Easy When You Know How
Jane schedules PC backups while she sleeps
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As a computer owner, backing up is one of your most important jobs. You know that, I know that. But we also know it’s a pain. It gets in the way of more enjoyable things, like cleaning out the bath plughole or weeding the lawn. At least you see the benefit of a clean plughole and weeded lawn. A backed-up computer is just another clogged up external hard drive, gathering dust on the shelf.
But then, of course, one day your internal hard drive gets corrupted, or you need to reinstall Windows, or (heaven forbid) your house is burgled, and those dusty backups are all you’ve got.
So I do keep my photos backed up online on Google Photos, and my important documents are all in Google Drive. But I’m not particularly systematic about it. I don’t use real-time syncing tools like the desktop version of Drive to update my backups with incremental changes, because the last thing I want when I’m working is a PC that’s constantly distracted by syncing files.
The answer, of course, is to set your PC to back up at night. Scheduling software is tech’s little way of saying sorry for messing up our sleep patterns. Smartphones whisper “tap me, tap me” as we try (and fail) to nod off, and the iplayer insists on sliding straight into the next episode so you have to stay up watching all of House of Cards (the British original, of course: www. snipca.com/29270), but scheduling software actively encourages sleep, by getting things done while you’re giving it 40 winks.
Windows has scheduling software built in, of course. Task Scheduler’s location is a riddle wrapped in an enigma (type schedule, or you’ll be looking all day). But if you ask me, it’s not worth finding. Setting it to do basic things like waking your computer up involves far more clicks than should be necessary in these days of IFTTT and voice assistants, and Microsoft can’t be bothered to improve it, putting its efforts instead into tools like Microsoft Flow, a distinctly average IFTTT alternative.
Giving Task Scheduler the benefit of the doubt, I managed to set it to run incremental PC backups by setting a time then adding a backup script in the Action field. The script ( www.snipca. com/29268) came from a coders’ site that felt about as warm and welcoming as an outdoor physics exam in Siberia. It was free to download and seems to be safe, but it wasn’t exactly easy to use. As a kid I enjoyed spending hours coding the BBC Micro (See Issue 538, page 62) to run the most basic of tasks, but these days I expect software to save me time and hassle.
So I turned to non-microsoft programs to handle my nocturnal backups. Easeus Todo Backup ( www.snipca.com/29269) and AOMEI Backupper ( www.snipca. com/29271) let you schedule backups for free, but they’re both a nightmare to install. Adware, bundled programs, “accidental” paid-for versions, email address demands… these thuggish installers have got the lot.
Easeus proved to be the lesser of two evils (marginally), and the program itself is very easy to use, with a ‘Schedule: off’ link that leads to a self-explanatory scheduling window (see screenshot). I started by creating a full system backup, which took ages but required minimal effort, and then set the program to wake up my PC once a week at 2am and run a top-up ‘incremental backup’ of new files and other changes.
If only it weren’t beyond the wit of man (and Microsoft in particular) to build a similar facility into Task Scheduler and save users from junk offenders like Easeus.
Task Scheduler’s location is a riddle wrapped in an enigma. But if you ask me, it’s not worth finding