Rename-CrashPlan

A Powershell module to rename files so CrashPlan can back them up

I find it is often better to create hardlinks using Crashplan-HardLink instead.

Reason

Despite their advertising (“Never worry about losing business-critical data again”, “Confidence that your files are backed up safely”, “Simplifies and streamlines all of your data backups”, …) CrashPlan actually restricts the types of files that can be backed up, so cannot be used as a complete backup solution.

See What am I not allowed to back up? for a list of all the things you are not able to backup using CrashPlan.

This Powershell script will rename some of the file types that CrashPlan refuses to back up, so that they can be backed up. If run against files which are already renamed, it will name them back to their original names.

Usage

Open Powershell, navigate to the directory containing the files you wish to rename, and type:

Rename-CrashPlan [-WhatIf]

This will search the current directory and all child directories for any files matching any of the forbidden filetypes, and will rename them.

If any files that have already been renamed are found, they will be named back.

Forbidden filetypes are renamed as below:

My Important Data.vhd → My Important Data.rename-vhd

Already Renamed File.rename-vhd → Already Renamed File.vhd

Use the WhatIf flag to see what would be renamed, without actually renaming any files.

A log file Rename-Crashplan.log is created in the directory the command is run from, listing all the files that were changed.

Installation

The simplest way is to Download this module and put it in one of the default module locations. Powershell will then autoload the module.

Alternatively, one can manually load the module.

Autoload

1. To view the default module locations, type:

   $Env:PSModulePath

   1. To add a default module location, type:

      $Env:PSModulePath = $Env:PSModulePath + ";<path>"

   2. To create a Modules directory for the current user if one does not exist, type:

      New-Item -Type Directory -Path $HOME\Documents\WindowsPowerShell\Modules

2. Copy the entire module folder into the Modules directory.
3. You should now be able to use the module:

   Rename-CrashPlan [-WhatIf]

Manual Load

To import a module that is not in a default module location, use the fully qualified path to the module folder in the command.

For example, to add the Rename-Crashplan module in the C:\My-Modules directory to your session, type:

Import-Module C:\My-Modules\Rename-Crashplan

Running Scripts is Disabled

If you get an error similar to The 'Rename-CrashPlan' command was found in the module 'Rename-CrashPlan', but the module could not be loaded. or Rename-CrashPlan.psm1 cannot be loaded because running scripts is disabled on this system then you may need to enable the running of unsigned scripts on your system:

1. To get the effective execution policy for the current PowerShell session:

   Get-ExecutionPolicy

2. To permanently change the execution policy:

   Set-ExecutionPolicy -ExecutionPolicy <PolicyName>

3. To temporarily bypass the execution policy to allow running all scripts:

   powershell -ExecutionPolicy Bypass

Forbidden Filetypes

The filetypes which are renamed by this script:

".bck",
".bkf",
".hdd",
".hds",
".nvram",
".ost",
".part",
".pvm",
".pvs",
".rbf",
".sparseimage",
".tib",
".tmp",
".vdi",
".vfd",
".vhd",
".vhdx",
".vmc",
".vmdk",
".vmem",
".vmsd",
".vmsn",
".vmss",
".vmtm",
".vmwarevm",
".vmx",
".vmxf",
".vsv",
".vud",
".xva"