Cautionary backup story

[richb]

I have been using Wuala for online backup. Automatically syncs folders you choose. As far as security:

All files are directly encrypted on your desktop. Your password never leaves your computer. Not even we as the provider can access your files or your password.

I also use Wuala, but the free storage is only enough for key files. The other 95GB has to be local backup.

Phil

LOL: I only backup my key files, my entire documents directory, and they only consume 1.8 GB. I guess it depends on what you consider key files.

Very rarely use symlinks, although they are a neat tool, I have not seen a great need to use them.

[DBeckett]

Very rarely use symlinks, although they are a neat tool, I have not seen a great need to use them.

I make extensive use of them. I have a partition labeled "BigStuff" where I keep

• .mozilla
• .thunderbird
• .VirtualBox
• Pictures
• Music
• Documents
• Flash
• Java

and a handful of other folders/files. I can boot into any of five Linux installations and see exactly the same data. Also, if I update Java or Flash, I only have to do it once.

[JimC]

Very rarely use symlinks, although they are a neat tool, I have not seen a great need to use them.

I make extensive use of them. I have a partition labeled "BigStuff" where I keep

• .mozilla
• .thunderbird
• .VirtualBox
• Pictures
• Music
• Documents
• Flash
• Java

and a handful of other folders/files. I can boot into any of five Linux installations and see exactly the same data. Also, if I update Java or Flash, I only have to do it once.

That's a really neat idea, as I tend to replicate a lot of stuff between different distros installed on the same system. Do you ever run into conflicts between distros due to different versions of Firefox being installed; or because you're trying to share the same configuration files between different types of distros (those based on Debian versus Ubuntu versus Fedora versus OpenSUSE, etc.)?

[joany]

Also, if I update Java or Flash, I only have to do it once.

Thanks for that input. That's exactly why symlinks are so useful.

If you poke around your / (root) partition, you'll find there are symlinks everywhere. They probably number in the hundreds, and they were created at the time your system was installed or when software packages were installed. So everybody who uses Linux also "uses" symlinks, whether they know it or not.

[DBeckett]

That's a really neat idea, as I tend to replicate a lot of stuff between different distros installed on the same system. Do you ever run into conflicts between distros due to different versions of Firefox being installed?

I neglected to mention that I use the Firefox tarball method, and it too is on the BigStuff partition. Therefore, if it gets updated once, it's updated for all. The same with Thunderbird, although I don't update that.

I'm careful with some apps, VirtualBox for instance, to make sure I have the same version on each. But they all share the same .virtualbox. That would be 4GB on each distro if they were independent, a waste of 16GB. My HDD is 160GB, so 16GB is a significant chunk.

I did get jammed up once when I decided to try one of the many new versions of Thunderbird to see what all the fuss was about. It worked okay, but then I discovered that .thunderbird had been trashed for all the other distros still using 2.0.0.24. Thank goodness for backups.

I use a script to do my backups. I have to remember that cp /home/dale/Documents will not work because that's a link. It has to be cp /mnt/sda3/Documents.

[kumar]

I like CrashPlan. It backs up locally and on the cloud (all encrypted). I'm paying $5/mo for unlimited backup. I store all of my important files on their servers and back up everything to an external drive too. I also back up my wife's computer to my external drive. It all happens automatically in the background so I don't have to think about it. I can also access my online files from any web browser if needed. Nice to know if something catastrophic happens such as my house burns down.

Wuala looks good too though.

[fbt]

Years ago I had backup software fail me, so now I just copy my data to a second hard drive. I don't worry about configuration files. Just email (which is now on the web) and a bookmark file is all I need beyond the normal /home files. kiss

[DBeckett]

Years ago I had backup software fail me, so now I just copy my data to a second hard drive. kiss

Exactly.

[richb]

I guess it depends on how you use your system. I still am quite happy not using symlinks I do not create. That is just the way it is for me.
But I appreciate the functionality it provides for you who use them.

[lucky9]

I prefer the Clonezilla or PartedMagic gtkrsync solution. It's GUI and rsync will not copy empty space. With compression the resultant archive is very small. You can also have the program make 4 GB files for burning to DVD.
A portable external HDD is also a really good investment.