Creating disk snapshots in Windows 7

Does anyone know of a command or tool to create disk snapshots on Windows 7 (client SKU)?

I see vssadmin.exe has a "create shadow" option, but that's available only on server SKUs: http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/library/cc788055(v=ws.10).aspx

I've a backup tool that replicates changes (creations, modifications and deletions to files and directories) since last backup, to my backup volume. Before each time this happens I want to create a persistent snapshot on my backup volume. I could then mount previous snapshots to view previous backups achieving a behavior similar to that of TimeMachine in OS X.

This question has been asked before but unfortunately there weren't any good answers: Taking snapshots of filesystem/volume in Windows 7?

0cd

Posted 2012-10-01T23:56:57.497

Reputation: 339

Answers

I found that the tool I'm looking for is called VShadow and its available in Windows SDK. A search for 'Windows 7 VShadow' returned the following useful links -

http://edgylogic.com/blog/vshadow-exe-versions/

http://vscsc.sourceforge.net/

0cd

Posted 2012-10-01T23:56:57.497

Reputation: 339

and also http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/windows/desktop/bb530725(v=vs.85).aspx

– 0cd – 2012-10-02T21:35:06.190

Upon more research I found that 'persistent' snapshots are not strongly persistent. Windows overwrites them once there's not enough space to keep them around. So my original idea of treating snapshots as previous backups won't really work. Instead I'm going to use the 'Hardlink Shell Extension' and 'ln commandline hardlinks' tools developed by this guy: http://schinagl.priv.at/nt/ntutils.html

0cd

Posted 2012-10-01T23:56:57.497

Reputation: 339

Please avoid posting multiple answers unless they're totally unrelated. You can always edit your own posts. – bwDraco – 2014-11-16T07:38:43.713

Apologies. Will be more careful in the future. – 0cd – 2014-12-04T21:06:03.780

-2

Using RoboCopy and a Scheduled Task to backup to a directory that is then grabbed by the other backup system would be more reliable. Volume Shadow Copy is great but not really designed for what you're trying to accomplish.

Bryce

Posted 2012-10-01T23:56:57.497

Reputation: 1

Can you explain how one would go about doing so? Also, the Volume Shadow Copy Service is designed to take snapshots of volumes, and the OP is trying to leverage it to solve his problem. – bwDraco – 2014-11-16T07:39:09.410

Here is a guide to setting up a robocopy backup script: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/187346-robocopy-create-backup-script.html and Here is a a pretty good overview for Volume Shadow Copy: http://blog.szynalski.com/2009/11/23/volume-shadow-copy-system-restore/

– Bryce – 2014-11-26T14:02:41.270

even if I use robocopy, i'd first create a snapshop of the course, so the files don't change while doing the robocopy. – 0cd – 2015-12-14T23:31:52.307