Open Source, Incremental Backup for Windows, Step By Step

Warning! This is old. It was last updated in 2007 and may be obsolete, outdated, unsafe or just embarrassing. Treat with caution.

With thanks to

Mike Rubel's Rsync Snapshot Backup for Linux, which taught me the original backup strategy.

What this is

Instructions, in presentation form, on how to set up incremental snapshot-style backups for Windows, using Cygwin and Rsync. This isn't for novice users; if you're not comfortable installing software and using a command line, this may be a little too complex.

As presented at BarCampLondon2

Download Full Presentation (PDF, 274KB)

That Shell Script

rm -rf /cygdrive/x/Backup/rsync.9
mv /cygdrive/x/Backup/rsync.8 /cygdrive/x/Backup/rsync.9
mv /cygdrive/x/Backup/rsync.7 /cygdrive/x/Backup/rsync.8
mv /cygdrive/x/Backup/rsync.6 /cygdrive/x/Backup/rsync.7
mv /cygdrive/x/Backup/rsync.5 /cygdrive/x/Backup/rsync.6
mv /cygdrive/x/Backup/rsync.4 /cygdrive/x/Backup/rsync.5
mv /cygdrive/x/Backup/rsync.3 /cygdrive/x/Backup/rsync.4
mv /cygdrive/x/Backup/rsync.2 /cygdrive/x/Backup/rsync.3
mv /cygdrive/x/Backup/rsync.1 /cygdrive/x/Backup/rsync.2
cp -al /cygdrive/x/Backup/rsync /cygdrive/x/Backup/rsync.1
rsync -v -rlt -z --delete "/cygdrive/c/Documents and Settings/[username]/My Documents/" /cygdrive/x/Backup/rsync/

The rsync command should be all on one line; change your drive and username to suit.