Play sound when GFI Backup finishes

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I use GFI Backup Home Edition to make daily incremental backups and less frequent full backups. I would like to have the program play a sound file to notify me when the backup process has finished. I’m in GFI Backup, looking at the Events dialog box in the Daily Backup properties, and I see a checkbox for “Run after task ends.” Checking the box opens an input area with a Browse option that allows me to choose only an executable file. (I was hoping I could choose a .wav file.)

So here’s my problem: I want to run a program that will play one of the .wav files on my hard drive, but I don’t know what program to run or, more precisely, how to open a program to automatically play a specific sound file.

Does anyone have any thoughts that might help me? Is there some way I can turn a .wav file into an executable, or to set up an executable that will automatically play a specific .wav file when the program opens?

Thanks for your help!

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Hi,

This will probably work for Windows XP:

sndrec32.exe /play /close %windir%Mediachimes.wav

For Windows Vista, you could try this (I have not tested this myself):

SoundRecorder.exe /play /close %windir%Mediachimes.wav

Any .wav file will do, just make sure the directory path is correct. If the directory or file name contain spaces you will need to use quotation marks, e.g.:

sndrec32.exe /play /close “C:Program FilesSyslogdSoundsAlarm.wav”

Roelof

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Hi, Roelof! Thanks for responding. I tried what you suggested, but got an error message: file not found. (I know the file is there.) I tried using the same command in the Run dialog box, and it worked fine (couldn’t have done that without your help — thank you!). I’ll play around with it for a while and maybe I can tweak something to make it work.

In any event, you gave me a valuable piece of advice! I no longer feel like I’m totally in the dark.

Lenore Collins

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Lenore, Try this http://simplythebest.net/sounds/WAV/sound_effects_WAV/

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Maybe I’ve misunderstood what you’re suggesting, but I don’t think that’s my answer. I need an executable file (.exe) that will open to play a sound. I did try just entering the .wav file in the dialog box, but that didn’t work — needs to be an executable.

I think my answer may lie somewhere in what Roelof suggested, but I’ll have to do some tinkering to get to where I want to be.

I appreciate your trying to help — thanks!

Lenore

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It’s possible your back-up utility expects a single filename, without parameters. Creating a batch file to execute the command might work. If you open Notepad (or a similar program), enter these lines

Code:

@ECHO OFF
%windir%system32sndrec32.exe /play /close %windir%Mediachimes.wav

… and save them as PLAYSND.CMD, you can specify the name of that batch file in the application. (You’ll probably need to specify the full path.)

Roelof

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Lenore, what sound types have you tried, i.e. .wav,.wma.,mp3 etc

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Roelof, Roderunner — I really appreciate your responses, but I need to abandon this project for the time being. While I’d like to solve the problem, it’s not a safety-in-flight issue, and the time it’s taking will be better spent on revenue-producing activities. I’ll just go back to watching the monitor to see when the backup finishes.

Thank you again!

Lenore

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