I have tested the 7-Zip backup I had constructured that I posted about a while back and I have come to realise that it is a tad bit too complicated. I even went through the process of creating a proxy application to try and get it to be a bit more cleverer but in the end I simplified it down to just 4 parts; the logic, settings and file lists.

Backup.cmd

@ECHO OFF

ECHO 7-Zip backup script
ECHO Written by Alex Boyne-Aitken
ECHO Last update: 07/11/2009
ECHO.

ECHO TRACE: Parse arguments: ''%~f1''
IF EXIST %~f1 GOTO labelBegin

ECHO.
ECHO ERROR: Settings file not found!
GOTO labelWaitEnd

:labelBegin

ECHO.
ECHO TRACE: Reading settings
FOR /F "eol=# tokens=1,2 delims==" %%i IN (%~f1) DO (
SET %%i=%%j
ECHO TRACE: %%i = ''%%j''
)

SET varTimeStamp=%DATE:~-4%-%DATE:~3,2%-%DATE:~0,2%-%TIME:~0,2%-%TIME:~3,2%
SET varTargetBackupSet=%varBackupPath%\%varTimeStamp%-backup.zip

ECHO.
ECHO TRACE: Backup set: ''%varTargetBackupSet%''
ECHO TRACE: Command line: ''"%varPathToSevenZip%\7z" a -t%varArchiveType% "%varTargetBackupSet%" @"%varInclusionsFile%" -xr@"%varExclusionsFile%"''

ECHO.
ECHO TRACE: Executing backup
::"%varPathToSevenZip%\7z" a -t%varArchiveType% "%varTargetBackupSet%" @"%varInclusionsFile%" -xr@"%varExclusionsFile%"

IF /I NOT "%varWaitAtEnd%" == "true" GOTO labelEnd

:labelWaitEnd
PAUSE
:labelEnd

Settings.txt

# The path to the where the 7z.exe executable is
varPathToSevenZip=C:\Program Files\7-Zip

# The path where to store the backup sets
varBackupPath=D:\Backups

# The file path to the inclusions file
varInclusionsFile=D:\Logaan\Documents\Tools\7ZipBackup\Settings\Inclusions.txt

# The file path to the exclusions file
varExclusionsFile=D:\Logaan\Documents\Tools\7ZipBackup\Settings\Exclusions.txt

# Whether to wait at the end of the backup
varWaitAtEnd=true

# Type of backup archive to create
varArchiveType=zip

Exclusions.txt

*.svn

Inclusions.txt

D:\Logaan\Documents
D:\Logaan\Favorites
C:\Users\Logaan\Desktop
D:\Logaan\Saved Games

How to use it

Place the batch file and settings files in a folder somewhere.

Update the setttings file with the correct paths.

Pass the path to the settings file to the backup batch file.

C:> backup D:\Logaan\Documents\Backup\settings.txt

Or create a scheduled task.