Category: Windows / System

License: GPL

Limitations :

OS: Windows All

Size: 2.06 MB (2,152,933 bytes)

Introduction: With Abacadup, cumbersome and infrequent backup by way of cut and paste, or drag and dropping, is eliminated. Documents achieve immediate redundancy on attached drives and network locations. Abacadup watches files for modification changes. After a modification is detected, Abacadup then copies a duplicate file to another media device. Files may be backed up in this way to floppy, hard drive, USB mass storage, and a network location. A text document may be set for backup, for instance. Each time the document is saved by way of the file drop-down menu or diskette toolbar icon of its editing application, the file is immediately copied to one or more locations by Abacadup. Entire folders--and their subfolders--may be set for automatic backup. Files of any type and folders containing any type of file may be set for automatic backup. Abacadup is not a scheduled backup program. Files are backed up as they are updated. FEATURES: Drive Volume Names - Two or more copy destinations for each file or folder set for automatic backup may be the same. However, each must have a unique volume name that refers to a unique disk or drive. This is not a limitation. The limitation regarding drive volume names in this version of Abacadup is the ability to set files and folders for automatic backup on more than one piece of removable media per floppy drive, ZIP drive, USB port, etc. The "Bac-up" association for the file or folder must be removed, and the new media must then be inserted and configured. Inclusion of drive volume names in the attributes of the "Bac-up" associations to source files and folders was overlooked but will be included in the next released version of Abacadup. * This has been promoted to organizational structure, how ever initially intentional. Change in updates is unlikely. Backing up Recursively FindFirstChangeNotification and FindNextChangeNotification APIs, or Windows library calls, are used to detect changes. These functions do not return the specific file that has been modified, only that a folder has had a change made to it. FileSystemObject functions then search for the most recent Date Last Modified property in order to determine what file should be copied to the destination folder(s). If the folder contains a great number of files, there may be a pause before the file is copied and the notification is displayed. Files in my MyDocuments folder were detected after no more than about 30 seconds. It is recommended to back up individual project folders, which contain a reasonable number of files in order to speed the process of autobackup. I do not recommend setting your C: drive for recursive backup. Also, Windows changes files as Windows processes occur. Notifications about files in your Recent Documents folder could be popping up at seemingly random times if your entire C: drive is set for autobackup. As Abacadup searches for files in all of a folder's subfolders, your CPU resources will not stay at 100% and thus slow the system. CPU resource percentage seems to behave much like it does when using Windows' "Search for Files or Folders" utility. * Some of this is too technical for a novice computer user, though the much of the information could and should be related in another way. Large Files Abacadup was tested in conjunction with a sound editing program. In saving a .wav file to .mp3, the .mp3 was saved to the destination twice over the course of conversion. It is possible that in converting a larger .wav to .mp3 Abacadup would detect three or more modifications. The glitch is not very noticeable in viewing the notification that results, but there is a feature of Abacadup that this will make ineffective. Abacadup can be set to save the previous version of the file that lies in the destination folder to a designated folder. When the source file is copied more than once, the previous version Abacadup sees is an incomplete version of the current version. This version, instead of the previous version, is copied to the designated previous save folder. Testing with video and other large files has not been done, but you may find Abacadup is best suited for text, word processor documents, still graphics, short sound waves, and other medium-to-small sized files. * RESOLVED! This is no longer a problem due to intensive testing and editing. Removed Files, Folders and Drives In order to provide more information to the user, a yellow exclamation icon is assigned to each Bac-up when it no longer exists. Detection of the file, folder or drive's removal is not in real time like it is when browsing the Windows file system in any Windows dialog or explorer window. If the file or folder no longer exists, the icon will change only after the user views the Bac-up's properties window. The icon will remain indicative of a removed file or folder until the Bac-up's properties are again viewed, but at a time when the file or folder has since come back into existence. Autobackup will still occur for a Bac-up whose icon indicates non-existence if the file or folder has since come back into existence. In the case that the user saves the Bac-up properties while the file or folder does not exist, Abacadup will create an invalid detection association. Until the Bac-up properties are saved again and at a time when the file or folder exists, Abacadup will not detect changes to the source file(s) or the folder of the Bac-up. Failure Rate It is possible one or more bugs still exist in this version of Abacadup. However, throughout final testing of all features, the program seemed to fail only because the Windows File System was not able to be read correctly. The error message of a missing source file seems illogical when the user has just updated the source file, but the provision of information from Windows' file system might be rickety enough to cause this error. Some related errors may occur as well. However, they were all extreme rarities in testing. * No random errors were detected during this session of programming and debugging. Unpausing Abacadup If the program is unpaused shortly after file(s) in any folder under detection were modified, a notification window may appear briefly. * This is still hardly detectable. (NEW) FEATURES: Schemes: The backup-associations can be saved and loaded into the Abacadup window. Recent Activity Window: A richtextbox control that shows the last 100 file operations performed by Abacadup. Display automatically updates. Added Toolbar: Several common tasks are more readily available. Ability to Open Files/Folders: This can be done from main window or View/Edit dialog. Simply opens the folder or drive to be browsed, or executes the file. Check for Updates: Integrated to Abacadup website, An option in the Help pull-down menu allows user to see if there is a new version of Abacadup available, and go to page to download it. New Icon: Scan of the top of a bicycle bell. Up to 25 historical previous versions of backed files up may be kept. If "PrevSave" is set as the name of the previous version folder, "PrevSave-1" would hold the most recent previous version. "PrevSave-2" would hold a more historical version, and so on.