Ability to backup data automatically on a schedule without intervention.

Cobian  supports multiple jobs that can each be scheduled

Ability to backup files, such as Outlook Express, without shutting down those programs.

Cobian can us Volume  shadow copying enabling it to backup files that are in use

Ability to optimise disk usage

Cobian supports backup cycles. See below for more details

This is the area where Cobian is weakest. It has no facility for automatic restoration. Windows Explorer can be used to copy the files manually

Ability to select what is backed up. this involves both inclusion of items and selective exclusion

Cobian has support for inclusion and exclusion of explicitly specified files or folders or wild cards

Ability to backup:

• "My documents" for multiple users on a single machine
• "Documents and Settings" for multiple users, including All Users on a single machine.
• Outlook Express files
• Windows Address book
• Registry

Cobian can be configured to run using an administration account so that it has permission to copy any user's data

The registry copy is not directly supported but Cobian has the facility to run a program prior to the backup starting enabling third party tools to be executed. ERUNT is a registry backup program that can be run from a command line that can readily be integrated into Cobian's backup schedule.

This is used in conjunction with a full backup

All files that have changed since the last full backup are backed up

This is also used in conjunction with a full backup

All files that have changed since the last backup (whether full or incremental) are backed up each time the backup is run

Install by double clicking on the downloaded executable install file. The first choice is to choose a language.

The default is English but perhaps you have reason to select an alternative! the rest of this page assumes English!

Click OK to continue

We are now presented with a license agreement - read every last full stop and comma ;-) as one always does!

Click on the checkbox to accept the agreement and click Next to continue.

The default installation location is normally acceptable.

Click on Next to continue.

The next screen requires some explanation. For fully automated operation it needs to be installed as a service. This means that part of the program is always there waiting to be run. The user interface interacts with this resident component. This option is the default.

We must also choose the account name that must be used to run the program. enter the user name and password. Note that it can easily be changed later. More details below.

Here is the final screen. If an error was detected e.g. the user account credentials were incorrect then the installation would fail and the error message would be visible.

Clock on Done to complete the process.

Cobian is now running on your system and a nice toadstool icon should have appeared in your tray at the bottom of your screen.

Skip forward to the configuration section

Create an account through Control Panel /The functionality tab also has some options that you may want to experiment with. User Accounts

Click on Create a new account

Enter your chose account name. Here for demonstration purposes backup has been used. You must choose your own.

Click Next to continue

Ensure that computer administrator is selected and click Create Account.

We now must define an account paScreenshotssword.

Click on the icon associated with the newly created account.

We now need to set a password on the account so that backup can take place to a networked device.

Click Create a password

Notes on delete empty folders

We must now enter a password and repeat it (to ensure that you have typed it correctly).

You can enter a reminder hint if necessary. If you do not intend to use the account for anything other than backup then a hint is probably not necessary.

Download the VBS Hide user file :- go to Doug Knox's site

 http://www.dougknox.com/xp/scripts_desc/xp_hide_users.htm

Click the download link indicated to download the .vbs file and save it to the desktop or anywhere else that is convenient.

Note that you could also download the unhide script if you ever want to revers the process.

A security warning will appear asking if you want to open this file - of course you do!

Type in the user name e.g. backup you chose and click OK.

The username should no longer appear on the Welcome screen.

This is the Cobian icon in the system tray (bottom right hand corner of your screen).

Double Clicking on the icon opens the Cobian management application. You can also Right Click and select Open from the menu

This is where we start from. The left pane will show backup jobs that have been created. the right hand pane is a tabbed display that can show the log associated with the current job (as seen here) - it is showing the initial state of the application as it has not yet been run. This will be called the log window in the following description.

The browser tab takes you to the Cobian Home Page

We will look at the other tabs later.

There are also icons along the top - hovering the mouse over these shows their purpose. The functions can also be accessed through the menus.

For now we will select the menu Tools / Options or (click the spanner icon).

