How can I automatically backup my laptop?

November 16, 2005 7:25 AM

I've a dual boot windows/linux laptop which is periodically attached to a novell network. Does anyone know of a utility to copy files from a drive on a laptop to the network, where they'll get backed up, without me having to remember to do it?
posted by handee to computers & internet (7 comments total)

I don't specifically know about working with novell networks, but it sounds like a scheduling utility and rsync would be a solution.
posted by odinsdream at 7:28 AM on November 16, 2005

Windows XP has Synchronize (Start, Progs, Acc, Synchronize) and the Briefcase (rightclick on the desktop or other folder, choose, new, briefcase).

Novell.com has CoolTools, where there are many apps not written at Novell. Some are great; others not so much, but there could be a sync utility there.
posted by theora55 at 8:11 AM on November 16, 2005

Theres a new tool from Microsoft called Synctoy - which will do what you want - but I think, without he 'automatically' clause...I use this a lot, and find it vey useful to backup 'stuff' to a portable hard-drive, but it may as well be a network mapped drive.
posted by mattr at 8:19 AM on November 16, 2005

Depending on just how much of a Novell shop you're at, iFolder would fit the bill. Do you know if they're running SLES/OES there, or is it a Windows Netware setup?

Disclaimer: I work for SUSE/Novell
posted by cmonkey at 9:02 AM on November 16, 2005

cron?
posted by ori at 9:05 AM on November 16, 2005

I've used SyncToy, iFolder, etc., and the best I've found has actually been rdiff-backup running on linux (with cron, as ori mentioned) and in windows with cygwin.
You get incremental backups- you can revert to older versions of any file- and you can run it manually as well if needed- or perhaps at logout time?
posted by wzcx at 12:46 PM on November 16, 2005

I'd recommend SyncToy (mentioned earlier), coupled with Scheduled Tasks (SyncToy shows you how to schedule your sync's).

Also, if you know you need to synchronize before you shut down, every time, there's a handy utility called Last Chance That will run a program every time you shutdown. This would be VERY handy, you would NEVER shut down without having all of your files sync'd
posted by hatsix at 7:29 PM on November 16, 2005