Retrieving files from a backup without having Duplicati installed?

1

Hi,

I’d like to be able to access my backups from other computers that don’t necessarily have duplicati installed, and retrieve some files. I’m thinking windows computers.

Is it possible to have Duplicati on an usb drive and run it from there ?
What would be the rignt config ?

Thanks

Regards
frd

2

You can use the --portable-mode when starting Duplicati to have it save only files in subfolders.
This is intended to work with USB drive setups.

If you only need to restore a file, you can use the recovery tool, or the regular commandline tool, but starting the UI and restoring via that is also possible.

3

Restoring files if your Duplicati installation is lost would be a GUI way to do this, and safe because there is only a partial temporary database made. If you make a permanent one, then you can have mistakes, e.g. a backup whose Destination actions will confuse the main computer. Use only one Duplicati backing up to a Destination.

4

Hi @kenkendk

Thanks for the quick reply.
So I guess that I copy the Duplicat folder on the usb drive (duplicati-2.0.8.1_beta_2024-05-07).
And also the config file of the backup that I would have exported before.

Then I open a command prompt window. Which would be the command to type to get Duplicati running with the GUI ? is it start Duplicati.server --portable-mode ?

Thanks
frd

5

Hi @ts678

Thanks for the link.
But I would have to install Duplicati to make it work.

Regards
frd

6

You don’t need to install it on any C: drive. You do need to install it, e.g.:

image

If you don’t like the default install location (as shown above), change it.

7

That will start it with no tray-icon.

You can also start the tray-icon if you prefer:

Duplicati.GUI.TrayIcon.exe --portable-mode

I seem to recall that you can also create a shortcut (from Explorer).
Once you have the shortcut created, you can edit the startup arguments, and then just double-click it when you need to start it.

8

I think this messes a bit with the internal Windows application tracking. When you install via MSI, Windows will keep track that you installed it. But since it is on removable media, you can remove the files but still have it installed.

For portable-mode use, I would download just the zip file, unblock, and unzip to USB drive.

9

This is optional (and buggy). It’s one way to pass the little bit that’s needed.
Keeping the config files is good practice in case you need to recreate jobs,
however that’s the wrong thing to do here, because it can lead to mistakes.

10

Hi @ts678

It works well ! I used

Duplicati.GUI.TrayIcon.exe --portable-mode

Thanks a lot.

Regards
frd

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11

Hi @ts678

Thanks for the tip.
In my case “restore” works in both ways : with config file or with manual input.

Regards
frd

1 Like