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auto back up files to external hard drive


The Dude

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If I go in a manually back up or save files that I wan on my external hard drive, is it necessary to have my computer perform auto back up. The auto back up takes up a lot of space. I guess the plus side of it is if I forget to save my important files to my external hard drive and my computer crashes then stuff may have been backed up before I lose it.

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I use Synkron to keep my music (and other) files synced between external drives and computers. I'm paranoid about having multiple music file/library backups due to the amount of time I've spent ripping, fixing tags. embedding artwork, etc. You can choose as few or as many folders as you want so it will only sync what you set up. It's a free program and there are versions for both Windows and Mac OSX. I've been using it for about 3 years with no issues.

http://synkron.sourceforge.net/

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I use Windows Backup and Restore to make a complete system image and update it manually every now and then as well as make my own backups of any individual folders/ files I don't want to lose.

I don't trust the automatic backups they usually start to take up too much space and often fail.

Edited by Rich_Guy
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I've not done this in the past 5 years or so (so don't know if it's easily do-able or not)

I wrote a 'dos' command "Xcopy32 c:*.* /s/d .....(forget the format)

The D switch said to do something like ONLY copy a file if the date was different than the backup (in other words, newer). I think the S switch prevented system files.

I probably have the command wrong but, my point is, I then copied that into the START file of Windows so anytime you started the machine it would copy the files.

I also had a shortcut to the desktop so you could initiate it prior to closing if you wanted.

Worked great. Had it copied to 15 or so work stations on a companies system so everyones files would copy to a removable disk that I could then swap out & keep off premise.

No idea if this would work today.

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I keep my music well backed up, I have it kept in its entirely on both my desk computer and my HTPC with backups at both so my music folder is on 4 different drives as well as in 2 complete system images.

I have a dedicated 2 TB drive (soon to be larger) for movies and TV, I don't bother to backup movies and TV.

Edited by Rich_Guy
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I've not done this in the past 5 years or so (so don't know if it's easily do-able or not)

I wrote a 'dos' command "Xcopy32 c:*.* /s/d .....(forget the format)

The D switch said to do something like ONLY copy a file if the date was different than the backup (in other words, newer). I think the S switch prevented system files.

I probably have the command wrong but, my point is, I then copied that into the START file of Windows so anytime you started the machine it would copy the files.

I also had a shortcut to the desktop so you could initiate it prior to closing if you wanted.

Worked great. Had it copied to 15 or so work stations on a companies system so everyones files would copy to a removable disk that I could then swap out & keep off premise.

No idea if this would work today.

The danger with that is you can copy bad files over good ones in the backup. Once I wrote a ton of 0 byte newer files over my xcopy backup files, thereby destroying the very backups I needed. It's perfectly OK to send NEW files, because they won't overwrite anything.

Edited by mustang guy
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I just store all my movies and music on my UnRaid NAS... If a drive fails I just replace the drive and let it repair it. :)

This is one of the things to build on my to do list. I was going to build a HTPC, but my ps3 and receiver do a pretty good job covering those basic that I want out of one. But between needing a shed, and a new lap top, building a media server will be put on hold tell either winter or the first of next year. So for now its keeping my external hard drive clean of unwanted junk.

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I just store all my movies and music on my UnRaid NAS... If a drive fails I just replace the drive and let it repair it. :)

This is one of the things to build on my to do list. I was going to build a HTPC, but my ps3 and receiver do a pretty good job covering those basic that I want out of one. But between needing a shed, and a new lap top, building a media server will be put on hold tell either winter or the first of next year. So for now its keeping my external hard drive clean of unwanted junk.

The unraid is pretty nice as you can use whatever HDDs you have laying around. I have a Atom CPU, but you can use any old PC you might have laying around for the build. The only thing is your Parity HDD must be at least as big as your largest HDD, other than that you can have any miox off HDD sizes you want.

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Unraid looks pretty interesting. I have a few P4's that are finally beign taken out of service, may be perfect for this.

Here is a link to some info on unraid:

http://assassinhtpcblog.com/server-unraid/

If I am reading this correctly, it uses a Raid 1 (mirror) and a parity drive. Is this true? Belt and suspenders, I like it if you have the extra drives.

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Tiger, I purchased those guides from assassin a week before he released them to the public for free. But there is a lot of good info there, and I think the ideas are laid out. I had to read some of it over and over, but once it made since I figured I would I like to give some of it a try. As for your technical question, I am not quite sure.

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