TSGL: How to rename-renumber backups

[Tilman Brandl]

Hi,

> One software manufacturer Datestamps his archive reports by appending 
> YYYY.MM.DD on the
> front of the file name which is the only way they will sort correctly in a 
> folder.

my adapted vbs script does exactly this - but I'm planning to actually 
append the date in the furure. I'm sorting files after the date, not the 
name - so having the date-string in front of the name isn't important.

I've found another problem meanwhile: It appears that vbs doesn't have a 
file renaming function. Meaning that one has to copy the file instead. Quite 
a long process with backups that sometimes have several GB - like my 
pictures folder - it results in a compressed file of 9 GB.

Tilman

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "HBCANON" <hbcanon at homemail.com>
To: "'Tech Support Guy Mailing List'" <list at tsgserver.com>
Sent: Saturday, March 29, 2008 3:17 PM
Subject: Re: TSGL: How to rename-renumber backups


> One software manufacturer Datestamps his archive reports by appending 
> YYYY.MM.DD on the
> front of the file name which is the only way they will sort correctly in a 
> folder.
> HBCanon
> Geneva, FL
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: list-bounces at tsgserver.com [mailto:list-bounces at tsgserver.com] On 
> Behalf Of Tilman
> Brandl
> Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2008 21:41
> To: Tech Support Guy Mailing List
> Subject: Re: TSGL: How to rename-renumber backups
>
> ED,
>
> thanks for that idea - might be helpful to ask the Acronis people. Sofar I 
> haven't found
> an option to append/prepend a date.
>
> I've found a solution meanwhile that might work: In my (old) SyncBack 
> folder I found a
> free vbs script for adding a timestamp. I've adapted it a little, and it 
> will run after
> each backup, adding a timestamp in before the filename. Funny enough, I 
> feel more
> comfortable with vbs than with complicated dos-batch files. Seems I forgot 
> too many
> details of that stuff during past years. ;-(
>
> Thanks
> Tilman
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "edLynn" <edlynn at gmail.com>
> To: "Tech Support Guy Mailing List" <list at tsgserver.com>
> Sent: Friday, March 28, 2008 1:30 AM
> Subject: Re: TSGL: How to rename-renumber backups
>
>
>> Tilman -
>>
>> I use Acronis, but manually rename each incremental backup 1,2,...and the
>> program adds a date stamp.
>>
>> I am writing to suggest that you pose your problem to Acronis support.
>> "Right from the horse's mouth" may be the best way. It's worked for me in
>> other areas.
>>
>> ED
>> ----- Original Message ----- 
>> From: "Bo Maurin" <bo.maurin at ericsson.com>
>> To: "Tech Support Guy Mailing List" <list at tsgserver.com>
>> Sent: Thursday, March 27, 2008 12:39 PM
>> Subject: Re: TSGL: How to rename-renumber backups
>>
>>
>>> Hi Tilman,
>>> As an alternative solution I would suggest you write a simple batch file
>>> to rename the files. So after each back up you just double click on the
>>> batch file to do the job for you. Assumption then is that your back up
>>> is
>>> - always named system-full.tib
>>> - it is always stored in the same directory
>>>
>>> Proposal here will not rename them to
>>> system-full-1.tib
>>> system-full-2.tib
>>> etc
>>>
>>> but rather to system-full <current date>.tib
>>>
>>> This is what I saw on the web. I have not tested it though
>>>
>>>   @ECHO off
>>>   SETLOCAL
>>>   IF [%1] NEQ [] goto s_start
>>>
>>>   :: Author - Simon Sheppard, July 2003
