[mitchsc]

I'm not sure if this is the correct forum for this question. If not, my apologies.

I use a freeware backup program called FBackup. Free backup software - FBackup I've been using it for years and am quite happy with it.

I have created 5 backup jobs for the various folders I choose to send to an external backup drive. There is a tricky series of steps to trigger a "Group Backup" which sequentially runs all 5 backup jobs, then shuts down the PC. Please see screenshot below.

I was wondering if it is possible to create some sort of link or shortcut to the menu item that starts the Group Backup.

The Group Backup steps are the following: Open FBackup > Right click the FBackup icon in the notification area of the Taskbar > Hover over "Backup Group" > move pointer to the left and click on "Backup My Backup Jobs Group".

Thanks for any help or direction on this...

[WallyHelps]

I believe you'll need to use the command line to do what you want. I found the following at fbackup's website:

 fbacmd [{/r|/t|/c}] name | /g group

Formatting legend

/ - Switches are preceded by slash

[] - Elements between square brackets are optional

| - Vertical line separates possible choices

{} - Items between braces are a set of choices from which the user must choose only one

Command line backup can have as parameters an ".ini" file (with its full path), a ".fkc" file (with its full path) or the name of the backup job. 
The ".ini" or ".fkc" file must exist in the specified path, the backup job must be defined in FBackup or otherwise the backup will not run.

Switches that apply to this parameter (case insensitive, preceded by "/" or "-"):

/r - execute the backup with its defined type (this is the default behavior when the backup name is specified without switches)
/t - starts the test operation for the named job.
/g - execute the jobs in the backup group with their defined types (the switch is mandatory if you want to execute a backup group)
The default backup group is: My backup jobs

So what you would want to do is create a shortcut and when it asks for the location of the item, browse to fbacmd.exe and add the appropriate parameters as shown above. I would guess that the command would look something like: fbacmd /g Downloads

Unfortunately, since I'm not familiar with this program, I can't give you guidance beyond this point.

Best of luck,
WallyH

[mitchsc]

Thank you very much for going to the trouble of searching FBackup's site for this info.

I understand that you are not familiar with FBackup. But since I have never created a command before, I don't really understand what you are suggesting. Can you give me any additional "general" guidance or steps on how to do something like this, not necessarily specific to FBackup. Perhaps a link to a How-To article? I would search that myself, but I don't even know the correct nomenclature :-)

Thanks again Wally. This look really promising...

[mitchsc]

Update:

I tried entering "fbacmd /g Downloads" into the CMD window and hitting Enter.

Got an error message stating "fbacmd is not recognized as an internal or external command, operable program, or batch file.

Is this useful information?

[WallyHelps]

OK, let's give it a try.
First, you need to find what folder the fbacmd program is located in. There are a couple of ways to do that. The fastest way (if it works) is to click on the Start button and immediately type fbacmd in the Start Search box. Hopefully, it will be found and show up at the top of the search results box. If so, right-click on it and select Properties. In the properties window that comes up, make note the Location field. That is the folder that contains our program.

Now go to your desktop, right-click on an empty area and select New, Shortcut. Where it asks for the Location, type in the folder we just discovered. Before continuing, add a backslash (\), fbacmd, and your parameters. For example, if the program was found in C:\Program Files\FBackup you would put for the shortcut location:

C:\Program Files\FBackup\fbacmd /g Downloads

Click on Next, then name the shortcut something like Backup Downloads, and click Finish. At this point you should have a shortcut icon on your desktop that will do that one backup. If you want, you can move it to another folder just like you do any other type of file.

Note that all this assumes my original assumption from the previous answer is valid. If so, then do the same set of steps for your other groups. If not, tell me what happens and we'll try something else.

I hope this helps,
WallyH

***** UPDATE *****
I think a simpler method may already be built into FBackup. It looks like you can schedule backups and/or create shortcuts to backups from within the program itself. Take a look at the FBackup documentation file:
http://www.fbackup.com/download/pdf/User-Manual.pdf for a good step-by-step procedure for doing either scheduled backups or creating backup shortcuts. This is a lot more clear than my procedure.

