User's Guide
Backing up your files
Restoring your files

Author
Peter Bennett

My Other Projects
Jampal mp3 library & Jukebox
Tag Backup
Text to Speech

Version 3.08

Fix for java.lang.ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException
In some cases the program could fail to start with an ArrayIndexOutOfBoundsException. This is now fixed.

Version 3.07

Excluded directories
If a directory structure with a large number of files was marked as excluded, the program would waste a lot of time scanning the files unnecessarily. This is now fixed.

Version 3.06

u_date program
Fixed problem where u_date failed due to a missing dll.

Version 3.05

64 Bit Support
The install script is updated so that Jampal will support a 32bit or 64bit version of Java on 64bit Windows systems.

Install
The installation program now prompts for download of a java runtime if one is not available.

Executable
There is no longer a pbackup_j.exe file for windows. This is because the launch4j product does not support 64 bit versions of java. The Start menu icon now launches the java program directly.

Version 3.04

Language Support
Patar's Backup now includes Polish language messages and screens. Thanks to cimlik for the Polish translation.

Version 3.03

Encryption
Encryption can now be selected for your backup files. The backup media will be encrypted using AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) and protected with a password. The purpose is to keep your private information confidential if you store your backups at a remote site.

Version 3.02

Language Support
Peter's Backup includes the "Translate this Application" menu item, to support translations using launchpad.net.

Help Menu
A "Help" menu item is added to browse the help documentation.

Version 3.01

Language Support
Peter's Backup now includes English, Dutch and German screens and messages. The program will automatically use the language selected in your operating system. Thanks to Christiaan Knaap for the Dutch translation and Marc Tricou for the German translation.

Version 3.00

Operating System Support
Peter's Backup now can run on Linux, Solaris and other operating systems as well as Windows. It can run on any machine and operating system that supports Java version 6 or later.

Resizeable Window
This is a much-requested feature. The window can be resized, making it easier to see the restore list, the backup list, or the file being backed up.

Sortable Restore list
Clicking on the title in the restore list allows sorting on file name, path, date, etc. In order to support this, the path and file name are now separate columns.

New Backup Options
There is a new tab with options for the backup. New options are maximum usage per disk or directory and disk space to leave free. The first of these can be useful if you are writing the backup to a hard drive but want it in chunks that are the right size for storing on CDs. The second is useful if your file system has some restriction where you cannot make it 100% full, or for some reason you do not want to. It will prompt for another disk when the specified amount of space is left on the disk.

Improved Get History
After "Get History" you can immediately start restoring from the backup. Previously you had to reload the history. Also after "Get History" you can start creating incremental backups on that history. This was not possible before. Likewise, after loading "Backup Set" you can create incremental backups, which was not possible before.

Executable Status
On systems that support it (e.g.Linux, Unix), the executable status of files is backed up and restored, along with the readable and writable attributes.

Backup files with strange names
File names with space-slash in them or starting with quotes or with trailing blanks can be specified and backed up, on systems that support such names.

Prevents writing backup in history directory
If you erroneously try to write your backup to the history directory it will give a specific message. Previously you received an error "unable to delete file".

Incremental backup order
After an incremental backup new files will be at the end in the restore list. Previously they were sorted in with the rest of the files.

Fixes
In the Settings dialog the maximum file size was not checked correctly so that sometimes the value would be ignored and set to the default value.

Checking for disk space available used the root of the drive. If you had a drive mounted in a directory the wrong space calculation was used.

Internationalization
The program is enabled for Internationalization. Currently it only supports English. I will need some assistance to create translations into other languages. If anybody is willing to assist with this please email me.

Restrictions
Some state information is no longer stored when files are backed up.

• File Compression status (whether file was compressed or not) under Windows. When restoring files they will be compressed if restored into a directory with compression, otherwise they will not be compressed.
• Short file names (8.3 names).
• "System" attribute.

Version 2.5

Changed to include the Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 Redistributable in the installation and zip packages.

Version 2.4

Visual c++ 2005
Changed to support the latest compiler from Microsoft.

Version 2.3

Error Handling
Added some error messages to handle the case where a backup file has been shortened.

Version 2.2

Accelerator Fix
The Keyboard Accelerators Ctrl+N, Ctrl+O, Ctrl+S were not working, now fixed.

Version 2.1

Long file name Restore Problem Fix
If the name of a file to be restored is very long, and an error occurs writing the output file, the program would exit without any message. In particular this would occur if the output file name including path names was longer than 256 characters, the maximum allowed in Windows. This is now fixed.

Version 2.0.1

There is no change to the program.

Internet Explorer Problem Fix
When viewing the documentation, Internet Explorer in Windows XP after security patches displays a warning about Active Content. Changed the shortcut to avoid this.

Version 2.0

Huge Files
Back up files of any size. Create backup files of any size that your system will support. There is a "settings" option to set the maximum size of backup files.

UNICODE / Double Byte Character set
When running on windows NT, 2000 or XP, fully supports file names using double byte characters, for example foreign languages or symbols in the file name. There are two versions of the program, one for NT, 2000 and XP and one for Windows 95, 98, and ME.

Fixed "error reading directory" message
If you terminate an incremental backup, it returns back to the state before the backup. Previously on the next incremental you could have seen an "error reading directory" message.

Unattended Backup
A new option allows the backup to complete without stopping for open files, files that have been deleted, or invalid directories in the file list.

Directory wild-card
A new option allows inclusion or exclusion of directories and their contents based on a directory name specification.

Uses latest version of zlib
Now uses the latest version of the zlib compression dll (zlib1.dll). The zlib source is no longer built or provided with the program. That source is still freely available on the Internet (http://www.gzip.org/zlib/).

Fixed ignore bug
In the previous version if you selected "ignore" for a file that could not be read, it was added to the restore list, although that file was not backed up.

Fixed backup count with Direct-CD bug
Previously, when using the "Direct-CD" check box, when the "Eject CD" message appeared, the total number of files backed up was out by 1 on the display. The display was only corrected after responding to the message.

Fixed Carriage return in log list
Previously, some messages in the list had block characters displayed where there should have been a new line.

Fixed Smudged log
Previously the log list sometimes appeared smudged, characters not painted correctly.

Log display size limitation removed
The log will clear out earlier parts if it becomes too large, thus allowing it to continue displaying messages.

DLL Install
There is an option DLL install package, in case you get errors about missing DLLs or invalid ordinals.

Removed check for temporary files
Previously, files that were marked as "temporary" by the program that created them were not backed up. It turns out, however, that some programs incorrectly mark important files as "temporary". Therefore these files will now be backed up.

Allow backup of files open as writable
Files that are open for write by other programs will now be backed up, as long as the other program permits it. This will reduce the number of files being reported "unable to open".

Creation of backup directory
Backup directory for full and incremental backups will be created if it does not exist, including any intermediate directories that do not exist.

Remove "prompt" Radio button
The disabled "Prompt" radio button on the restore page has been removed, as it was never implemented.

Number of files in a backup set
The documentation erroneously stated that only 99 backups per day or per directory could be done. This was incorrect, the limitation is 1035 files per backup or backups per day in one directory.