>>>   :: Tested for Windows NT, 2K, XP
>>>
>>>   ECHO STAMPME.cmd
>>>   ECHO REName a file with the DATE/Time
>>>   ECHO.
>>>   ECHO SYNTAX
>>>   ECHO       STAMPME TestFile.txt
>>>   ECHO.
>>>   ECHO       STAMPME "Test File.txt"
>>>   ECHO.
>>>   ECHO       STAMPME "c:\docs\Test File.txt"
>>>   ECHO.
>>>   ECHO       Will rename the file in the format "Test
>>> File-02-12-27 at 16-55.txt"
>>>   ECHO.
>>>   ECHO       In a batch file use CALL STAMPME ...
>>>
>>>   :: To change the filename format just change around the last line
>>> below
>>>
>>>   GOTO :eof
>>>
>>>   :s_start
>>>
>>> SET _file=%~n1%
>>> SET _pathname=%~f1%
>>> SET _ext=%~x1%
>>>
>>> ::Get the date
>>>   ::  note ISO 8601 date format would require 4 digit YYYY Year)
>>>
>>>   FOR /f "tokens=6-8 delims=/ " %%G IN ('NET TIME \\%computername%') DO
>>> (
>>>         SET _mm=%%G
>>>         SET _dd=%%H
>>>         SET _yy=%%I
>>> )
>>>
>>>   :: Get the time
>>>   FOR /f "tokens=1,2 delims=: " %%G IN ('time/t') DO (
>>>         SET _hr=%%G
>>>         SET _min=%%H
>>>   )
>>>
>>>   ECHO Today is Year: [%_yy%] Month: [%_mm%] Day: [%_dd%]
>>>   ECHO The time is:   [%_hr%]:[%_min%]
>>>
>>>   REN "%_pathname%" "%_file%-%_yy%-%_mm%-%_dd%@%_hr%-%_min%%_ext%"
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message-----
>>> From: list-bounces at tsgserver.com [mailto:list-bounces at tsgserver.com] On
>>> Behalf Of Tilman Brandl
>>> Sent: den 27 mars 2008 15:49
>>> To: Tech Support Guy Mailing List
>>> Subject: TSGL: How to rename-renumber backups
>>>
>>> Hi,
>>>
>>> maybe this has been discussed in the past, I just didn't find anything:
>>> I'm trying to find a way for renaming/renumbering backups.
>>>
>>> My Acronis is scheduled to create a system-partition backup /image each
>>> week or so ... Unfortunately, when creating that task, I can only give a
>>> single filename for this, like system-full.tib  There's no way to add a
>>> date string of any kind ...
>>>
>>> What I would like is saving more than just a single backup, which means
>>> I would have to rename them. I've sofar done this manually, a process
>>> that's easy to mess up or also to forget. As a standard there's for
>>> instance my 1st backup named "system-full.tib"
>>>
>>> So after the backup has finished, I rename it into "system-full-1.tib"
>>>
>>> Thus after the next new backup I have new files
>>>    system-full.tib
>>>    system-full-1.tib
>>>
>>> This time I increment the numbers, renaming them into
>>>    system-full-1.tib
>>>    system-full-2.tib
>>>
>>> until after a few more backup runs (planned max.at 4 files) I have e.g.
>>>    system-full.tib
>>>    system-full-1.tib
>>>    system-full-2.tib
>>>    system-full-3.tib
>>>    system-full-4.tib
>>>
>>> My filemanager (totalcommander) can batch rename files - manually. Using
>>> a stored pattern it's quite easy, but I mustn't forget to do it and need
>>> to click a few buttons. I would prefer to run a program before or after
>>> each backup run (a step which Acronis provides) that would simplify that
>>> whole process for me.
>>>
>>> Would there be an easy way to automate this?
>>> Sofar I've looked for software but didn't find anything better than what
>>> my filemanager can do - manually. I guess I would have to do some
>>> scripting, something I *could* do only with considerable effort (forgot
>>> most of what I knew of e.g. VB...). In the past I've played with AutoIt
>>> and PowerPro - both would allow me to create macros or scripts, but I
>>> hesitate to take the plunge.
>>>
>>> Any ideas appreciated
>>> Tilman