Fab's AutoBackup 7 Pro - a must have tool for techs

[fabs]

Multiple locations libraries support is on a good way. So far, the development version is able to scan the "%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Libraries\Documents.libray-ms" file, get the different folder paths in it and check if they are public or private save locations or not... The backup part is working fine with the Documents library. Now, I have to do it for Music, Pictures and Videos. After that, the trickiest parts are coming with restore and the worst one, the transfer part. I need more coffee ! LOL

 

[fabs]

I definitely need more coffee. I had to release an emergency update for both Pro and consumer versions: Playing with "public" stuff to make the global behavior smoother made me totally break the restore feature when such public profile was involved in the job. I am feeling really silly on this.
However, a fixed version has been made and released as soon as I heard about that issue.

Fab's AutoBackup 7 Pro V7.0.4.32756 has just been released.

Change log:
Fixed:
- Restore feature was broken when a public profile was involved.
- Pro only: there was a useless extra PUBLIC\archive couple of folders created on the last backup location when performing a transfer job.

Grab it from your orders history's details on the shop's website at https://store.fpnet.fr/account.php?language=en or using the bundled updater tool (click the "Download Fab's AutoBackup 7.X" link within the program and get the updated files).


This one is still not ready for multiple locations libraries as I had to stop everything about that to address this restore huge issue. I have not seen any other odd thing so far, so, this version should be fine.
Let's go back to work now!

 

[glennd]

Multiple locations libraries support is on a good way. So far, the development version is able to scan the "%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Libraries\Documents.libray-ms" file, get the different folder paths in it and check if they are public or private save locations or not... The backup part is working fine with the Documents library. Now, I have to do it for Music, Pictures and Videos. After that, the trickiest parts are coming with restore and the worst one, the transfer part. I need more coffee ! LOL

Fantastic! From there it should be one small step to go from the four "known" libraries to just iterating the contents of "%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Libraries" to capture all user libraries, known and unknown.

Edit: I should point out a possible spanner in the works. I was just experimenting with the libraries and created one of my own and included a sub folder from the Documents folder and that works really well. However, if the new AutoBackup were to back up the libraries, it would capture that one folder twice, the first time as part of the Documents library and the second time as part of my new, special library.

Now I know what you're thinking, "You can't account for stupid!" and I would agree but I thought it worth pointing this out, you might find a way to deal with it.

 

[fabs]

Fantastic! From there it should be one small step to go from the four "known" libraries to just iterating the contents of "%AppData%\Microsoft\Windows\Libraries" to capture all user libraries, known and unknown.

I will just take care of those for now. To be honest I just do not know how I would sort all this unknown stuff in the GUI

 

[glennd]

I will just take care of those for now. To be honest I just do not know how I would sort all this unknown stuff in the GUI

Fair enough!

 

[fincoder]

As with the long-running saga of locating data stored in non-standard places, this is enough of an edge case that it might not be worth providing a complete solution at all.

I agree, as per my post here on Wednesday:

Maybe Fabs could discover other library folders, and then simply select these folders in the 'Other Folders' feature that's being planned. This would eliminate the potentially difficult process of restoring the custom library configuration itself, treating the other library folders as just 'Other Folders' to help prevent missing the data.

 

[GTP]

Not sure I like the "new" Fabs Autobackup. It used to be a simple program, now it's becoming overly complicated.
The "Downloads" folder was not backed up even though it was selected in both the User data and Public data tabs?

 

[sapphirescales]

Not sure I like the "new" Fabs Autobackup. It used to be a simple program, now it's becoming overly complicated.
The "Downloads" folder was not backed up even though it was selected in both the User data and Public data tabs?

I have to concur. How often have you come across someone that had multiple locations for a standard folder? If they knew how to do that, they probably wouldn't be coming to you for computer repair and could probably back up their own data.

Using Fabs is NOT a replacement for due diligence, any more than using anti-virus software is an excuse to click on every shady link you come across. NO software is perfect because software is STUPID! It has no intelligence! You need to use YOUR brain. The software doesn't have a brain!

I do NOT trust ANY software to do my work for me! I check and DOUBLE check everything my software does and make sure everything was done CORRECTLY! If you're not doing this, then you're not doing your job! One of the reasons I don't use Fabs very much is because it makes verifying a proper backup was done more difficult than other software I use. Fabs is #3 on my list of preferred backup software because I like having more control and manual verification than Fabs provides.

 

[GTP]

Hmmm... It seems that even after manually selecting folders in Extra Files and Folders tab they don't get backed up?
At least - I dont seem to be able to find them on the backup drive? I've looked everywhere and can't locate them?
Fabs went through the motions and said it was backing them up but they seem to be MIA?

I think I'll stick with an older version 7 for now.

