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Auto-backup of User Profile --- a Very Cool Trick

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bcastner

bcastner

IS-IT--Management
Aug 13, 2002
29,271
US
With increasing drive sizes I have begun considering "sneaking" a user profile backup method onto stand-alone and Workgroup machines. What I do now is to trick XP into thinking the user has a roaming profile. When you do so, Windows XP will back up your user profile each time you log off.

As the formal System Restore service does little to backup the user Profile, I thought this a useful and easy addition:
1. Logon as the local Administrator. If you are the Local Administrator, logon as another Group Administrator user. Create one temporarily if you have to.

2. Then, access the User Profiles tool from the Advanced tab of the System Properties dialog box, select your user profile, click the Copy To button, and type the name of a folder (preferably on another drive) in the Copy Profile To text box. Lets call it D:\Bill CastnerBackup

3. Winkey+R and type compmgmt.msc in the Open text box. Navigate to System Tools, Local Users and Groups, Users folder.

4. Double-click on your account name and select the Profile tab. Then, type the path to the backup in the Profile Path text box; in my example: D:\Bill CastnerBackup

Now whenever I logoff an automatic copy is made to another Drive of my profile.
Click to expand...

Hope you like the trick.

Bill Castner


.
 
One possible downside I see (and no disrespect to Bill) is that the size of some Profiles can be measured in Gigabytes and may increase the time taken to complete a logoff, or does it run while the user is actually logged off, assuming he is not shutting down at the same time? What would the benefits be if you are like me and swap between users and operating systems very frequently?

Is there any control to regulate how often such a backup would be made, rather than having it do so at every Logoff?
 
The core of the "trick" is to convince XP that you have a Roaming Profile.

It will increase the time required for logon and logoff, depending on the size of the profile.

It will be done at every logoff. This is the nature of a roaming profile.

------- Now to linney's concern about reducing the time effect on logon and logoff.

Can you exclude things from being copied? Can you speed up the copy process?

Yes, using Group Policy.
User Configuration
-> Administrative Templates
-> System
-> User Profiles

By default this setting contains "Local Settings;Temporary Internet Files;History;Temp". Simply add the folders you do not wish to be copied back and forth to this semicolon separated list. Example: use "Local Settings;Temporary Internet Files;History;Temp;My Documents;Desktop;Recent;Start Menu;Application Data".

To speed things up, the directories not copied in your profile by this exclusion need to be redirected.
Click to expand...

See the suggestions in this Article, for example:
 
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