Sync whole home folder as backup?

[jpc82]

I was wondering if anyone had experience with this and could help. I was planning to setup a new sync at my parents house to backup thier computer to my house. I wanted to do thier whole home folder on a windows 7 machine. I set it up and let it index the files, but it never seemed to stop. I think what was happeneing based on the history is it would put it's control files in the AppData folder, but then the btsync would see that file, and index it, creating a new file, it would then index that new file and create another new file. It seemed to just do this over and over. Is what I am thinking correct

Is what I am thinking a bad idea, or am I just not implementing it properly?

[GreatMarko]

Is what I am thinking a bad idea, or am I just not implementing it properly?

You would need to exclude your %AppData%/Roaming/BitTorrent Sync folder from the sync in order to prevent the race condition you're experiencing. You can use .SyncIgnore to do this

If you're an advanced Windows user familiar with "Directory Junctions", you may also be interested in this thread

...although I'd only recommend that if you've come across symlinks or directory junctions before, and know exactly how they work and what you're doing!

[jpc82]

Thanks so much for the direction and the link. I am trying the indexing now to see if I setup the ignore file correctly.

[Zbig]

jpc82, you're not using the right tool for the job. Data synchronization and backup are two different things. What if your parents just delete their files accidentally or their system gets infected and does the same? BTSync will just dutifully replicate all the changes, intended or not, to your PC. Granted, you could always just cross your fingers and take a dive in the BTSync Trash folder but what you really need is a proper backup solution like CrashPlan. You can back your parents' stuff up either to the cloud (for a fee) or to your own PC (for free), with proper versioning and all. Don't get me wrong, I'm really excited about BTSync and looking forward to use it in various scenarios but it's a data sharing and replication tool, not a backup solution.

[jpc82]

Completly understand, thats why on my side I then do snapshots of the data so we can recover old files. Also at their place I have Windows backup which supports versions going to an extrnal drive.

This is just the off site backup that is always part of a good back plan if there is a fire/theft/....

While, BTSync it self isn't a backup solution (could be when they add versioning, which they say they may), it can be used as part of a backup solution.

[Zbig]

CrasPlan* gives you both on-site and off-site backup, encryption, deduplication and versioning in one maintenance-less package. There's no need to rediscover the wheel unless you're dead set on rolling your own backup system Keep in mind though, that most probably you'll end up with a solution inferior to the one professionally developed especially with this goal in mind.

*)I'm not affiliated with them in any way; just a happy user.

[andrewbootlegger]

If you're using windows, then I'd suggest something like Norton Ghost. It makes incremental backups, so if you become infected with a virus you can simply restore to a backup before the infection.