CobianSoft

THe more I think about using the date/time file names for doing clever things with backups, the more I think abot how this should be implemented, the more it seems like you could replace all the %DATETIME features with just one: $DATETIME("formatString"). Then all the limits I've suddenly figured out how to hit just go away and somehow I think it shouldn't change the internals that much as you have to find the format string and process it anyway. If not you might consider adding these parameters:

%DOW
%CDOW
%CDOW3 3 character day
%DOM
%DOY
%MONTH
%MONTH3 3 character month
%YEAR
%YEAR2
%YEAR6
%HOUR12 includes AM/PM
%HOUR24

This came up because having figured this out I realized I already want to use both dd and ddd and that uses up both the date format slots.

Thanks.
uno online

By using a single format string, you can ensure that all your backup files have a consistent naming convention. This makes it easier to organize and manage your backups. Additionally, it simplifies the process of searching for specific backups based on their date and time.

But in one case, I want a backup every day of the month and I want each days backup to overwrite the last months backup on the same numbered day. So I end up with 31 folders numbered 01 - 31 and I can look at any backup over the last 28-31 days, depending on the month. Can do the same thing for a weeks worth of backups and monthly backups. It might not be the right answer for you, but I did that with 31 backup jobs for a client who all to often erases her outlook calendar and this way she can recover what ever she lost up to 30 days ago. What is there now is fine, but I believe it's more complicated code to do it the way it is now and less flexible. Adding the feature I asked for should not impact you're backups and should make some backup plans possible that were not possible before.

So I got my program working and tried using it to change the %FORMATDATETIME setting in the .ini file which is does just fine, but unless you quit and restart the program Cobian does not seem to ever re-read the settings, so after all that I failed. Not sad, just failing at figuring out how to solve that problem.

If you change the ini file manually, then yes, the program will need to reload it. I will think out something fopr version 3. I'm re-designing everything from scratch so I will have some solution for it.

Fist thanks for reflector. It used for few months for personal backups - no issues so far. It wins over 10 ten other flagship different backup systems. It did deserve donation at the end. For me the only feature is missing (on any other backup system as well) is convenient UI to select folders and files for backup. My personal choice is would be to see folders and files like tree in explorer with tick boxes against items. Thus I can easily go over item in tree and know which one is selected/unselected and select/unselect if necessary. I saw similar approach implemented for some installers when you could choose what component to install/uninstall.
Thanks!

My prefered way is you use drag and drop, but yes, the tree way is another good one.