Christopher Greaves

416-621-9348 cgreaves@chrisgreaves.com
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Encryption And Off-site Backup Storage (Home) ; Overview ; The Problem ; The Essence Of The Solution ; How Long Does It Take To Do A Backup? ; Assumptions ; Breakdown Of Tasks ; The Stand-Alone Solution ; The Networked Solution ; Let’s Get Started ; Mounting The Backup Drive ; Mounting An Encrypted Drive ; Waiting For The Backup Drive ; Processing Each Local Drive ; RoboCopy New And Later Files ; RoboCopy Parameter Files ; Append Session Details To A Log File ; Shutting Down the Computer ; Review For Local Systems ; Putting Together The Local Backup System ; SUBSTituting A Drive For A Folder ; Assembling The Batch File ; ( TITLE commands ); Running The Backup Batch File ; Examining Our Results ; Waiting For A Set Of Drives ; Issue the Backup Command To A Set Of Drives ; Modifying The Driving Batch File ; What About The Log File? ; The Upgraded Set Of Batch Files ; Encryption of backup data ; What Is Involved In Encrypting A Backup Device? ; ( Advice On Passwords ); What Is Involved In Mounting An Encrypted Device? ; User Mounted Or Automated? ; Using A DOS Batch File To Facilitate Mounting ; Using A DOS Batch File To Facilitate Dismounts ; Making The External Drives Available Across The Network ; Mounting A Shared Drive For Sharing ; Installing On A Networked Computer ; Running On The Big Beige Box ; An Improved Method Of Waiting ; Shutdown Or Restart? ; At Long Last! A Working Version! ; The Backup.BAT file ; The Mount.BAT file ; The ProcessDrive.BAT file ; The Shutdown.BAT File ; The Encryption Process

Toronto and Mississauga, Friday, December 03, 2010 8:29 AM

An Improved Method Of Waiting

On the Laptop, the central/server computer, we are using drive X: as the drive letter for an encrypted backup drive.

On the Big Beige Box, a networked computer, we are using drive X: as the SUBSTituted drive for the shared drive \\LAP\X.

We can make use of this Amazing Coincidence by re-writing our “wait” batch files.

Indeed, we will write an improved and shorter batch file to replace the other two:

TITLE %0 - wait for a mapped drive to become available
REM parameter 1 should be the wait time in seconds e.g. "120"
REM parameter 2 should be the anticipated Drive letter e.g. "X"
REM parameter 3 should be the network drive e.g. "\\Lap\X"
:Loop
subst %2: %3
if exist %2: goto Finish
wait %1
goto Loop
:Finish
REM END

The SUBSTitute command will be effective on any machine other than the machine which hosts the shared drive. But on that machine, the drive X: (or Y:) is already assigned to the shared drive, so no harm is done.

We can call this batch file from our main Backup.bat. We will need to call it twice, once for each of our two backup drives:

	Call Waitmap %Waittime%  X \\Lap\X
Call Waitmap %Waittime%  Y \\Lap\Y

With our Backup.bat programmed this way, the same backup.bat file can be used on every machine.

Shutdown Or Restart?

Toronto and Mississauga, Friday, December 03, 2010 8:29 AM