Menu-driven Power Shell Script to Backup and Restore Files with RoboCopy

[SCBWV]

I finally got tired of manually comparing directories in File Explorer to ensure my latest versions were backed up. Sometimes I would just drag-and-drop entire large directories to be "safe," but it resulted in long wait times and a lot of needless copying.

To fix this, I spent a several hours (with more than a little help from Copilot) developing a menu-driven PowerShell script. It uses RoboCopy to backup and restore only new or changed files.

The script features 8 automated options:

1. Backup (Mirror): Syncs source to destination.
2. Backup Mirror (Dry Run): Tests the backup without moving files.
3. Restore (Safe): Restores files without overwriting newer versions.
4. Restore Safe (Dry Run): Tests the restore process.
5. Report Backup Direction: Lightweight "what would change" check for backups.
6. Report Restore Direction: Lightweight check for restores.
7. Diff Report (Both Directions): A verbose report comparing both source and destination.
8. Eject Drive: Safely removes your backup media.

Key Features:

Safe Mirroring: Since the /mir command can delete files in the backup that no longer exist in the source, the script asks for confirmation before any deletions occur.

Non-Destructive Restore: The "Safe Restore" option will never accidentally overwrite a newer file with an older backup version.

Defaults: You can easily change the default source and destination paths using Notepad.

Dry Runs vs. Reports: Options 2 and 4 are true "simulation" runs of the actual jobs, while Options 5 and 6 provide lightweight reports—for quick checks on massive datasets.

I'm not sure of the rules for attachments. I attached a zip and a script might get flagged by your browser.

[Reverend Jim]

Could be useful. Do you have any screenshots? I may try running this in a VM to test it out. To date I have been using short cmd files to run robocopy. Typically it does a /mir backup followed by a "touch.exe" on the cmd file so I can check the date/time of the last run.

[SCBWV]

Here's 2 screen shots - the backup dry run followed by the difference report. It says 7 mode but I added the 8th "Eject Drive" since ejecting a portable drive through the System Tray / Notification Area is slow. The drive to eject can be a path; it will parse out the root.

[SCBWV]

Here's a screen shot showing the permission to delete a file in the destination that is no longer in the source.

[SCBWV]

The Power Shell script report didn’t properly reflect new directories. My apologies. It has been fixed in the attached. I also added some metrics: Duration, Data copied, Throughput: (MB or GB / sec), and Files/sec. I tried to make the progress bar more meaningful, but that seems to be more than me and two AI models can make happen at the moment.

[SCBWV]

Fix one thing, AI will break another. Final attachment. I'm done with Power Shell and AI coding help!

[Reverend Jim]

I don't know if there is an analog in PowerShell, but I wrote a pile of Python scripts as ffmpeg front ends. Instead of coding a progress bar I just call a Windows API to mofify the title bar tab text to display percentage done. It's a lot less code than a progress bar.

[SCBWV]

Great suggestion Reverend Jim! To my knowledge PowerShell doesn't have a function to modify the title bar, however, I was able to get rid of the silly progress bar and add something a bit more meaningful. Thanks. Have a great weekend.

Running RoboCopy...
Progress: 0%
Progress: 10%
Progress: 20% etc.

[Reverend Jim]

You can set the title text with

$host.UI.RawUI.WindowTitle = "My Title"

[SCBWV]

Sweet! Here's a version with the progress in the title bar. Thanks Jim!