[jestermgee]

There is very little information detailing just how to backup AND restore a media portal setup.

I only use MP for TV viewing and recording and use Meedio for the rest of my system. When setting up MP for the first time I decided to try a backup of the setup since I had it all working stable. I thought it would be as simple as copying the main program folder and data folder in \documents & settings.... But when I re-installed MP and restored this data, it was all default again

I have seen a batch file process created here:

MediaPortal scheduled backup using WinRar (now including SQLExpress database)

that does the backup of MP, TVS3 and the SQL database but this requires WinRar to be installed which I am not about to do on my HTPC....

Why is there no backup option in MP itself? Or at least a tool that can backup the system. With Meedio, all settings are stored in an XML file and I can easily backup/restore by copying the directories.

I have re-installed MP several times and tried upgrading to RC2 and EVERY TIME I have to set up everything again and again and again. I can save my channels to an AML file but all the other settings are a pain to backup.

I will attempt to adapt the batch process above to use 7zip since this is Free, command line based and doesn't need to be installed. If there is a simple way to backup/restore then please fill me in.

Cheers

[jestermgee]

EDIT: One other thing I should mention is that I am using MYSQL not SQLExpress so this won't even work for me - Grrrrrrrr.

How the hell would a novice make a working backup INDEPENDANT of a system backup?????????

[rekenaar]

I think you are actually using both. SQLExpress is used for the movies, music, pictures, etc.

[jestermgee]

If you re-read my first post then you may discover that I only use MP for TV viewing and recording, not Movies, Music or Pictures.... So am I still using both when I only physically installed MYSQL with the TVServer RC 1 installation?

Don't mean to be rude, but if you are going to post a reply it would be nice if:

A) You had read my original post or.
B) Had an answer to my question.

So again, is there a way to go "Click" and make a full backup of MP and TV Server settings as well as any currently scheduled recordings? If no one makes backups or anything then can someone on the technical side please tell me how MP stores its settings? What do I have to backup to save current program settings? Data folder, XML file, Reg keys???

[rekenaar]

Busted, I did not read your first post fully. To long for me. I just saw every third or fourth word.

Guess I shouldn't even be typing this because I just glanced over your last educational post as well and I am not sure if I missed an essential detail like before. Anyway, mediaportal.xml contains a lot of your current settings.

[jestermgee]

I'll try and keep my posts shorter to fit within concentration spans

"mediaportal.xml contains a lot of your current settings" - I assume this is in the \doc & setting folder.

What settings does it not store (if any) and does this file exist for both MP and TV3? I have previously backed up the c:\program files\TeamMediaPortal & C:\Documents & Settings\..\Media Portal folders and upon installing MP again and then restoring these files I do not have my settings back.

The XML file you speek of will also not backup my scheduled recordings from the SQL database. So do I have to deploy an SQL backup util to take care of this too???

Is everyone quite contempt with re-setting up their software on every release? I am trying to incorporate the backup of MP with my current backup systems for all my other software so I need to know how it's done.

[rekenaar]

Originally Posted by jestermgee

very funny. You are assuming now.

"mediaportal.xml contains a lot of your current settings" - I assume this is in the \doc & setting folder

This assumption is correct.

I will leave only a few comments, and then sign off from this thread. I don't think your intention with this thread was to get comments and suggestions from people like me. I think you only wanted the advice from the experts. Yes - it is now my turn to assume Although my initial intention when replying to your second post (without studying your first) was to try and help. I should rather leave it to the more knowledgable members.

You can store your skins/picture db/movie db/various other in directories of your own choice. Yes, I know by now that you do not use most of those. It is stored in mediaportaldirs.xml. This is however significant in my setup, since I do not loose the SQLExpress database when I clean up (and it is used by another client pc on my network).

After first complete setup of TVServer channels, I do an export.
After clean install, I can import the channels as well as the recordings.

Other settings, I am contempt to redo.

OVER AND OUT.

[jestermgee]

Thanks for the info, that's does help to a degree.

I just find it quite puzzling that no one has an easy method for backup/restore of their setup.

If I may take a brief moment to show how I currently backup my HTPC system:

My HTPC system is quite a puzzle spanning over 3 computers in the house and using a large number of programs, scripts and batch files to bend windows and software to do what I want. Because I tend to tinker quite a bit and make incremental changes I have an incremental backup system that is seperate from my main OS backups. I only make OS backups when everything seems stable.

All the programs I use are backed up using a batch script that copies and compresses the files to my server taking a "snapshot" of the configurations, media libraries and setup of my HTPC apps. This is done every week or so and the files can then easily be restored or copied to my dev machine so I can tinker and test.

out of all the programs that I backup this way, I can't do it with MP because it uses the SQL database. When I restore my settings, MP is left out in the cold and every time I try a MP update I have to re-configure it all over again which is getting very tedious.

Any 1.2.3 suggestions on how to backup all of MP will be very helpful at this stage.

THX