Thank you for trying ShackUp 1.0! Please take a moment to read these brief instructions.
Installation - There is deliberately not an installation kit. Just put ShackUp.exe anywhere, and create a shortcut to it in your Startup group, if desired.
UnInstallation - Just delete the ShackUp.exe file. If you're one of those people that has to erase every trace of a program from your machine when you uninstall, then you'll have to delete the afore-mentioned ShackUp.exe file, delete the _ShackUp.log file, delete the _ShackUpBackupLog.txt file, remove the HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Definitive Solutions\ShackUp tree in the Registry, delete any '*.shu' files that you created, and then delete this file you're reading.
Purpose - ShackUp is a simple, easy-to-use backup program for Windows 2000/XP. It doesn't have a lot of advanced features, but it does do two things that, as far as we know, no other programs do.
First, ShackUp can be set to pause for up to a full second while doing its backup. If you've ever tried to use a PC while it's backing up to a ZIP drive, you'll know why we implemented this. (By default, ShackUp does its backups as fast as possible, but the ability to have it pause - so that you can do your work - is there if you need it.)
Second - and this is the cool part - ShackUp solves the problem of forgetting to add new folders to the backup. This deserves its own section, so...
Automatic Monitoring - How many times has this happened to you? You install a backup program, laboriously specify the files you want to back up, and then forget about it, except to do your backups religiously. Then one day, you need to restore a file...
... only to discover to your horror the file never got backed-up! Why? Because it was created six months after you installed the backup software, and you forgot to tell the backup program to back it up - and nothing reminded you to! This is why ShackUp was created.
By putting ShackUp in your Startup group, you can have it continuously monitor your hard drives for changes. The moment you create a new file, or modify an existing one, ShackUp checks the list of folders you've already specified rules for (more on 'rules' later), and if you haven't dealt with this folder yet, displays a window so you can do so at that moment. No more, 'Oops, I renamed my Quicken folder last year, so I have no recent backups!'
But wait, there's more! Not only does ShackUp watch for new folders, you can also easily tell it to back up all the files of a given type in a folder. For example, you can tell it to back up all the '*.xls' files in the 'C:\Invoices' folder. That way, you'll be sure any new XLS files created in that folder will automatically get backed up!
Getting Started - Now that you know about 'Automatic Monitoring', you'll understand why there's not much setup required. But there are some one-time tasks you'll need to do. Here's the bare minimum to get started:
(1). You must, of course, actually download the ShackUp.exe file from here and place it somewhere on your computer. It doesn't matter where, but the Desktop, the Temp folder, and the Recycle Bin are all poor choices.
(2). Create a shortcut to the ShackUp.exe file in your Startup group. Note that dragging and dropping the ShackUp.exe file to the 'Start' menu is an easy way to do this.
(3). Run the ShackUp.exe program. It will minimize itself to the 'System Tray' area; just right-click on it and select 'Open' from the little context menu.
(4). On the program's main screen, click the 'Configure' button. A dialog will appear which will let you specify which hard drives you want to monitor, where to put the backed-up files, and a few other options. Set those, and click 'Ok'.
(5). Now select the 'File, Save' menu item, and save your work. Again, where you save it doesn't matter, but an excellent choice would be the same folder as you placed the ShackUp.exe file in.
(6). All done! Now minimize the program, and wait for it to notify you that something has changed on the hard drive(s).
Setting Folder Rules - When a file or folder is accessed, created, modified, or deleted, ShackUp displays a window that lets you specify exactly what (if anything) should be backed up from this folder. You can specify that the whole folder should be included (or excluded); and/or that certain 'types' (like, 'DLL') should be included (or excluded); and/or that certain files should be included (or excluded). Since these specifications are additive, you can easily specify something like, "Exclude all the files in this folder, except TXT files, except the READ_ME.TXT file": this would mean that only TXT files in that folder would get backed up - except the READ_ME.TXT file.
You can also specify that these rules apply to all subfolders as well. This is very handy for excluding whole trees from the backup, for example: you probably don't have anything in the 'C:\Windows' folder that needs backing up.
The actual folder being specified for can also be changed. For example, if ShackUp asks you to specify the rules for 'C:\oracle\ora81\network\admin', you can use the arrow buttons to change that to 'C:\oracle', and exlude that whole tree.
Important: ShackUp clears the 'Archive' attribute of the files it has backed up. Intuit's Quicken product, however, will not open files whose 'Archive' attribute has been cleared. To work around this situation, ShackUp allows you to optionally disable this feature on a folder-by-folder basis. You must be sure to un-check the 'Use the Archive bit in this Folder' checkbox for the folder which contains your Quicken data files.
Extra For Experts - Some miscellaneous features that may not be obvious:
Yes, ShackUp will drive you crazy for the few hours or so, until you've specified most of the folders that are frequently accessed on your system. Once you've done that, though, days or weeks will go by without a peep from ShackUp - until you create a new file or folder.
Backups can be scheduled to happen at specified periods via the 'Schedule Backup' button.
Compression is done via the file system's built in support for it. This means you can optionally compress the backed up files, but only on drives that can do their own compression. So, for example, you can't compress files to floppy drives, but you can to hard drives running NTFS, and ZIP drives.
You can run the backup at any time by clicking the 'Run Backup Now' button. The backup has a 'Cancel' button which actually works, unlike most backup programs'.
ShackUp only backs up what has changed since the last backup. How does it know which files have changed? Well, if a file has never been backed up, then by definition, that's a change. If the file has a different size than the backup, that's a change. If the date-modified timestamps on the files are more than one hour different (don't ask why, it's a Windows thing), that's a change. If the Archive bit has been set on the file (more Windows arcana), that's a change. Finally, if the file's CRC (think, 'digital fingerprint') is different from its backup, that's a change.
Disclaimer - ShackUp is free, and may be freely distributed as long as (a) you don't modify it, (b) you don't charge for it, and (c) you don't claim it as your own work.
Users of ShackUp must accept this disclaimer of warranty: ShackUp is supplied "as is". The author disclaims all warranties, expressed or implied, including, without limitation, the warranties of merchantability and of fitness for any purpose. The author assumes no liability for damages, direct or consequential, which may result from the use of ShackUp.