creating powershell script to backup a file and append the date

Question

Currently I have a one line batch file to back up a file. I run it manually when I need to back up a file. The only thing I would like to add to it is the current date. Here is what I have:

xcopy /W /Y ACTIVE.DB ACTIVE.DB.BACKUP

the destination file should simply be ACTIVE.DB.BACKUP.YYYYMMDD. How would I go about creating a script that will allow me to double click on it from Windows Explorer and make the xcopy happen?

Answer 1

You can customize your filename by embedding a formatted [datetime]::now in the file name in PowerShell like so:

xcopy /W /Y ACTIVE.DB "ACTIVE.DB.BACKUP.$([datetime]::now.ToString('yyyy-MM-dd'))"

If the line feels busy and unmaintainable, you can refactor it to multiple lines:

$now = [datetime]::now.ToString('yyyy-MM-dd')
xcopy /W /Y ACTIVE.DB "ACTIVE.DB.BACKUP.$now"

To get double-click execution, I usually make a batch file that runs the PowerShell command as described here:

Set up PowerShell Script for Automatic Execution

Answer 2

Just to point out that you can do this with Copy-Item e.g.:

Set-Location $path
Copy-Item ACTIVE.DB "ACTIVE.DB.$(get-date -f yyyyMMdd)" -Force -Confirm

If you're going for robust then I'd use robocopy.exe.

Answer 3

I just made a Daily/Weekly/Monthly/Quarterly/Yearly backup script in Powershell this month, and hope it helps.

This DWMQY backup scenario is to zip a source folder to a date-named zip file, then keep the zips of:

• last 7 days
• 4 weeks (each Friday's)
• 6 months (the last Friday's of each month)
• 4 quarters (the last month's of quarter)
• 2 years (the last quarter's of year).

Running as scheduled task on daily basis, it puts the zips into a target folder which is also a Microsoft OneDrive's local folder, so the zips also being remotely sync'd to OneDrive server. Those outdated (non-Friday daily or non-last-DWMQY) zips will be moved to a non-remotely-sync'd folder.

It's March 5, 2016 today, the following zips should be in the target folder:

• 7 days: 160304-160229-160227
• 4 weeks: 160304, 160226, 160219,160212
• 6 months: 160226, 160129, 161225, 151127, 151025, 150925
• 4 quarters: 151225, 150925,150626,150327
• 2 years: 151225, 141226

So there will be 23 zips (actually less since the dups among DWMQY), our files are 250 text documents which is 0.4 GB after zipping, so it's 23*0.4 = 9.2 GB in total, which is less than OneDrive free 15 GB quota.

For large source data, 7-zip can be used, which provides maximum 16 mil TB zip size. For directly backup folders instead of zips, haven't tried. Guessing it's a transferable procedure from the current zip way.

# Note: there are following paths:
# 1. source path: path to be backed up. 
# 2. target path: current zips stored at, which is also a remote-sync pair's local path.
# 3. moved-to path: outdated zips to be moved in this non-sync'able location.
# 4. temp path: to copy the source file in to avoid zip.exe failing of compressing them if they are occupied by some other process.
# Function declaration
. C:\Source\zipSaveDated\Functions.ps1 
# <1> Zip data
$sourcePath = '\\remoteMachine1\c$\SourceDocs\*'
$TempStorage = 'C:\Source\TempStorage'
$enddate = (Get-Date).tostring("yyyyMMdd")
$zipFilename = '\\remoteMachine2\d$\DailyBackupRemote\OneDrive\DailyBackupRemote_OneDrive\' + $enddate + '_CompanyDoc.zip'
Remove-Item ($TempStorage + '\*') -recurse -Force
Copy-Item $sourcePath $TempStorage -recurse -Force

Add-Type -A System.IO.Compression.FileSystem
[IO.Compression.ZipFile]::CreateFromDirectory($TempStorage, $zipFilename) 