[mitchsc]

Thank you so much Wally. This is so kind of you to explain it in such detail. Now I get it.

You are correct. I already know about the ability to create a shortcut for the "individual" Backup Jobs, which is a feature built into the program. I must not have been clear in my original request. My goal is to create a shortcut to the link that does a "Group Backup". The manual link is shown in the lower right corner of the screenshot above. The Group Backup, sequentially runs through all 5 backup jobs, then shuts down the computer. It's about 5 steps to get to this link, with some right clicking involved, and my Wife just can't get the hang of it.

Nevertheless, It sounds as though your solution should still give me what I want. Based on the code you sent me, /g is for the backup "Group". I would just change the suggested name from Downloads to Group.

I will give this a go today. Thanks again so very much...

[mitchsc]

I think you are definitely on to something Wally, but I couldn't quite get it to work.

Some general info that I found:
The pathway to the FBackup folder is: C:\Program Files (x86)\Softland\FBackup 4
There is an executable file in this folder named fbacmd.exe
Double clicking it opens the command prompt widow for a second, then it closes.

I created the shortcut as instructed. Every pathway I insert gives me an error as "invalid", except C:\Program Files (x86)\Softland\FBackup 4\fbacmd.exe which just opens the command prompt widow for a second, then it closes (as above).
If I insert FBackup.exe, the shortcut opens the program. If I try to add /g, I get the Invalid error again.

This is a screenshot of the FBackup Folder:



Any additional suggestions at this point?

Thanks again...

[WallyHelps]

I'm glad we're making progress! I don't know if I followed you exactly, so let me say what I think the next steps should be.

Your shortcut's "Location" field should be (include the quotes):
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Softland\FBackup 4\fbacmd.exe" /g Group

Now whether this does what we want or not is uncertain. A way to test it and see if any errors are returned it to open a cmd window and type the exact command we want the shortcut to execute:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Softland\FBackup 4\fbacmd.exe" /g Group

If our command isn't quite right, the program should kick out some error message that will point us in the right direction. If we're lucky, it will do exactly what we want with no errors.

Technote: When you double-click the shortcut to run fbacmd with no parameters it doesn't have anything to do so the cmd window opens briefly and then closes. By opening the cmd window ourselves and running the command we want to try, the window will stay open to allow us to view any errors that may be produced.

I hope this is helpful,
WallyH

[mitchsc]

This is what I got:



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[mitchsc]

Since I got a "Group" error (above), I tried just entering just this (without "Group") in the CMD Prompt window: "C:\Program Files (x86)\Softland\FBackup 4\fbacmd.exe" /g
This is what came up (hope it helps):



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[WallyHelps]

AH!! I took another look at your original screenshot and (along with what we've learned along the way) I think I know what your command should be. The issue was I didn't see what the name of your "group" was.

Try this:
"C:\Program Files (x86)\Softland\FBackup 4\fbacmd.exe" /g "My Backup Jobs"

I'm pretty sure this will work. The remaining unknown is whether it will shut your computer down afterward. We can address this issue if it comes up.

Good luck!
WallyH

[mitchsc]

Wally. Plain and simple... You are a Genius!! It works!

It operates a bit differently than starting "My Backup Jobs" from the link shown in my 1st post. Here are the differences:

The original link opens the program, shows the progress of each of the 5 individual backup jobs, then opens a small 10 second countdown window to computer shutdown (which gives you an opportunity to abort shutdown... See Below), and finally shuts down the PC.

With this new Shortcut, the program itself does not open (or is just not visible), the Command Prompt window opens instead, progress of each of the 5 backup jobs is shown in DOS within the Command Prompt window, then the PC shuts down immediately following the last backup job with no 10 second countdown to shutdown.

Can you think of any way to prevent the Command Prompt window from opening? Even better would be the FBackup program opening and showing the backup progress. I can live without the countdown timer, but it is nice to have the ability to abort shutdown.

Wally, I am so happy. And thanks to you, I learned something about command lines.

