Im wanting to back up a usb stick periodically & automatically. Ive created the batch file with the commands; MD C:\k\ALL_FILES_FROM_MY_USB_@%Date:~-10,2%%Date:~-7,2%%Date:~-4,4%@%time:~0,2%.%time:~3,2% xcopy e:\*.* /S /E /v C:\k\ALL_FILES_FROM_MY_USB_@%Date:~-10,2%%Date:~-7,2%%Date:~-4,4%@%time:~0,2%.%time:~3,2% and have set this to run via scheduled tasks in xp every hour. This works fine during the day though each morning instead of creating a folder named with the current date and time (eg. ALL_FILES_FROM_MY_USB_@11062009@10.28); it creates 2 folders; one with the date and one with the time; eg ALL_FILES_FROM_MY_USB_@11062009@ and also 10.28 and therefore doesnt backup the usb. When I recreate the batch file it works fine. Anyone know what the prob is or if theres another way to script this. thanks

First guess is before 10:00 you're getting a single digit hour which is throwing a curve ball to the script. ===================================== If at first you don't succeed, you're about average. M2

yeah looks as though thats the issue, it just doesnt work for the single digit hours. anyone know how 2 fix this

Use this bat to set date vars. ============================= ::== YMD8.bat @echo off > d.d >> d.d echo E 0100 B4 2A CD 21 B4 4C CD 21 >> d.d echo N DAY.COM >> d.d echo RCX >> d.d echo 8 >> d.d echo W >> d.d echo E 0100 B4 2A CD 21 88 F0 B4 4C CD 21 >> d.d echo N MONTH.COM >> d.d echo RCX >> d.d echo A >> d.d echo W >> d.d echo E 0100 B4 2A CD 21 89 C8 B4 4C CD 21 >> d.d echo N YEAR.COM >> d.d echo RCX >> d.d echo A >> d.d echo W >> d.d echo E 0100 B4 2A CD 21 88 D0 B4 4C CD 21 >> d.d echo N DAT.COM >> d.d echo RCX >> d.d echo A >> d.d echo W >> d.d echo Q debug < d.d > nul del d.d dat for %%a in (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ) do if errorlevel %%a set dat=0%%a for %%a in ( 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31) do if errorlevel %%a set dat=%%a echo Date %dat% day if errorlevel 0 set day=Sunday if errorlevel 1 set day=Monday if errorlevel 2 set day=Tuesday if errorlevel 3 set day=Wednesday if errorlevel 4 set day=Thursday if errorlevel 5 set day=Friday if errorlevel 6 set day=Saturday echo Day %day% month for %%a in (1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 ) do if errorlevel %%a set month=0%%a for %%a in ( 10 11 12) do if errorlevel %%a set month=%%a echo Month %month% year if errorlevel 215 set Year=2007 if errorlevel 216 set Year=2008 if errorlevel 217 set Year=2009 if errorlevel 218 set Year=2010 echo Year %Year% del day.com del month.com del year.com del dat.com ::== DONE ===================================== If at first you don't succeed, you're about average. M2