# <2> Move old files
$SourceDir = "\\remoteMachine2\d$\DailyBackupRemote\OneDrive\DailyBackupRemote_OneDrive"
$DestinationDir = "\\remoteMachine2\d$\DailyBackupRemote\bak" # to store files moved out of the working folder (OneDrive)
$KeepDays = 7
$KeepWeeks = 4
$KeepMonths = 6
$KeepQuarters = 4
$KeepYears = 2
# <2.1>: Loop files
$Directory = $DestinationDir
if (!(Test-Path $Directory))
{
    New-Item $directory -type directory -Force
}
$files = get-childitem $SourceDir *.*
foreach ($file in $files) 
{ # L1
    # daily removal will not remove weekly copy, 7 
    If($file.LastWriteTime -lt (Get-Date).adddays(-$KeepDays).date  `
        -and $file.LastWriteTime.DayOfWeek -NotMatch "Friday"  `
        )
        {
        Move-Item $file.fullname $Directory -force
        }
} # L1 >>
$files = get-childitem $SourceDir *.*
foreach ($file in $files) 
{ # L1
    # weekly removal will not remove monthly copy, 4
    If($file.LastWriteTime -lt (Get-Date).adddays(-$KeepWeeks * 7).date  `
        -and (Get-LastFridayOfMonth ($file.LastWriteTime)).Date.ToString("yyyyMMdd") -NotMatch $file.LastWriteTime.Date.ToString("yyyyMMdd")
        )
        {
        Move-Item $file.fullname $Directory -force
        }
} # L1 >>
$files = get-childitem $SourceDir *.*
foreach ($file in $files) 
{ # L1
    # monthly removal will not remove quarterly copy, 6
    If($file.LastWriteTime.Month -lt ((Get-Date).Year - $file.LastWriteTime.Year) * 12 + (Get-Date).Month - $KeepMonths `
        -and $file.LastWriteTime.Month -NotIn 3, 6, 9, 12
        )
        {
        Move-Item $file.fullname $Directory -force
        }
} # L1 >>
$files = get-childitem $SourceDir *.*
foreach ($file in $files) 
{ # L1
    # quarterly removal will not remove yearly copy, 4
    If($file.LastWriteTime.Month -lt ( (Get-Date).Year - $file.LastWriteTime.Year) * 12 + (Get-Date).Month - $KeepQuarters * 3 `
        -and $file.LastWriteTime.Month -NotIn 12
        )
        {
        Move-Item $file.fullname $Directory -force
        }
} # L1 >>
$files = get-childitem $SourceDir *.*
foreach ($file in $files) 
{ # L1
    # yearly removal will just go straight ahead. 2
    If($file.LastWriteTime.Year -lt (Get-Date).Year - $KeepYears )
        {
        Move-Item $file.fullname $Directory -force
        }
} # L1 >>


<Functions.ps1>
function Get-TimesResult3 
    {
    Param ([int]$a,[int]$b)
    $c = $a * $b
    Write-Output $c
    }

function Get-Weekday {
    param(
        $Month = $(Get-Date -format 'MM'),
        $Year = $(Get-Date -format 'yyyy'),
        $Days = 1..5
    )
$MaxDays = [System.DateTime]::DaysInMonth($Year, $Month)
1..$MaxDays | ForEach-Object {
        Get-Date -day $_ -Month $Month -Year $Year |
          Where-Object { $Days -contains $_.DayOfWeek }  
    }
}

function Get-LastFridayOfMonth([DateTime] $d) {    
    $lastDay = new-object DateTime($d.Year, $d.Month, [DateTime]::DaysInMonth($d.Year, $d.Month))
    $diff = ([int] [DayOfWeek]::Friday) - ([int] $lastDay.DayOfWeek)

    if ($diff -ge 0) {
        return $lastDay.AddDays(- (7-$diff))
    }
    else {
        return $lastDay.AddDays($diff)
    }    
}