Thank you so much... Mitch



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

[WallyHelps]

Yea! I knew it had to be possible.

For sure we can get rid of the command prompt window; however, the countdown timer and shutdown abort are built into the program itself, so I'm doubtful we can do anything about these unfortunately.

To get the command window to go away what you need to do is to right-click on your shortcut and select Properties. Towards the bottom there is a Run: item which probably has Normal Window selected. Change this to Minimized. Click OK and you're done.

I'd say we got 99% of what you wanted, and learned a little along the way.
WallyH

[WallyHelps]

I just couldn't let this go...

Perusing the FBackup documentation, I see that there is a way to specify a command to run after a backup. So, what I propose is to create our own command that will delay for 10 seconds and then shutdown. We will tell FBackup to run this command after the last backup in your group (I'm assuming they always backup in the same order). Our command is a batch file which I have attached. Because I don't want to use a bunch of exotic programs, this uses built-in capabilities in Windows 7. It's not pretty, but it should do the job. Download this little program and save it somewhere (anywhere is fine as long as you can remember where).

Now, open FBackup and on your last backup item, go to Properties, Advanced. Where is says Run Action after Backup, tick the box and then enter the full path to our delay program, wait.bat. My assumption is that if there is something here then FBackup won't try to shut down on its own.

What I expect to happen is that after the last backup completes our program will get executed and a cmd window will pop up and start counting down. If you want to abort, press Ctrl-C on your keyboard to stop the batch file. Not pretty, but I think it might work.

Let me know!
WallyH

Note: I could not attach a batch file, so copy the lines below and paste them into a file called "wait.bat", or whatever you like.

@echo off
REM This uses the built-in choice command which has a delay function
REM We set up a 1 second delay so that we can change the text for the countdown each second
REM The command line functionality is extremely limited, and thus this ugly method is used

echo Shutdown in 10 seconds...Enter Ctrl-C to abort
choice /d:y /t:1 >nul
echo Shutdown in 9 seconds...
choice /d:y /t:1 >nul
echo Shutdown in 8 seconds...
choice /d:y /t:1 >nul
echo Shutdown in 7 seconds...
choice /d:y /t:1 >nul
echo Shutdown in 6 seconds...
choice /d:y /t:1 >nul
echo Shutdown in 5 seconds...
choice /d:y /t:1 >nul
echo Shutdown in 4 seconds...
choice /d:y /t:1 >nul
echo Shutdown in 3 seconds...
choice /d:y /t:1 >nul
echo Shutdown in 2 seconds...
choice /d:y /t:1 >nul
echo Shutdown in 1 seconds...
choice /d:y /t:1 >nul

REM We will shutdown immediately here
shutdown /s

[mitchsc]

Wally. You are absolutely the best! I would never have expected anyone to get so deeply involved to help a stranger. I'm wondering if your curiosity will lead you to download FBackup to see it for yourself :-)

I'll try to get rid of the command prompt window today. May not have a chance to create the batch file until tomorrow. I've never done a one before, so there may be some additional questions. (More for me to learn... a good thing)

Mitch...

[mitchsc]

Update: Minimizing the command prompt window worked flawlessly. THANK YOU!

Reading over your batch file instructions, I see that we may have an impasse. The "Run after program" box is actually a dropdown list and doesn't allow for any additions. I currently have my last backup job (Thunderbird) set to "shutdown", which includes the 10 second countdown window above. Here is a screenshot of the Advanced Property of the last backup job:



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

I'm curious about one thing Wally. Since the Command you wrote instructs FBackup to run through the series of backup jobs, why doesn't the built-in countdown timer kick in after the last job? It's already set to do so.

This is actually getting fun :-)

[WallyHelps]

Ah... a dropdown. Was not expecting that. However, it might work to our advantage. What if you turned off the "after backup" action and we do the shutdown exclusively in our wait.bat file?

Let me ponder this situation. I may have to download FBackup so I can speak more intelligently about it.

Cheers,
WallyH

[mitchsc]

Sounds great!