This now brings up the configuration dialog. The left pane contains various configuration options and we will look at the essential parts of these later. The initial selection is General.

On this screen note that it is set to autostart for all users. this means that any user can see, and change, settings. you make wish to allow only certain users to make the changes. this does not affect the automatic backup schedule - just access to the user interface.

Note also the Logon button. This allows you to change the Logon credentials that were supplied during installation.

The Stop and Uninstall buttons refer to the service that is always running. You should not need to change these settings.

The language selection should be self explanatory.

The Hotkey is yet another way of bringing up the user interface.

The Temporary directory is where Cobian will create any temporary files. Write access is required to this folder from the account being used to run Cobian, not necessarily the account you are logged in as.

Automatically check for updates is self explanatory. This will show as a message in the log window.

The Update Proxy button is unlikely to be needed by home users. It is used when you are behind a firewall with a proxy server. If you have not configured a proxy into Internet Explorer then you don't need to use this button.

The checkbox Backup everything on start, if set, will run all backup jobs when the program is first started

Click on OK when you have finished configuration. It appears on all configuration screens.

The next configuration page we examine is the log options. This affects what level of detail is shown on the log window when the program is started and when it is running.

The options shown here are the default values and I have had no reason to change them.

The Mail log file checkbox will enable the next configuration option SNMP. This is unlikely to be of interest to us for this type of backup and is not shown here. 

These are the Engine options. The screenshot shows the default options.There are a number of options here that are worthy of note.

Calculate the progress exactly. This slows down the backup. Your choice.The functionality tab also has some options that you may want to experiment with.

Force first backup to be full. This is an important option and should be selected. If you have chosen Incremental or differential backup you want a full backup to start of the process. This ensures that this will indeed be the case.

Low priority for the working thread. Selecting this means that your use of the computer will take priority over the backup. the backup may run slower but you will be largely unaware of it taking place. Your choice but recommended.

Copy file attributes - you want this

Check CRC for file copy operations - this option will check the file copy by computing a checksum on the copied file and comparing this with the original file. It significantly increases the time for a copy and has been found to fail spuriously.

Copy file timestamp - you want this as well

Copy NTFS permissions - This is a good idea.

Park the first full backup - This will ensure that the first full backup will never be automatically deleted. Although this is the default I have chosen not to use it.

Delete empty folders - I have chosen to use this option. Any folder that does not contain data is removed. Otherwise an empty folder structure is retained. See below for comments on this option.

Always create directories - If this is not selected I believe that all files go into a single folder - I will try some more tests to confirm.

Apply masks to subdirectories - I don't see why this option should not be selected.

Copy directly if VSS Fails - this will attempt the backup if Volume Shadowing fails - again why not allow it to try.

This screenshot shows an empty task list - we must now populate it. We will start with Admin's Documents&Settings by way of example

Start by Right Click anywhere in the Left Hand pane. A pop up list will appear.

Click on New Task. Alternatively use the Task Menu and select New Task.

The Task Name will appear on the list of tasks. You should give it a name that makes it easy to identify e.g.
Admin Docs+Settings

Note that this will be the root of the folder name. some storage devices (based on UNIX) do not like & characters so  plus is suggested rather than &.

Disabled Checkbox makes it possible to create a task that does not run. This might be useful for a job you only want to run occasionally.

Include subdirectories will backup a folder and all folders contained within it.

Create separate backups  will always create a new folder or file with the data appended. If not selected the backup will be overwritten. Recommend keeping the default setting.

Use file attribute logic - see below

Clear the archive bit - see below

Use Volume shadow Copy - enables backup of files that are open e.g. Outlook Express. Only works to XP and Vista when using NTFS.

Backup type and Full copies to keep control the backup strategy adopted and are described below

Initial form:

Completed form:

We now select the folder or folders that will be backed up.

In this example we have selected the documents and Settings folder for the user admin. The screenshots show before and after.

