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fidvo · 01-19-2017, 06:20 PM

The problem with copying files manually is that there can be leftover files in your backup if you delete books or rename authors or titles. Therefore, the only way to guarantee that your backup is identical to your original is to delete the entire contents of your backup before copying it over again. This is far more dangerous than setting up an automated system once and then running it periodically.

Since you're running Linux, there's an easy solution if you're willing to use the command line. Use rsync. There's a bewildering array of options, but basically you can ignore most of them and use something like this as your template:

Code:

rsync -av --delete (source) (destination)

This is basically the fastest way to make your backup folder identical to your original folder. It does an incremental backup, so it won't copy files if they're identical, and that scary-looking "delete" switch simply removes leftover files from the backup AFTER copying over the changes. It may look confusing, but just follow the template and you should be fine. As long as you don't do something dumb like put the destination folder first and the source folder last, there's not much you can screw up here.

You can save the command in a text file once you have it right and just copy and paste it into the terminal each time you want to back up your files. If you're feeling a little more confident you can even turn it into a bash script.

And make sure that you include leading and trailing slashes on both the source and destination folders.

For example, I back up my external HD to an identical external HD, both encrypted with VeraCrypt, and I've never had problems. The command in this case is:

Code:

rsync -av --delete /media/veracrypt1/ /media/veracrypt2/

I've been running this for years and never had a problem with it.

01-19-2017, 06:20 PM	#6
fidvo Addict Posts: 309 Karma: 1645952 Join Date: Jun 2012 Device: none	The problem with copying files manually is that there can be leftover files in your backup if you delete books or rename authors or titles. Therefore, the only way to guarantee that your backup is identical to your original is to delete the entire contents of your backup before copying it over again. This is far more dangerous than setting up an automated system once and then running it periodically. Since you're running Linux, there's an easy solution if you're willing to use the command line. Use rsync. There's a bewildering array of options, but basically you can ignore most of them and use something like this as your template: Code: rsync -av --delete (source) (destination) This is basically the fastest way to make your backup folder identical to your original folder. It does an incremental backup, so it won't copy files if they're identical, and that scary-looking "delete" switch simply removes leftover files from the backup AFTER copying over the changes. It may look confusing, but just follow the template and you should be fine. As long as you don't do something dumb like put the destination folder first and the source folder last, there's not much you can screw up here. You can save the command in a text file once you have it right and just copy and paste it into the terminal each time you want to back up your files. If you're feeling a little more confident you can even turn it into a bash script. And make sure that you include leading and trailing slashes on both the source and destination folders. For example, I back up my external HD to an identical external HD, both encrypted with VeraCrypt, and I've never had problems. The command in this case is: Code: rsync -av --delete /media/veracrypt1/ /media/veracrypt2/ I've been running this for years and never had a problem with it.