A lesson on the importance of backups...

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by grumbles

With cheap DVD (and not so cheap Blu-ray) writers and really cheap media (DVD blanks are well under a dollar and Blu-ray blanks are under two) there is no reason not to backup. My Calibre library fits on a dual layer DVD (but a rewriteable Blu-ray is more convenient.) If the data is important, I keep backups of my photographs, parity files add a degree of security. Note that parity files like par2 only protect data sectors but not the file system. For the truely paranoid, a utility like DVDisaster creates parity of the entire disc including the file system. But then those parity files need to be protected.

There are many things that don't need to be protected or saved but what does need to be saved has to be saved well.

It's also essential to label the discs. Unlike printed material, you just can't look at it to see what it is. I keep finding far too many discs lying around that I have no idea what is on them.

I always give a disc a label then catalog it with a catalog program. So I can find what I needed. I just bought a Portable DVD writer for my laptop so I can start backing up things from it.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by soulfuldog

Thanks eschwartz, I eventually rediscovered I'd set up FreeFileSync and my PC just hadn't been on for a while during the time set in Task Scheduler. I've such a bad memory I couldn't remember it was FreeFileSync I was using, the only thing I remembered was that it was one of your posts that I followed to set something up in the first place....

Glad I could help.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

Which perhaps brings us to the position that we only do backups because we can, in which case they must be redundant.

Before we could do backups hardly anyone kept backup copies of paper books, photographs, mail, business records, etc., etc. off site and we thought nothing of it except just being a little bit careful not to burn the house down or to let burglars in.

The fact is that your hard drive will die, whereas a total-loss house fire is a very rare event for an individual. Your drive might die today, maybe tomorrow, maybe in a couple of years or more, but it will. Unless you have backups, you will lose everything many times in your life.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by meeera

The fact is that your hard drive will die, whereas a total-loss house fire is a very rare event for an individual. Your drive might die today, maybe tomorrow, maybe in a couple of years or more, but it will. Unless you have backups, you will lose everything many times in your life.

Precisely. It's not a question of IF a hard disk will die, but WHEN it will die. If you don't do backups, you WILL lose your data.

[AnotherCat]

Originally Posted by meeera

The fact is that your hard drive will die, whereas a total-loss house fire is a very rare event for an individual. Your drive might die today, maybe tomorrow, maybe in a couple of years or more, but it will. Unless you have backups, you will lose everything many times in your life.

It would seem that the fact is that you do not know what a means in another's post.

[ApK]

Originally Posted by AnotherCat

It would seem that the fact is that you do not know what a means in another's post.

We all know what it means. Maybe you need to work on how it's used.

I, too, thought you were serious about thinking the need for backup was redundant, and that the winky was only meant to apply the idea of letting burglars in or being in control of whether or not the house burned down.

It's OK. At first we thought you were foolish. Now we see you are sensible, and are merely bad at writing humor. That's much better.

I'm not even going to put a winky there because, if you don't know I'm teasing you, then I have failed, and no winky will save me.

ApK

[AnotherCat]

Originally Posted by ApK

...I'm not even going to put a winky there because, if you don't know I'm teasing you, then I have failed, and no winky will save me...

Glad it was a tease; the royal "we" was a dead giveaway.

But as we have seen above, some do not recognise a tease even when a winky is used.

[murg]

Winky Saves! Hallelujah!

[JSWolf]

I can no longer recommend anyone ever use FreeFileSync again. Earlier today I installed in on my Surface Pro 2 and it came with some optimizer software that the installer did not allow to remove and on top of that, Trovi Search Protection was installed as well and it was done so silently in the background. So if you want to have to fix your system and remove software you never wanted, do not install FreeFileSync. The installer is a crap and infects your computer.

[eschwartz]

Jon, Jon, Jon...

That would be OpenCandy, the official SourceForge ad/spam/crapware, and that is OLD news. I was, I admit, unaware that FreeFileSync opted in, as I prefer rsync myself (command-line utilities are not known for spamware...) but it doesn't surprise me.

I suggest you try the PortableApps.com version, or there should be a way to uncheck it in the installer.

I must say I am extremely disappointed though.
While the program should work as well as it ever did, I cannot in good faith condone supporting such garbage.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Jon, Jon, Jon...

That would be OpenCandy, the official SourceForge ad/spam/crapware, and that is OLD news. I was, I admit, unaware that FreeFileSync opted in, as I prefer rsync myself (command-line utilities are not known for spamware...) but it doesn't surprise me.

I suggest you try the PortableApps.com version, or there should be a way to uncheck it in the installer.

I must say I am extremely disappointed though.
While the program should work as well as it ever did, I cannot in good faith condone supporting such garbage.

When I previously installed FFS, I did not get hit with Trovi nor this optimizer that you have to install.

I just had a look at the two different install files for FFS 6.12 and they are different sizes. The one I downloaded today is larger then the one I downloaded December 1, 2014. So they did ad this crapware to the installer. That means that if there is a new version, it'll install crap. It's time to find a different program since FFS is now off the list.

[eschwartz]

Like I said, you *should* be able to uncheck it during install (and if not, something is seriously wrong) or use the repackaged Portable App version.

But yes, it is time to find something new. This is a straight-up outrage.

[Fbone]

I use Syncredible. It's another free program. They do seem to update it frequently which is rather annoying but it appears to do the job.

[AnotherCat]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

When I previously installed FFS, I did not get hit with Trovi nor this optimizer that you have to install.

I just had a look at the two different install files for FFS 6.12 and they are different sizes. The one I downloaded today is larger then the one I downloaded December 1, 2014. So they did ad this crapware to the installer. That means that if there is a new version, it'll install crap. It's time to find a different program since FFS is now off the list.

I have just downloaded a copy of FFS 6.12 (as you say in your post, the file size has increased) and installed it.

The "add-on's" are very clearly offered as opt ins and they are offered in a clear window dedicated entirely to them with no confusion as to what one is accepting, one just has to un-tick the check box.

While, like most, I do not like opt-ins of these types being offered, I do accept that it is one acceptable way for developers of free applications or sites that provide free hosting for the downloads to help cover costs; that as long as they are very clearly offered as opt in, as the FreeFileSync ones are.

I downloaded from FreeFileSync's own site, if one downloads from SourceForge, or elsewhere one's experience may be entirely different. And note, for the sake of good order, that I am not pushing FFS as being anyone's "best" choice, there are alternatives; it is just the one I am most familiar with.

[eschwartz]

How far the once mighty SourceForge has fallen…
Sourceforge Drives off Downloads, Ask why
Beware of Sourceforge downloads - new owner is pushing malware in installers.
SourceForge Malware

This kind of retarded garbage has made a lot of people furious with SourceForge, as well as the FLOSS projects that sold their soul.
Every installer that tries to bundle adware, spamware, crapware, and malware is a despicable form of exploitation designed to abuse people who don't know better... because anyone who is actually aware of what they are installing would never in a million years install it.

This is one of the reasons https://Ninite.com exists.

Personally, I don't entirely have a ton of respect for anyone who even hosts their project on SourceForge anymore, and I have zero respect whatsoever for anyone who opted into this nonsense.



Also note that I believe the SourceForge crapware installer cannot be run offline, since it has to download the real installer together with the abovementioned adware/crapware/spamware/malware.



Also note that I just tried downloading the installer.
The FreeFileSync website directs you to download from FossHub, not SourceForge.
When I went to SourceForge manually, I was able to directly download the installer. It was the regular old normal 11.8MB installer, not the SourceForge drive-by-installer.