We have selected a target folder on a networked drive but it could be a network drive mapped to a drive letter. It could also be a local drive in the same computer or a USB drive. If it can be accessed you can use it!

we have only selected one source and one destination.

Initial form:

Completed Form:

There are a number of options that can be chosen. the default is daily which is what I use. If you select weekly then you can also select the day of the week. Explore the options - they are all quite obvious.

for the daily option if is necessary to set a tie that will be used each day. this defaults to the current time. I like a nice round number and set my three computers to backup during the evening, 30 minutes apart.

Initial form:

Completed Form:

To add files to the INCLUDE list click on the appropriate Add button. You can add files, folders, or a mask.

A mask is otherwise known as a wild card e.g. *.jpg will include all files with a file extension of jpg. For this example we do not need to add any files.

It is similar for the EXCLUDE files. To exclude Outlook Express files you need to know where to find them. 

The path is long and it does not all show on the screen shot. I suggest you browse to it using the Directory option.

Once you have selected the folder you will find that the wildcard *.* is automatically added.

You can add the address book in a similar way. This is found in

If you use Firefox then you will have to look for the equivalent folders yourself - sorry! the principle should work however.

Initial form:

Completed form:

Click on Add, select Execute and Wait and browse to the folder where ERUNT is installed and click on the file ERUNT.EXE.

A new dialog box will open where additional parameters can be entered.

Enter the following (copy and paste), the parameters are explained below.

C:\Windows\ERDNT sysreg curuser otherusers /noconfirmdelete /noprogresswindow

A warning will appear that if the called program does nt terminate then the backup will never finish. We must however wait until it finishes so we can thank the Cobian author for his concern but we can click on OK and continue.

Registry backup will take a while to complete. When this finishes however, if you have correctly set up a backup task to copy the folder to the archive device your registry will be safely backed up.

Note that restoring the registry requires the use of a different program ERDNT. ERUNT kindly places this executable file with the backup of the Registry.

System registry: The current system registry, usually consisting of the files DEFAULT, SAM, SECURITY, SOFTWARE, and SYSTEM

Current user registry: The registry files for the currently logged-on user, usually NTUSER.DAT and USRCLASS.DAT

Other open user registries: Sometimes Windows has a few other user registries in memory. Examples for this are "generic" registries, e.g. for user "EVERYONE", or registries of other users if you use Fast Task Switching in Windows XP. Check this option to backup all these additional user registries (if found) as well.

This will delete any existing files without prompting the user - essential for unattended backup

/noprogresswindow

When you start the program now you will see a list of tasks in the left hand pane. It will normally select the Properties Tab on the Right Hand pane as shown here.

You are able to select one or more tasks by clicking on a task to select a single item. By holding down the CTRL key and clicking on several tasks you can select more than one.

When you select a single task it shown a summary of the properties of that task. It auto

Note that double click on most properties takes you to the screen where these can be changed.

Selected tasks may be run manually by clicking on the icon above this pane containing a single floppy disk image (hover the mouse to confirm).

All tasks can be run by clicking the icon to the left showing two floppy disks.

With a single task selected you may look at the history of the backups. When you first start this will be empty. when the program has been running for a time it will show a series of Full backups followed by a set of Incremental backups. 

The screenshot shows my desktop computer with three full backups (the number I have asked it to keep) and six incremental backups in between apart from the last. 

The cycle is not complete in this example. It adds one of these each day.

when the configured maximum number of Incremental backups has been completed Cobian will make the next backup into a full backup.

If the maximum number of backups has been exceeded it will delete older full backups and all dependent Incremental backups. However see delete problem described below.

When a task is running a log is created. the pane, by default, only shows the current job. In this case one file was backed up.

Note that when automatically backing up the log is still created and can bee seen if the user interface window is opened. 

I tend to only look at it if I am testing a new configuration. i leave Cobian to continue to do its job.