Multiple File Locations?

[Sydney's Mom]

Originally Posted by CWatkinsNash

How much do you get in bonus space for an invitee that signs up for a free account? Post your affiliate link - I'll sign up to get you some more space.

Edited to add: My roommate will sign up too. In fact, I think I can get you three total affiliate signups.

Wow, that would be sooo nice!

Here is my link

http://db.tt/XwQXxbq

K whether or not you sign up.

[Sydney's Mom]

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

If you are just wanting to back up your library, an external harddrive would cost less than $99/year for dropbox. If you want an offsite backup, Carbonite ($55/year) and Mozy ($60/year) offer unlimited back up for all of your data. Both are probably more reliable than dropbox (online databases that offer free storeage have had a poor history). Only your computer will be able to interface with Carbonite and Mozy. Having multiple back ups, including at least one local and one off site, is highly recommended. Multiple e-book devices can access the same computer. I would suggest keeping your library on your computer, one back up on an external hardrive, and another back up on Carbonite or Mozy. I see no advantage to dropbox unless you have multiple computers accessing your library.

Dropbox was my choice because I was downloading and adding books to Calibre from several different computers. However, I have since found that I only download books to my laptop.

i liked the fact that I had a backup on each computer that mirrored my dropbox folder. Of course, if that was junk, I really had nothing. I spent yesterday (about an hour) burning my library to a CD. I don't have a mirror backup (as Lady F suggests) and I think that is a good idea. I spent a lot of time to get my computer set up exactly the way I like it, and I would be devistated if I had to start over.

[CuriousGrrl]

One big advantage to storing your Calibre library on Dropbox: there's an iphone/ipad client for it...makes it easy to sideload books into the Kindle app

[CWatkinsNash]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

Wow, that would be sooo nice!

Here is my link

http://db.tt/XwQXxbq

K whether or not you sign up.

No problem! I just did the first one, I should get to the others this afternoon. I've been using Sugarsync, but I just installed Debian 6 on one of my laptops so I was looking for something Linux-friendly for that computer.

If you're also looking into drive imaging software for full local backups, I've been using Macrium Reflect. The free version does full partition image backups, either forensic (exact image) or optimized (copies files but not free space), and allows access to the individual files in the backup image. The paid version adds incremental backups as well, so you only backup any changes instead of the whole image, and some other options. It runs really fast on my computers, and I keep the backup images on an external HD, but I believe it will also burn a set of cds/dvds too. It has a tool to create a bootable recovery cd to restore an image to a clean drive.

There are obviously other and probably better options but since that's what I've been using, I thought I'd throw in my 2 cents. For business files, in addition to the image backups, I keep a rotating set of encrypted USB drives that get updated on a schedule, so that there's always at least one recently updated copy offsite and one nearby. They are dated and get "retired" after a certain time to minimize risk of failure.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by Sydney's Mom

Dropbox was my choice because I was downloading and adding books to Calibre from several different computers. However, I have since found that I only download books to my laptop.

i liked the fact that I had a backup on each computer that mirrored my dropbox folder. Of course, if that was junk, I really had nothing. I spent yesterday (about an hour) burning my library to a CD. I don't have a mirror backup (as Lady F suggests) and I think that is a good idea. I spent a lot of time to get my computer set up exactly the way I like it, and I would be devistated if I had to start over.

I suspect this is just a matter of semantics but the term mirror suggests a RAID 1 configuration of HDDs. A computer with two drives in RAID 1 has a main drive and a second drive that is a duplicate (known as a mirror) of the main drive. What ever winds up on the main drive also winds up on the mirror. The idea is if the main drive should catastrophically die, the computer would continue to chug along on the mirror until a more convenient time when the RAID could be rebuilt with a new HDD. Such redunancy is warranted for applications where it is essential that computers be 100% reliable, such as the register at a business. Mirroring is a poor form of backup, however, because if the main drive gets corrupted for whatever reason (such as malware), the mirror will also be corrupted and everything could be lost.

I'm thinkin' what the OP is referring to is known as a clone. A cloned drive is an exact copy of the original drive that is, in the case of a boot drive, bootable. While a cloned drive is a reliable backup and can be the fastest way to restore a computer with a dead or corrupted drive, it does involve opening up the computer and swapping out drives. Not everyone wants to deal with that or is capable of it. Also, cloning usually can't be done on an external USB drive unless the drive can be removed from the housing so it can be swapped with the drive inside the computer (frequently, there are also compatibility issues. Docks are available that allow an internal HDD to be used as an external USB drive but one still would have to physically swap drives in case of a catatrophe. A cloned drive can be easily used to recover indivdual files, however, when it is on a USB drive or in a dock.

Better is what is known as an image. This basically a "picture" of your hardrive, often compressed so it takes up less room on a backup drive. This image can be used to rebuild the drive in your computer by using a recovery disk (usually a CD). Some imaging programs also allow you to recover single files from an image. An image is more versatile because you can both rebuild a corrupted drive or recover your system on a completely new drive.

The Macrium Reflact that CWatkinsNash is an excellent program for imaging a drive.

[theducks]

Lady F
You can "image" to a USB connected HD".

I will agree that it is faster to open the External drive case, and install it in the main chassis, but you can restore an image from a USB drive (Maxblast or WDtools), since you boot the Imaging software (from CD, pendrive or floppy ) to avoid having any files 'locked' because they were being used.

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by theducks

Lady F
You can "image" to a USB connected HD"...

Hunh? (I'm old and confuse easily.)

[theducks]

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald

Hunh? (I'm old and confuse easily.)

You said that a person could not clone to a USB drive.
Image = Clone. They are the same thing.

To add a trick,
Maxblast software (comes with a new 'Retail boxed' Maxtor drive), requires that a Maxtor brand be somewhere IN the system (1@ Maxtor drive in a USB case meets that goal when plugged into a USB port )

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Originally Posted by theducks

You said that a person could not clone to a USB drive.
Image = Clone. They are the same thing.

To add a trick,
Maxblast software (comes with a new 'Retail boxed' Maxtor drive), requires that a Maxtor brand be somewhere IN the system (1@ Maxtor drive in a USB case meets that goal when plugged into a USB port )

Actually, they are not. Many people use image and clone interchangeably but they are not the same thing even though they are used for pretty much the same thing. A clone is an exact, functional copy of the drive. An image is just that, a picture of the drive. It cannot be used as a functional drive but it can be used with a recovery disk to rebuild the drive. Programs such as Macrium Reflect (see, I can spel) create images. Easeus makes software that can clone a disk.

Check out this article for more on this.