Backing up, a good idea?

[heymananoobyhere]

Hello everybody I'm completely new here and have never done anything with BitTorrent Sync before.

But I thought of using it for several things:

• Backup photos from my Ubuntu pc to my Windows pc
  
• Sync my documents over several pc's
  
• Sync my music from my pc to my android phone
  

This is all possible right? (I know the android app isn't here yet)

But I got a concern: What if one of my pc's hard drive crashes and the files get corrupt, will that effect and thus screw up the files on the other pc syncing with it? (or maybe even my phone?)

I did hear and read stories about failing hard drives around me, some people lost all of their data... It would be even worse if that would also ruin the other devices.

[heymananoobyhere]

Bump. I guess I need a hard drive expert for this question?

[Zbig]

You've just provided one of the many valid reasons why data synchronization shouldn't be confused with data backup. BTSync is a great and exciting data synchronization software but what you need for backing up your data is a dedicated backup solution. I, for one, use CrashPlan.

[Camaban]

Hello everybody I'm completely new here and have never done anything with BitTorrent Sync before.

But I thought of using it for several things:

• Backup photos from my Ubuntu pc to my Windows pc
  
• Sync my documents over several pc's
  
• Sync my music from my pc to my android phone
  

This is all possible right? (I know the android app isn't here yet)

But I got a concern: What if one of my pc's hard drive crashes and the files get corrupt, will that effect and thus screw up the files on the other pc syncing with it? (or maybe even my phone?)

I did hear and read stories about failing hard drives around me, some people lost all of their data... It would be even worse if that would also ruin the other devices.

Normally when a hard drive crashes, you don't get changed parts of files, but the file itself (or the entire drive) is completely unreadable/unusable.

Look up CRC to find why this is unlikely to be a problem for anyone.

But as Zbig says, this isn't a data backup solution, it's a synchronisation solution. It might be good enough for the vast majority of people's requirements, but they're still very different things. You could also have a look at what version control software could be used with this.

[heymananoobyhere]

You've just provided one of the many valid reasons why data synchronization shouldn't be confused with data backup. BTSync is a great and exciting data synchronization software but what you need for backing up your data is a dedicated backup solution. I, for one, use CrashPlan.

So you say that the scenario I sketched can really happen?

Normally when a hard drive crashes, you don't get changed parts of files, but the file itself (or the entire drive) is completely unreadable/unusable.

Look up CRC to find why this is unlikely to be a problem for anyone.

But as Zbig says, this isn't a data backup solution, it's a synchronisation solution. It might be good enough for the vast majority of people's requirements, but they're still very different things. You could also have a look at what version control software could be used with this.

What is CRC?

If I understand you correctly you agree with Zbig that I'd better off with a real backup solution. But that the vast majority of users like me can still use BTS for backing up a few folders and that the scenario I sketched won't hurt any files on other hard drives?

[Camaban]

What is CRC?

If I understand you correctly you agree with Zbig that I'd better off with a real backup solution. But that the vast majority of users like me can still use BTS for backing up a few folders and that the scenario I sketched won't hurt any files on other hard drives?

Cyclic Redundancy Check. It's worth reading up on. Long story short, it allows for detection of accidental damage. It's one of the reasons you're able to transfer a multi gigabyte file from one side of the planet to the other over dialup apparently flawlessly.

And yes. There might be lots of other things that could cause dodgy outcomes (Check your .SyncTrash folder if you think this has happened) as this IS alpha software, but something like physical hard drive corruption is not one of them.

[heymananoobyhere]

I think I might give it a shot... syncing my photos to 2nd pc that acts like a backup.

[Camaban]

Similar to a backup.

A backup also takes user error, etc into account. Ideally has versioning, etc. Anything that immediately replicates any mistakes isn't seen as a backup.

However, for what you're after (Or I'm after, for that matter) I doubt you care about the technicalities

[affinity]

I think I might give it a shot... syncing my photos to 2nd pc that acts like a backup.

Duplicate it on the other machine, carefully to make sure it is all good.

BTSync is a great syncing tool, but it is not a backup tool; use it wisely and you'll be able to get the benefits of both sync and backup, just think about it and make sure you cover your bases properly.

[Xanza]

• Backup photos from my Ubuntu pc to my Windows pc | NO
  
• Sync my documents over several pc's | YES
  
• Sync my music from my pc to my android phone | YES
  

​As stated before, BTSync is NOT a backup solution, and should not be used as one. It's meant to be a Sync client -- hence the name. However, for Syncing your documents, and music, this is pretty much a perfect solution.