My past practice to back up my personal files was to copy the files to a couple of USB drives and store them in a fireproof safe. However, with the continued drought and increased risk of fire in the Western States, I was evaluating a cloud-based backup solution. I must confess I am very wary of such a solution as I am placing my data (files) into the hands of a third party.
In my first attempt, I turned on passwords in all the software packages that I use so that the underlying data files will be password protected. However, I continued to feel uneasy about this and wanted another layer of security. I also needed the ability to pick and choose certain files from different directories for the cloud backup. I decide to use 7-Zip as it allowed me to:
a. create a windows shell script that I could run with a mouse click
b. add files from multiple locations
c. protect the encrypted archive with a password
You can download 7-Zip from here
After you install 7-Zip, you can use it via its GUI. I, however, wanted to do this via a shell script. On Windows 10, under the c:\Program Files (x86)\7-Zip directory you will find the executable 7z.exe. You can either add this location to your Windows path variable or directly reference the executable as I have done below.
The commands to add files to an archive are:
"c:\Program Files (x86)\7-Zip\7z.exe" a C:\7zip-archive-location\output-archive.7z "C:\location-01\file-01.txt" -pYour_Super_Secret_Password "c:\Program Files (x86)\7-Zip\7z.exe" a C:\7zip-archive-location\output-archive.7z "C:\location-02\file-02.txt" -pYour_Super_Secret_Password "c:\Program Files (x86)\7-Zip\7z.exe" a C:\7zip-archive-location\output-archive.7z "C:\location-03\file-03.txt" -pYour_Super_Secret_Password
The command is broken down as follows:
"c:\Program Files (x86)\7-Zip\7z.exe" The location of the executable. Since the location has an embedded space, the entire text is enclosed in double-quotes. For simplicity, I have enclosed all the file locations in double-quotes. a Parameter to create (add to) an archive (zip file) C:\7zip-archive-location\output-archive.7z Location and name of the archive "C:\location-01\file-01.txt" The file(s) you want to be included in the archive. Wildcards are permitted. -pYour_Super_Secret_Password The password for the file. Note that this parameter is preceded by a hyphen and the password follows the “p” parameter without a space.
After the file is created, I added the below command to list all the files in the archive:
"c:\Program Files (x86)\7-Zip\7z.exe" l C:\7zip-archive-location\output-archive.7z
The command is broken down as follows:
"c:\Program Files (x86)\7-Zip\7z.exe" The location of the executable. Since the location has an embedded space, the entire text is enclosed in double-quotes. For simplicity, I have enclosed all the file locations in double-quotes. l Parameter to list the files within an archive (zip file) C:\7zip-archive-location\output-archive.7z Location and name of the archive