Backing up Windows 7 with Backuppc

Having recently upgraded to a new machine with Windows 7 the challenge was to get it to work with Backuppc. Read about how I got it to work again.

The computer shop installed Windows with an administrator of Owner. After setting up my applications all Monday the hard disk failed Tuesday morning. After another visit to the shop (also got a new monitor), and with new hard disk installed I could set up Windows how I wanted it.

The first user set up during installation was admin. This is to be used as the only administrator user and for backuppc.

Once set up I created the other users required. Next I shared c:users as a share called Users.

I set up Backuppc for the new machine. As it's a bit different from the Windows XP machines I set up a custom configuration for it under the host's home page (on backuppc) using link called Edit Config. Using this creates a file located and called /etc/backup/study.pl for my computer called Study.

Custom host configuration

Under the Xfer tab I changed the following:

After making your changes don't neglect the Save button at the top!

Testing for errors

Once done I tried doing a backup. I was getting the directories OK but no files inside were backed up.

Checking the errors under Host home/Xfer Error Summary/Errors I found over 25,000 had NT_STATUS_CONNECTION_INVALID errors. Google was of little help for this one. Admin's files were being backed up OK and I thought I would check how the Study computer looks from my Linux Ubuntu machine using the following dialogue.

glenn@pavlinux:~$ smbclient //STUDY/Users -U admin
Enter admin's password:
Domain=[STUDY] OS=[Windows 7 Home Premium 7601 Service Pack 1] Server=[Windows 7 Home Premiu               m 6.1]
smb: > dir
  .                                  DR        0  Tue May 14 09:41:26 2013
  ..                                 DR        0  Tue May 14 09:41:26 2013
  admin                               D        0  Tue May  7 11:53:33 2013
  Default                           DHR        0  Tue Jul 14 17:07:31 2009
  desktop.ini                       AHS      174  Tue Jul 14 14:54:24 2009
  Glenn                               D        0  Sun May 12 03:15:10 2013
  Karen                               D        0  Fri May 10 09:32:07 2013
  Public                             DR        0  Fri May 10 10:23:11 2013

59610 blocks of size 16777216. 36048 blocks available
smb: > cd glenn
smb: glenn> dir
. D 0 Sun May 12 03:15:10 2013
.. D 0 Sun May 12 03:15:10 2013
agent.log A 0 Tue May 7 12:23:54 2013
AppData DH 0 Fri May 10 15:41:16 2013
Application Data DHS 0 Tue May 7 12:23:19 2013
Contacts DR 0 Mon May 13 11:55:56 2013
Cookies DHS 0 Tue May 7 12:23:19 2013
Desktop   DR 0 Tue May 14 00:44:23 2013
Documents DR 0 Mon May 13 11:59:14 2013
Downloads DR 0 Mon May 13 22:59:31 2013
Favorites DR 0 Mon May 13 11:55:56 2013
NetHood DHS 0 Tue May 7 12:23:19 2013
NTUSER.DAT AHS 2359296 Tue May 14 10:20:56 2013
Pictures DR 0 Thu May 9 09:28:12 2013
PrintHood DHS 0 Tue May 7 12:23:19 2013
Recent DHS 0 Tue May 7 12:23:19 2013
Saved Games DR 0 Mon May 13 11:55:56 2013
Searches DR 0 Mon May 13 11:55:56 2013
SendTo DHS 0 Tue May 7 12:23:19 2013
SkyDrive DR 0 Mon May 13 10:38:48 2013
Start Menu DHS 0 Tue May 7 12:23:19 2013
Sti_Trace.log A 0 Tue May 7 13:02:36 2013
Templates DHS 0 Tue May 7 12:23:19 2013
Tracing D 0 Mon May 13 10:37:46 2013
Videos DR 0 Tue May 14 01:12:11 2013

59610 blocks of size 16777216. 36048 blocks available
smb: glenn> cd documents
smb: glenndocuments> dir
. DR 0 Mon May 13 11:59:14 2013
.. DR 0 Mon May 13 11:59:14 2013
200010_119_Cubbyhouse.pdf A 394554 Sat Feb 4 15:17:25 2006
20120616tryingtoskipoutonatechnicality.jpg A 78884 Mon Jun 18 09:38:07 2012
ae-images.bru A 1224 Sun Nov 20 17:11:15 2011
ComputerTS.xls A 13824 Mon Aug 30 17:53:39 2010
Correspondence D 0 Tue May 7 15:44:08 2013
Url to dirname.bru A 1198 Mon Jun 25 16:46:40 2007
Using Technology in the Workplace-ex 5.doc A 94720 Tue Feb 15 22:27:21 2011
Using Technology in the Workplace-ex 66a.doc A 44032 Tue Feb 15 22:43:52 2011
Using Technology in the Workplace-ex 66b.doc A 30208 Tue Feb 15 22:51:01 2011
Visual Studio 2005 D 0 Tue May 7 15:47:21 2013
Web Information D 0 Tue May 7 15:53:57 2013
www.vrhistory.com D 0 Tue May 7 15:47:21 2013

59610 blocks of size 16777216. 36048 blocks available

Setting permissions; GUI, cacls or icacls?

All was looking OK and accessible. As admin's files were OK it must be the permissions on the Windows machine were wrong. I only have the Home Premium version and the permissions GUI isn't as good as Windows XP Professional.

I decided to use cacls but it looking at it's help screen it has been superseded by icacls. Using icacls creates lots of permissions for your user that I have never heard about. Using the following I set the permissions to be more like cacls' F for Full permissions:

C:Users>icacls glenn* /T /grant:r admin:F 

The /grant:r removes the existing permissions and replaces them with F (Full) in this case.

It may require some fiddling. I got errors trying to set it initially. Try using the GUI to add permissions for admin. Then fine tune them with icacls. Next try doing a back up.

I found that some of my folders still aren't being backed up and will need further investigating.

Windows goes too far with permissions I believe, they are too complex and can be hard to manage, and don't get me started on Deny permissions!