Introduction

Windows systems can be backed up using rsync.  It can be done using Cygwin to provide the Linux-like environment for rsync to run in.  A convenient package including the necessary parts of Cygwin and rsync is cwrsync.  A convenient way to configure and run rsync within cwrsync is provided by the synchronisation component of docoll.

Downloading, installing, configuring and troubleshooting

The whole procedure is described in the docoll rsync sysadmin guide, available from the docoll project page. The 0.7.6 version is docoll rsync sysadmin guide. 2apr12.odt.  Its table of contents includes:

  4 Windows clients
   4.1 What you need
   4.2 Installation
     4.2.1 Verifying the download
     4.2.2 Unzipping the download
     4.2.3 Installing cwRsync
     4.2.4 Installing docoll rsync client
   4.3 Configuration
     4.3.1 Overview
     4.3.2 Editing docoll_cwrsync.ini
     4.3.3 Editing *_files_from.txt
     4.3.4 Editing *_exclude_from.txt
     4.3.5 Configuration testing
   4.4 Firewall configuration
   4.5 Scheduled Task configuration
     4.5.1 Windows XP
     4.5.2 Windows Vista
     4.5.3 Windows 7
   4.6 Testing
5 Routine monitoring
6 Troubleshooting
   6.1 Error messages
   6.2 Server
   6.3 Windows client
     6.3.1 Running with debugging
     6.3.2 Running at the command prompt

The docoll windows client .zip file (-all version) includes cwrsync (4.0.5, the last FOSS licensed version).  The 0.7.6.1 version is docoll_windows_client_all-0.7.6.1.zip

Licences

Although cwrsync installs essentially FOSS software (rsync, Cygwin, OpenSSH, OpenSSL), the installer itself is not FOSS since version 4.0.5.  cwrsync's current licence page, including links to the component software licence pages, is here.

docoll is licensed under GPLv2 or later.