 

[glennd]

Hmmm... It seems that even after manually selecting folders in Extra Files and Folders tab they don't get backed up?
At least - I dont seem to be able to find them on the backup drive? I've looked everywhere and can't locate them?
Fabs went through the motions and said it was backing them up but they seem to be MIA?

I think I'll stick with an older version 7 for now.

did you report it to @fabs as a potential bug?

 

[GTP]

did you report it to @fabs as a potential bug?

He monitors this thread so he will see it. Not sure it is a bug or a "feature."

 

[fabs]

Not sure I like the "new" Fabs Autobackup. It used to be a simple program, now it's becoming overly complicated.
The "Downloads" folder was not backed up even though it was selected in both the User data and Public data tabs?

There have been no change on this item recently and the first test I have done on my development machine ran fine.
Can you tell me more about this job? How was the set up ?

 

[fabs]

He monitors this thread so he will see it. Not sure it is a bug or a "feature."

Same thing here. First attempt, data copied, so, I need details now.
By the way, all this stuff goes to the public backup folder.

 

[fabs]

One more thing:
I have not added code to include "odd files" in the version officially released since I have preferred to work on a duplicated code, so, the official one does not get weird stuff that could introduce such "features" (oops, bugs!).
Now that I see the path all of this polemic is going, I think I will just drop that and stick to my first thought : Fab's AutoBackup has not to be the tech and this does not take so long to just check if there is not something weird on C or the user profile that should be backed up. The Fab's AutoBackup purpose is to be helpful, not to shut down the tech's brain

 

[fabs]

I like having more control and manual verification than Fabs provides.

What could I add for this?

 

[fabs]

Not sure I like the "new" Fabs Autobackup. It used to be a simple program, now it's becoming overly complicated.
The "Downloads" folder was not backed up even though it was selected in both the User data and Public data tabs?

Are there any news on this? Like I said, downloads were properly backed up on my development machine.
Something like running the job in the same conditions but only with these download folders (public and private) in debug mode would provide me some information about this system and I could provide some answers to you. To enable the debug mode, right-click the program's title bar and select "[ ] Debug Mode". Then, perform the job as usual. Can you do that please? When you will close the program, you will get a debug feedback form to fill. This will send me some diagnostic files. This way, I will have some clues about what is going on.

 

[sapphirescales]

What could I add for this?

Just check out the UI for Unstoppable Copier. THAT is a data transfer program done right. Dead simple with verification for each file. On top of all that, it's able to copy damaged files in pieces so you at least get a partial file even if the file is unreadable by most other programs. When I use Fabs, it's like "uhhhh...okay, I guess it's done. I just gotta pray that it did everything it said it was going to do." Not a good feeling to have when you're backing up a client's data. I mainly use Fabs to back up and restore program data and such, but it kinda sucks as just a data backup program. I'd love to stop using Unstoppable Copier as my daily driver and only keep it for transferring files that are potentially damaged, but Fabs as it is just isn't good enough to be my main data backup program. If Fabs actually provided a LIVE summary as it's copying data like Unstoppable Copier does, I'd use it a lot more often.

 

[fabs]

Just check out the UI for Unstoppable Copier. THAT is a data transfer program done right. Dead simple with verification for each file. On top of all that, it's able to copy damaged files in pieces so you at least get a partial file even if the file is unreadable by most other programs. When I use Fabs, it's like "uhhhh...okay, I guess it's done. I just gotta pray that it did everything it said it was going to do." Not a good feeling to have when you're backing up a client's data. I mainly use Fabs to back up and restore program data and such, but it kinda sucks as just a data backup program. I'd love to stop using Unstoppable Copier as my daily driver and only keep it for transferring files that are potentially damaged, but Fabs as it is just isn't good enough to be my main data backup program. If Fabs actually provided a LIVE summary as it's copying data like Unstoppable Copier does, I'd use it a lot more often.

Every copied file is compared to its source (date and size). If there is a difference or a copy failure, a warning or error entry (depending on the case) is added to the log. It just does not show every file OK on the log (except in debug mode) to limit memory usage.
I am not sure on how I can handle damaged files. That's a tricky thing

 

[fabs]

Just display a big warning message and require acknowledgement from the technician before continuing on a best-effort basis, logging all errors as you go.

Damaged files usually indicate some other problem that'll need the technician's hands-on intervention anyway. We expect Autobackup to help, not to do our entire job for us!

There are already errors shown in the log if it encounters files it cannot copy from a damaged drive.

 

[glennd]

There are already errors shown in the log if it encounters files it cannot copy from a damaged drive.

And also in the summary area at the bottom when it's complete. It would be nice to have total failed files, bytes and warnings in the summary area when it's working.