Generic strings and folder organization choices

[techyuppie]

Allow the use of generic strings (sort of like environment variables) within the specification for both the archive file name, and the names of folders/files being archived, as does Winzip. This makes it possible to write a backup script which can run on multiple PCs without any changes.

For example, in testing Winzip I used this to specify generic names of folders instead of absolute names.

I even could create a single script that runs on both XP and Vista, which don’t have the same user profile folder organization schemes, and also to handle both Outlook and Outlook Express datastores, which are in different places.

On the output side, Winzip allows using the Windows login userid to select into which sub-folder to place the archive on the destination drive.

You could go one better than Winzip by adding the ability to insert the userid into the archive filename. Combined with the ability to insert date/time, this would make it possible to have no sub-folders at all, if that was preferred by someone. Nevertheless, I would recommend also adding Winzip’s existing sub-folder options as well, to provide all possible ways of naming AND organizing a large collection of archives from multiple PCs going to a centralized backup device.

I haven’t decided which way of organizing will be most useful in the long run, and it may vary from person to person, depending on their needs, so more is better.

[spwolf]

it would be good if you wrote more about the options that you want (be more specific) as we dont use winzip :-).

thanks!