How do you backup on Unix/Linux/Windows

[Gaurish]

Hi,
I wondering what people here to use to backup their data:
wanted to know the things like

1) Tools used
2) Backup interval(how often to you backup)
3) Backup medium(reliability,costs)

Inputs needed

 

[vishalrao]

Re: How to you backup

Last I tried Microsoft SyncToy

But since I cross boot Win7 with a few linux distros I'm thinking about simply installing Cygwin 1.7 (which has Win7 support) and using "rsync" everywhere...

2. Backup interval = manually at random intervals.

3. Backup medium = external 1 tb and 160gb HDDs (need to get moar stoorage)

 

[viridian]

Re: How to you backup

1. Rsync + SSH, online service provides like box.net

2. Weekly for junk (movies, music) to HDD and daily for data (docs, attempts at code)

3. Currently use USB HDD a lot, certainly not the most reliable but I can do without that data even if it were hosed. I suppose the best method would be to chose a cloud provider, Amazon S3 seems like the best one (use JungleDisk). Yes you would need half decent broadband.

 

[slash84]

Re: How to you backup

I sync important folders between my 2 HDD's on my desktop and one of my laptop using Microsoft SyncToy. I have 3 copies of my important data and feel very much safe. Call me paranoid, but once you come close to losing your data because of a HDD crash, you would do the same thing!

 

[Gaurish]

Re: How to you backup

Seems rsync is a way to go as it backups up only what has changed which would save us lot of time. questions:

* how does rync handles large file sizes(80GB+)?

* my backup will include Archlinux system files,documents,images,music & video files.

do you guys use some script/gui program or rsync directly?

 

[djmykey]

Re: How to you backup

Anything on windows ?? I want to sync some folders; not drives folders... anything that would help me with a selection list of folders that can be synced ?

 

[vishalrao]

Re: How to you backup

eh? dont you see "ms synctoy" mentioned a couple of times in previous posts?

 

[stalker]

Re: How to you backup

Or just use the built in backup tool. atleast, that's what I do in Win7

 

[djmykey]

Re: How to you backup

Well to be honest I used MS SyncToy... it cr@pped on Vista itself. So dun wanna try it on 7 now. Seriously I tried quite a few sync bkp clients none work for me Titan Backup came close but it didn't sync data i.e. it used to copy every thing onto the destination but didn't delete the data that was deleted from the source.

 

[viridian]

Re: How to you backup

For Windows I've used Cobian Backup. Works as promised with a few glitches .This is for backup of course. Synctoy worked for me on windows xp. I've not tried it on Vista or 7 though.

 

[Gaurish]

Re: How to you backup

anybody here tried time machine style bacups in flyback?

Introduction

FlyBack is a snapshot-based backup tool based on rsync It creates successive backup directories mirroring the files you wish to backup, but hard-links unchanged files to the previous backup. This prevents wasting disk space while providing you with full access to all your files without any sort of recovery program. If your machine crashes, just move your external drive to your new machine and copy the latest backup using whatever file browser you normally use.

Note that this means you can selectively delete specific backups and still retain files stored in previous ones. (ie., you can delete tuesday's backup and keep monday's, without screwing up wednesday's)

flyback - Project Hosting on Google Code

 

[Hacker]

Re: How to you backup

Looks like I am the only one who follows the primitive back up style.

Taking backups on a dvd every month

 

[vishalrao]

Re: How to you backup

can we shift the topic/discussion a little maybe to "whats the best cross platform backup tool/scheme you suggest" ?

for example, i've seen rsync+ssh working well but you need cygwin i believe to run on windows (cygwin 1.7 latest release claims win7 support now)...

but is there some sort of common free tool/app that will run on all OSes to store/retrieve backups to DVDs/USB HDDs etc?

 

[testsubjectalpha]

Re: How to you backup

cross-platform: try Unison (Unison File Synchronizer)

Windows-only: I like SyncBack (2BrightSparks: File Backup and Utility Software)

 

[viridian]

Re: How to you backup

Been looking at duplicati - Project Hosting on Google Code . Uses duplicity as the backend, is cross platform (C#, Mono) which is quite promising. Also supports encrypted backups (inbuilt AES, support for GPG). As of now there isn't a service based setup (set it, forget it type) but it is planned for the next version (2.0).

 

[Udit]

Re: How to you backup

I have 14 HDD's

I keep 7 in pc & 7 I use via a HDD Dock

I backup all my data using Super Flexible File Synchronizer once a week

 

[47Shailesh]

Re: How to you backup

Seems rsync is a way to go as it backups up only what has changed which would save us lot of time.

In windows one can use robocopy to take differential data backup. Robocopy supports multi threading also, where you can specify how many threads you want Robocopy to run. It works pretty fast.
You can create custom batch script for what to backup and schedule it to take delta data backups

 

[stellarhopper]

I use dropbox for all my important docs, project/class work, code etc.
The cloud is the way to go!!
Frequency: Live; as long as I'm connected to the interwebz.

It is also an awesome way to keep data sync'd between my laptop and desktop.

I do not backup anything else

 

[Rockfella]

I don't back-up movies/music only some rare ones which are kinda huge to download like T2 and some of my favs. I email all documents to myself (gmail) like office dox etc. I have experienced the more u tend to back-up the more u loose data so mostly everything is back-up on the world wide web! Family pics i burn on DVDs and keep them safe, check them every six months and burn fresh dvds.

 

[Praks]

If 1 person has IMP files on few folders (10 MB to 50 MB max)

Is there any tool which can directly upload it online ? I feel HDD can crash anytime. so Online backup by Microsoft/Google will be very much reliable.

Used Skydrive, Found it good.

Is there any way I can just right click folder & click UPLOAD & It uploads online in SAFE way ?