Backing up my excel files?

[dieseljohn]

I want to back up all of the excel files on my computer in one go. Unfortunately there are many that are in different directories that have the same names but contain different data. Bad practice yes I know.

Anyway, I can get a huge list of them by doing a search but then what? Winzip wont let me zip them because of the repeated file names. Is there any way I can copy all the directories but only the files names *.xls for example?

We're talking about hundreds of files so I'm not going through renaming them.

Cheers.

[agent006]

I would assume a proper backup program would store the file structure too, hence no problems with names.

[dieseljohn]

Ok then, next qeustion is where do I get a proper back-up program. For free.

[puggit]

agent006 said:

I would assume a proper backup program would store the file structure too, hence no problems with names.

Yep, something like Veritas/Symantec Backup Exec would let you backup only .xls files and let you keep the structure

Windows XP backup won't give you this option

Alternatively, after your search, click on one of the files in the window. Then hit ctrl and A at the same time to select all files and manually move them somewhere else by either copy and paste or drag and drop if you have 2 windows open

[fish]

look under help for xcopy. The script can be written to do incremental copies(ie backups) etc and keep the structure, permissions and more importantly the origional date it was last modified not the new copy date(ie backup date)

Play around with it first before using as it is very powerful.

You can then add this script once you know it works to the schedular to do it automatically.

If you can't backup to a mapped drive, you could create a folder called backup on the hard drive duplicate it there and then copy that backup folder to CD etc.

I never really found any good free backup software when I looked in the end I use an old bundled Iomega sync and backup pro.

Xcopy is good though and free.

[dieseljohn]

Thanks for the suggestions everyone.