- Dec 28, 2006
- 23
- 0
- 18,510
Hello all. First of all I apologize if this should have been posted somewhere else. Please move this if it is in the wrong area. And if TomsHardware isn't the best place for this kind of question, please help me out and point me to the best forum/site possible.
I am trying to figure out the best method to keep my important files backed up. The number one priority is that the backup process has to be as automated as possible. Otherwise, this will never actually happen on my wife's laptop 8 ).
Forgive me if I sound foolish, but I have lofty ideas of what would be ideal. We have 3 computers in my house: a Windows desktop, a Windows laptop, and a MAC laptop. Between the three, I want to keep music, pictures, video, and important documents somewhat synced and backed up. Ultimately I was thinking of getting two 2TB external hard drives, connecting them to the desktop, and having all of the computers access these drives (through the network) for backup purposes.
I am envisioning some sort of software that will once a day take files from the three computers and throw them on the two backup drives only if there isn't already a copy on the backup or if the file exists but it has been modified (then I'd want both files on the backup and I'd handle deleting outdated revisions). I'd really like the backup software to be able to place these files in subfolders based on the create or modify date. So all pictures from 2006 would end up in "./Pictures/2006" on the backup drive and etc. Is this reasonable or even possible?
The biggest pain will be the pictures I think. I hope to actually do some simple editing like tagging or renaming. I would plan to do this on the backup drives, but then any of the 3 computers that contained the original file would just reload the original file onto the backup on the next push, correct? I'm trying to figure out a system where I don't have duplicates. I understand that this may be inevitable though. I could simple manually move edited files to a different folder on the backup and simply accept the fact that there will be pre-edited duplicates (but if these pre-edited files exist on all 3 computers, I only want one copy to be pushed to the backup!).
Sorry that this is a bit scatter brained and long winded. Please let me know if you guys have any ideas. I'm open to suggestions as long as the process will be fairly automated. Thanks!!
Stefan
I am trying to figure out the best method to keep my important files backed up. The number one priority is that the backup process has to be as automated as possible. Otherwise, this will never actually happen on my wife's laptop 8 ).
Forgive me if I sound foolish, but I have lofty ideas of what would be ideal. We have 3 computers in my house: a Windows desktop, a Windows laptop, and a MAC laptop. Between the three, I want to keep music, pictures, video, and important documents somewhat synced and backed up. Ultimately I was thinking of getting two 2TB external hard drives, connecting them to the desktop, and having all of the computers access these drives (through the network) for backup purposes.
I am envisioning some sort of software that will once a day take files from the three computers and throw them on the two backup drives only if there isn't already a copy on the backup or if the file exists but it has been modified (then I'd want both files on the backup and I'd handle deleting outdated revisions). I'd really like the backup software to be able to place these files in subfolders based on the create or modify date. So all pictures from 2006 would end up in "./Pictures/2006" on the backup drive and etc. Is this reasonable or even possible?
The biggest pain will be the pictures I think. I hope to actually do some simple editing like tagging or renaming. I would plan to do this on the backup drives, but then any of the 3 computers that contained the original file would just reload the original file onto the backup on the next push, correct? I'm trying to figure out a system where I don't have duplicates. I understand that this may be inevitable though. I could simple manually move edited files to a different folder on the backup and simply accept the fact that there will be pre-edited duplicates (but if these pre-edited files exist on all 3 computers, I only want one copy to be pushed to the backup!).
Sorry that this is a bit scatter brained and long winded. Please let me know if you guys have any ideas. I'm open to suggestions as long as the process will be fairly automated. Thanks!!
Stefan
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