BINARY mode data connection for FileToUpload.zip
226 Transfer complete.
ftp: 106 bytes sent in 0.01Seconds 7.07Kbytes/sec.
ftp> quit
And that’s all there is to it. Now your file should be sitting on the remote server.

Display a list of Started Services from the Command Line (Windows)

Display a list of Started Services from the Command Line (Windows)

To interact with the services panel from the command line, Windows provides the Net utility. From the command prompt, you can use this utility to start, stop, pause and continue services. What most people don’t realize is that you can also use this to display a list of services that are running on your computer.

Syntax:

net start

Provides this output(will vary based on your machine):

These Windows services are started:

Adobe Active File Monitor
Adobe LM Service
Application Layer Gateway Service
Ati HotKey Poller
Automatic Updates
Background Intelligent Transfer Service
Bluetooth Service
Cisco Systems, Inc. VPN Service
COM+ Event System
Computer Browser
Cryptographic Services
DCOM Server Process Launcher
DHCP Client
Distributed Link Tracking Client
DNS Client
Error Reporting Service
Event Log
FTP Publishing
Help and Support
HID Input Service
HP WMI Interface
IIS Admin
Infrared Monitor
Logical Disk Manager
Machine Debug Manager
Microsoft Search

Hide Flashing Command Line and Batch File Windows On Startup

Hide Flashing Command Line and Batch File Windows On Startup

I use a lot of batch files, command line applications, and even Ruby scripts (which run from the command line). One of the things that has always irritated me is the flashing command prompt window when I make a shortcut for a batch file, especially when I put it into the startup folder to run when I first login.

There’s a really useful utility that you can use called Hidden Start (hstart), which will start up a command line application hidden in the background, which eliminates the flashing window.

If you launch the utility with no parameters, it will pop up the settings dialog.

When using this utility, there are three key things to remember: Use the /NOWINDOW parameter to keep the window hidden, use the /D=path argument to make sure that the current directory is set correctly, and make sure to surround your application argument with quotes.

For instance, if I had a batch file stored in c:\scripts\mybatch.bat, I would start it by using the following parameters in my shortcut:

hstart /NOWINDOW /D=c:\scripts “c:\scripts\mybatch.bat”

You’ll probably want to copy hstart.exe into somewhere in the system path, for instance C:\windows might work nicely.


Download Hidden Start (hstart)

How To Fix System Tray Tooltips Not Displaying in Windows XP

How To Fix System Tray Tooltips Not Displaying in Windows XP

There’s a bug in Windows XP where sometimes the system tray tooltips and popup notifications will show up behind the taskbar, or behind other windows. This is really annoying when you want to use a tooltip.

There’s not a known perfect solution to the problem. The way to make everything start working again is to do the following:

•Right click the taskbar, choose properties, and uncheck the checkbox that says “Keep task bar on top of other windows”.
•Click Apply
•Check the checkbox again.
•Click Apply again.
This will temporarily make the system work right again, but you will have to repeat these steps if it happens in the future.

Add the Command Prompt to the Windows Explorer Right-Click Menu

Add the Command Prompt to the Windows Explorer Right-Click Menu

A hidden functionality in Windows allows you to right click on a directory, and select “Command Prompt Here” from the menu.

Here’s the registry hack to get this working. Make sure you back up your registry just in case. I’ll show you the step-by-step method, but you can skip down to the bottom for the alternate reg file.

Step-By-Step Method:

Type regedit.exe into the Start\Run dialog, and then navigate to the following registry key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell

Once you are at that key, right click and choose the New Key option:

Name the key “CommandPrompt” without the quotes and then double-click on the default value. Change the text to “Command Prompt Here” as seen here:

Right click on the new Command key and select New key, as you did before. Name the new key Command as well, and then double-click the default value of that key. Set the text of that key to this:

cmd.exe /k cd %1
You can see what it should look like here:

Now when you right click on the folder, you should see this dialog:

That will open up a prompt like this:

Alternate method:

You can create a text file named anything.reg, and insert this text into it:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\CommandPrompt]
@=”Command Prompt:”
[HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\Directory\shell\CommandPrompt\Command]
@=”cmd.exe /k cd %1″

Double click on that file, and the text will be entered into the registry, and you’ll have the same right click command prompt.

Enable Quick Copy and Paste with the Mouse on SecureCRT

Enable Quick Copy and Paste with the Mouse on SecureCRT

SecureCRT uses the Ctrl+Ins and Shift+Ins keys for copy and paste instead of the normal windows defaults of Ctrl+C / V. The reason why this is done is because most unix or linux varieties use those keys as part of the shell.

I was searching for a quicker method of doing a copy and paste than having to use Ctrl+Ins key combination, when I stumbled on a much simpler way of doing it…. just have it automatically copy the text to the clipboard when I select it with my mouse. Pasting is just as simple: just click the middle mouse button.

Here’s how to enable this: Go to Options \ Global Options on the menu:

In the Category listing, click on Terminal, and you should see this section of the configuration screen:

Just check the first two checkboxes, and you are now in business.

For example, I wanted to copy this line into the clipboard, so I just selected it with my mouse as shown, and it was immediately on the clipboard, no questions asked.

           

Disable those annoying "X Application has Encountered a Problem and Must be Shut Down" messages in Windows XP

Disable those annoying "X Application has Encountered a Problem and Must be Shut Down" messages in Windows XP

It’s frustrating enough when your application crashes. Then the annoying dialog expects you to “Send an Error Report to Microsoft”. As if I want Microsoft to know exactly which programs I’m running on my computer.

Here’s two ways to turn off that error reporting. First, you can Right-Click on My Computer, go to the Advanced Tab, and choose the “Disable error reporting” option.

Alternatively, you can navigate to the services console in Administrative tools, find the Error Reporting Service, go into properties and disable it. Either way, those annoying dialogs are gone!

Add Copy To / Move To to the Windows Explorer Right Click Menu

Add Copy To / Move To to the Windows Explorer Right Click Menu

A hidden functionality in Windows allows you to right click on a file, select Copy To Folder or Move To Folder, and the move to box will pop up and let you choose a location to either copy or move the file or folder to.

Update: Downloadable version also available.

Here’s the quick registry hack to get this working. As usual, back up your registry just in case. You will want to browse down to this key:

HKEY_CLASSES_ROOT\AllFilesystemObjects\shellex\ContextMenuHandlers

Once you are at that key, right click and choose the New Key option:

Now you will double-click on the (Default) value and enter the following:

{C2FBB630-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}

Click OK and continue.

If you want to enable Move To, you will repeat the same steps, except creating a new key named Move To, and using this value:

{C2FBB631-2971-11D1-A18C-00C04FD75D13}
Now when you right click on a file or folder, you should see the following options:

Let’s click Copy To Folder just to see what happens….

And that’s it. Useful!