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Old 05-17-2015, 05:33 PM   #1
Gregg Bell
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Need help understanding Luckybackup


gold finger was kind enough to share this with me a while ago:

Quote:
Do backups to either another HDD, partition, or a USB stick (if big enough to hold your data). Can use program to make an initial backup of /home/gregory; then use it to periodically update that backup by having it sync between your installed Xubuntu /home/gregory and the backup copy. The sync function will just copy over things that are new or changed, rather than copying everything all over again.

Assuming your Xubuntu filesystem is Ext4, example of doing initial backup would be something like this:

* Spare USB with large partition formatted as Ext4 and labeled "BACKUPS"
* Open luckybackup and choose "Backup" function
* "Source" = /home/gregory
* "Destination" = /media/gregory/BACKUPS (might be under /media/BACKUPS)
* Check box to not create new directories (it will just do exact copy of source)


After initial backup, either make a new task for syncing, or modify the backup task to turn it into a syncing task instead. Then use that periodically to update the backed-up /home/gregory.
I've downloaded Luckybackup and have been experimenting with it but I'm still not sure the best way to go about using it as a backup. Like in gold finger's advice, why would I check the box to not create new directories? It seems to me doing it without checking the box re-creates things just the way they are on my computer. When I check the box it just takes everything out of the folders. Seems confusing (and unnecessasry). And I have a really hard time finding the errors after a run and when I do find them I do I don't know what they mean. And so if I backup the source destination it makes an exact copy on my destination drive (with folders if I don't check the box, without if I do). Then if I do that as an ongoing thing, I will be backing up all my data with each run (which I'm assuming would be much more time consuming), whereas if I choose 'syncrhonize source and destination' it will only backup the changes in my source and usb drive (which would be my destination drive)?

Is that the idea?

And I noticed that Lucky did not want to transfer things with colons in them. Googling around somebody said that problem would be taken care of by switching to ext 3 or ext 4 for formatting the destination drive (as gold finger suggested). Is this a good idea? (I've always felt comfortabel with FAT because if I needed to plug my flash drive into Microsoft it would work (as well as with Linux).)

So the first time I use Lucky I choose "backup source inside destination" and of course the source and destination. Should I check the "Do NOT create extra directory" box? (Again, that seems off as 95% of what I'll be backing up is in folders.)

Then after I've done that, I choose the snyc option?

A lot of stuff. I know. Thanks.

PS. As a slight complication I have the data (basically the "home" folder) of my two computers (work and home) synced via Copy.com.
 
Old 05-18-2015, 09:11 PM   #2
JeremyBoden
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A colon is a special character for Windows - so FAT file systems ignore files/folders with colons in them.
Use ext4 - you won't be restoring on a Windows machine.

You'll have to see what happens if you tick a box with this software (there are only two options)!

You do one initial full backup, after that you just use syncing to maintain the backup.

If you use two different sync programs, expect to encounter strange problems.
 
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Old 05-19-2015, 12:16 AM   #3
Gregg Bell
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JeremyBoden View Post
A colon is a special character for Windows - so FAT file systems ignore files/folders with colons in them.
Use ext4 - you won't be restoring on a Windows machine.

You'll have to see what happens if you tick a box with this software (there are only two options)!

You do one initial full backup, after that you just use syncing to maintain the backup.

If you use two different sync programs, expect to encounter strange problems.
Thanks Jeremy. That colon happened to be a screenshot file made on Linux Mint (with the default screenshot thingie). You know, I just get psyched out by this stuff. Like why he would say tick the box or not tick the box. I'll just have to play with it and see for myself. And so if I format the flash drive to Ext 4 what does that mean? Most of my stuff is FAT 32. So will the EXT 4 not play nice with the FAT32 stuff? And so the EXT 4 will not work with Windows?

And what's the danger of having two programs? Linux 17.1 has a default backup program and I've been using LuckyBackup there too and haven't noticed any problems.

Last edited by Gregg Bell; 05-19-2015 at 02:09 AM.
 
Old 05-19-2015, 07:02 AM   #4
JeremyBoden
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When you sync two machines and then sync with a 3rd source (the USB stick) the effect depends upon the order in which you do the syncing.

Windows cannot cope with ext4 at all.
Linux is happy with a mixture of FAT's & ext4.

What happens when or if you need to do a restore?
 
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Old 05-19-2015, 11:26 AM   #5
Gregg Bell
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JeremyBoden View Post
When you sync two machines and then sync with a 3rd source (the USB stick) the effect depends upon the order in which you do the syncing.

Windows cannot cope with ext4 at all.
Linux is happy with a mixture of FAT's & ext4.

What happens when or if you need to do a restore?
Thanks Jeremy. I wonder if (in trying to be super-safe) I'm making a problem for myself. The way I envisioned it, the stuff in my two computers sync automatically (the data from both computers is in the Copy folder). So no worries. Plus it's in the Copy cloud. (Maybe that should be enough right there.) Then I thought I'd sync either one of the Copy folders (because they're the same on either computer) with LuckyBackup to a usb drive. Done.

But I was reading about Luckybackup last night and it doesn't delete stuff (just be way of syncing what's at the source (my hardrive) and at the destination (my usb drive).) So delete something from the hard drive it's still on the usb drive and vice-versa. Of course I can delete the data from both, but will I always remember to do that if I'm busy?
And really I need to examine Copy more closely as well, because I don't know how deleting works with that either.

Thanks. You opened my eyes to a very serious potential problem.

