Inspecting the previous generations of a backed up file

[rossmcm]

I have a backup that runs every 4 hours and copies any changed files to a backup drive with file versioning turned on, so that the destination filenames have the name mangled with the last modification date.

When I want to go back and inspect what versions of a particular file are available, what options do I have? I tried running the restore wizard, but that only seemed to present me with the most recent file backed up- that is until I realized you could right-click and see the other candidates.

What would be nice would be an app that had an explorer-like pane on the left-hand side, and when a file was selected on the left-hand side, the right-hand pane showed you a list of all the previous generations of that file.

Having the ability to run the compare utility on two previous versions would also be useful.

Finally, the app could be integrated into the Windows explorer shell, so you could have a right-mouse menu entry "Show previous revisions...".

If such an app doesn't exist, I might need to think about writing one....

Best regards,
Ross

[superflexible]

Hello Ross,

thanks for the ideas! You can use the Restore Wizard and on the Sync Preview, right-click any file to pick a different version to restore.

You don't have to go thru the Restore Wizard every time. Instead you can have it save the restore configuration as a profile. You can also create such a restore profile yourself, by simply reversing the copying direction in the backup profile and saving it under a new name. Plus maybe changing the local path so that the restore goes to a different folder.

[rossmcm]

I guess what I am looking for is something that addresses the most common use I would have for incremental backups - where you find a source code modification, and want to know when it was that you made the change.

As I said, the most effective "user interface" would be for me to be able to right-click the file in explorer and select "show me all the previous versions".

Thanks for your comments.