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windows home server - Can I make my PC backup and then sleep on demand with WHS?


I really hate the way that WHS backs up at a particular time in the morning.




  • First of all I don't EVER want my computer turning on when I am not there. EVER. I have a Core-i7 laptop which literally could burn the house down quite easily if it were to turn on in a bag.




  • I also don't ever want my PC to sleep unless I tell it to. I don't have hibernation or sleep enabled and this is the only way that WHS will sleep after a backup is complete.




  • I know that Windows 7 has the ability to disable waking up when on battery power but it doesn't seem to work on my laptop.




These are the possibilities (with wake timers left as default):



  • 'Wake this computer for backup' ON - it turns on in my bag if i forget to turn it off - and stays on when the backup is complete.

  • 'Wake this computer for backup' OFF - it backs up in the morning, but I need to leave the machine on all night.

  • I say 'Backup Now' and then it backs up immediately. I can turn it off when its done if I'm still awake, but then that backup appears as 'locked' in the console and not 'automatically managed'.


What I'd really like to do is :



  • Click 'Backup and Sleep' and then go to bed.

  • It will backup immediately and then sleep the PC.

  • This backup must be 'automatically managed' and not appear as a 'locked backup' in my console

  • Show me a confirmation that everything was backed up successfully (or not) when I turn it on.


Is there any way to achieve this?



Answer



I finally figured out a solution to this that works quite well for mw.


Basically I wrote a script to run a backup and then sleep immediately when complete.



  • Disable wake timers (if using Windows 7). This should prevent your PC from waking up at your normal backup time. Unfortunately there is no way to disable backups while still allowing manual backups to be triggered.

  • Set the backup time to be a time when you're asleep - like 4-5am

  • Replace 'IKE' below with the name of your server

  • Rename C:\Program Files\Windows Home Server\BackupEngine.exe to _BackupEngine.exe. I couldn't find any other way to completely prevent backups being automatically triggered. When i turn on my PC again in the morning it was trying to backup immediately.


  • Run this .BAT file as an administrator (important):


    echo %date% %time%
    ping ike
    sleep 5
    echo STARTING BACKUP %date% %time%
    del "C:\Program Files\Windows Home Server\BackupEngine.exe" 
    "C:\Program Files\Windows Home Server\_BackupEngine.exe" -a -d "Manual Nighttime Backup" -s ike
    echo %date% %time%
    %windir%\System32\rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState Standby
    pause


Note: I had to delete BackupEngine.exe in the script because it gets repaired everytime the WHS console restarts on a reboot. If this file exists it will still try to run a backup when you turn the PC on again in the morning even if the backup time has passed. Doh!


For more details about the command to 'sleep' see this.


NOTE: This is still a work in progress. Has worked for a few days and i will improve this over time. I really really want to get this functionality into Vail (WHS2) if not already there.


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