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Active Member
BackUp Addons, WTF and Screenshots weekly
After my old computer crashed during christmas and I lost all my game data on hard drives, I've been looking to backup my addons, wtf and screenshots folders weekly basis. I found few threads from this forum but they were not helpful. Well... I thought that I do this myself :confused:
Not sure if we all are familiar with task scheduler in Windows... but I managed to setup weekly backup rule. Setup will take about 5mins or less (even if you watch that video below).
1. step
Download and install 7zip
Download
2. step
Add 7zip.exe to Path
2.1 Control Panel > System and Security > System
2.2 Select Advanced systems settings
2.3 Select Environment Variables
2.4 Select Path from System variables and Edit
2.5 Add new variable as folder where 7zip.exe can be found
2.6 Select OK > OK > OK
See below picture for reference:
3. step
Copy following text to notepad or similar text editing program. Paste text on text editing program and save your file as .bat-file (like: c:\temp\wowbackup.bat)
Code:
del "C:\Users\TonDeli\OneDrive\wow_addons.7z"
del "C:\Users\TonDeli\OneDrive\wow_WTF.7z"
del "C:\Users\TonDeli\OneDrive\wow_screenshots.7z"
7z a -t7z "C:\Users\TonDeli\OneDrive\wow_addons.7z" "C:\Program Files (x86)\World of Warcraft\_retail_\interface\addons"
7z a -t7z "C:\Users\TonDeli\OneDrive\wow_WTF.7z" "C:\Program Files (x86)\World of Warcraft\_retail_\WTF"
7z a -t7z "C:\Users\TonDeli\OneDrive\wow_screenshots.7z" "C:\Program Files (x86)\World of Warcraft\_retail_\Screenshots"
First 3 rows delete the old files and last 3 rows zip your folders and place them to folder of your choosing.
I'm using my own OneDrive folder on my computer (C:\Users\TonDeli\OneDrive\) so my data will be on the cloud aswell. Also I have used default install location for my wow application (C:\Program Files (x86)\World of Warcraft). You should change those parts to point what ever do you want. Marked as red on the code is backup location, green is for install location. Remember to change those for all rows on the code
4. step
Make a new task to be scheduled weekly.
3.1 open task scheduler
3.2 select create basic task from the right panel
3.3 add name to your task (desc is optional)
3.4 set when you want task to start
3.5 set time and day when task occurs
3.6 as action choose start a program
3.7 as program browse to you saved .bat file (others are optional)
3.8 finish
Good tutorial for task scheduler: How to use Task Scheduler // Windows 7 - YouTube
I'm happy with the result and my data will be safe in the future. I hope that you will find this helpful!
Update1: 3rd feb 2016 - added a new step how to add 7zip.exe to Path
Update2: 29th jul 2019 - game path update
Last edited by TonDeli; 07-29-2019 at 02:03 AM.
Reason: Updated game path
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Post Thanks / Like - 3 Thanks
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I wish I saw this guide 10 years ago
I had a hard drive RIP a few years ago, and lost all my screenshots from from when the game got launched shortly after WW2. It would have been so much fun to look at those again now, but that's too late.
+10 rep for this nice guide Thanks for sharing!
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Oh god.. all those naked BG screens during the high warlord farm of 2006
Thanks for the smart tips, have +5
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Active Member
As always keep a backup on the cloud! I use amazon's cloud services. Works flawlessly for me.
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dont know what was causing this but i wasnt able to use 7z command as it is.. so i had to mod it a bit:
Code:
del "C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME_HERE\OneDrive\WoWBackUp\wow_addons.7z"
del "C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME_HERE\OneDrive\WoWBackUp\wow_WTF.7z"
del "C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME_HERE\OneDrive\WoWBackUp\wow_screenshots.7z"
"%ProgramFiles(x86)%\7-zip\7z.exe" a -t7z "C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME_HERE\OneDrive\WoWBackUp\wow_addons.7z" "C:\Program Files (x86)\World of Warcraft\interface\addons"
"%ProgramFiles(x86)%\7-zip\7z.exe" a -t7z "C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME_HERE\OneDrive\WoWBackUp\wow_WTF.7z" "C:\Program Files (x86)\World of Warcraft\WTF"
"%ProgramFiles(x86)%\7-zip\7z.exe" a -t7z "C:\Users\YOURUSERNAME_HERE\OneDrive\WoWBackUp\wow_screenshots.7z" "C:\Program Files (x86)\World of Warcraft\Screenshots"
so basically i needed to tell my computer where 7zip.exe is with "%ProgramFiles(x86)%\7-zip\7z.exe" instead of just using command 7z
i m using win10x64 btw
Last edited by iMigu; 02-03-2016 at 05:57 AM.
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Active Member
iMigu, this is totally my bad.
I totally forgot this step on my guide. I have done this setup earlier and that is the reason why I forget this... Again, SORRY!!!
I added 7zip.exe to Path. That is the reason why I can use 7z -command in cmd line.
Here is how you can set this up:
1. Control Panel > System and Security > System
2. Select Advanced systems settings
3. Select Environment Variables
4. Select Path from System variables and Edit
5. Add new variable as folder where 7zip.exe can be found
6. Select OK > OK > OK
See below pic for reference.
Your solution works too!
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Post Thanks / Like - 1 Thanks
iMigu (1 members gave Thanks to TonDeli for this useful post)