And I was wondering. With something like Luckybackup can I use that as basically a copying thing? It seems to be so much faster than 'copy and paste.'
 
Old 05-19-2015, 03:18 PM   #6
JeremyBoden
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Is Luckybackup the best solution for you?

Personally, I for syncing with a backup I use rsync (see man rsync or google for details) - this can delete unwanted folders etc.

For actual daily backups, I can recommend backup2l see http://backup2l.sourceforge.net/ as this allows you to compress your backups and have access to multiple backups.
It also auto runs itself.

With USB, copy and paste is limited by the true write speed of the USB.

Last edited by JeremyBoden; 05-19-2015 at 03:20 PM.
 
Old 05-19-2015, 04:10 PM   #7
Gregg Bell
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Quote:
Originally Posted by JeremyBoden View Post
When you sync two machines and then sync with a 3rd source (the USB stick) the effect depends upon the order in which you do the syncing.
So what would the proper order be?

Quote:
Originally Posted by JeremyBoden View Post

What happens when or if you need to do a restore?
You mean if I lose data? Not sure what you mean by 'doing a restore.'

P.S. the backup2 and rysnyc. I gotta have a GUI. Some guys here suggested Grsync. Going to check that out. May be the best of both worlds.

Thanks.
 
Old 05-19-2015, 06:17 PM   #8
Philip Lacroix
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Hi Gregg

Quote:
Originally Posted by Gregg Bell
But I was reading about Luckybackup last night and it doesn't delete stuff (just be way of syncing what's at the source (my hardrive) and at the destination (my usb drive).) So delete something from the hard drive it's still on the usb drive and vice-versa.
Luckybackup is based on rsync, and rsync does allow to delete from the destination what's not on the source anymore. This is from the rsync man page:

Code:
--delete
              This  tells  rsync to delete extraneous files from the receiving
              side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but  only  for  the
              directories  that  are  being synchronized.  You must have asked
              rsync to send the whole directory (e.g. "dir" or "dir/") without
              using  a  wildcard  for  the directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*")
              since the wildcard is expanded by the shell and rsync thus  gets
              a  request  to  transfer individual files, not the files' parent
              directory.  Files that are excluded from the transfer  are  also
              excluded from being deleted unless you use the --delete-excluded
              option or mark the rules as only matching on  the  sending  side
              (see the include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
If my memory is right, there should be a checkbox on Luckybackup to enable that option. Unfortunately I don't have the program installed on this machine, so I cannot verify this myself.

Quote:
Quote:
Originally Posted by JeremyBoden
What happens when or if you need to do a restore?
You mean if I lose data? Not sure what you mean by 'doing a restore.'
That's when you copy your data, for whatever reason, from your backup medium back to their original location.

Quote:
Quote:
Originally Posted by JeremyBoden
When you sync two machines and then sync with a 3rd source (the USB stick) the effect depends upon the order in which you do the syncing.
So what would the proper order be?
I would synchronize the machine which is not up to date with the one which is up to date, and when they're finished I would synchronize the backup medium with one of them, just as you said above.

Last edited by Philip Lacroix; 05-19-2015 at 06:19 PM.
 
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Old 05-20-2015, 01:04 AM   #9
Gregg Bell
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Philip Lacroix View Post
Hi Gregg



Luckybackup is based on rsync, and rsync does allow to delete from the destination what's not on the source anymore. This is from the rsync man page:

Code:
--delete
              This  tells  rsync to delete extraneous files from the receiving
              side (ones that aren't on the sending side), but  only  for  the
              directories  that  are  being synchronized.  You must have asked
              rsync to send the whole directory (e.g. "dir" or "dir/") without
              using  a  wildcard  for  the directory's contents (e.g. "dir/*")
              since the wildcard is expanded by the shell and rsync thus  gets
              a  request  to  transfer individual files, not the files' parent
              directory.  Files that are excluded from the transfer  are  also
              excluded from being deleted unless you use the --delete-excluded
              option or mark the rules as only matching on  the  sending  side
              (see the include/exclude modifiers in the FILTER RULES section).
If my memory is right, there should be a checkbox on Luckybackup to enable that option. Unfortunately I don't have the program installed on this machine, so I cannot verify this myself.



That's when you copy your data, for whatever reason, from your backup medium back to their original location.



I would synchronize the machine which is not up to date with the one which is up to date, and when they're finished I would synchronize the backup medium with one of them, just as you said above.
Thanks Philip. I actually figured Luckbackup pretty good last night. (I'd read that passage you quoted.) How it would work is the chance of losing data at the destianation is if there is data there to begin with. So what it's saying is (if you check the box) that Luckbackup is going to do an exact clone of the source data and if there's something on the destination end not in sync with the source data, it will be deleted.

But for me I will do that exact clone in the begining (onto a blank usb flashdrive), and then for subsequent backups I would use the Luckybackup sync task, where there is no risk of data loss.

The one tricky thing, as I mentioned in an earlier post, will be that if I delete something either at the source or destination (after the intial clone of course) it will still be on the other end as the sync is encompassing whatever is on either end so when the snyc is completed the "deleted" file will still be there.

The solution as I see it is to delete the file from the source and destination, but as I said, that could get dicey in terms of remembering.

But, as I think about it, I will be doing the deleting from my Copy files. So the need to delete anything will not be an issue by the time I get to backing up with Luckybackup.

And I will go with the computer that is fully updated for the Luckybackup backup, as the Copy.com's syncing function often takes quite a while (to update the other computer).

Appreciate the help!
 
  


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