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I tried to sync for several years and it never worked. I tried everything. Eventually we just moved to using one computer and sharing it. Its not healthy to spe

by batou 11y ago

I tried to sync for several years and it never worked. I tried everything. Eventually we just moved to using one computer and sharing it. Its not healthy to spend all the time on it anyway. Having a pooled machine has a number of social benefits as well. So we have a single laptop, three smartphones (my oldest daughter has one as well) and they're all handed in weekly to me for data extraction and archival. The laptop is a Lenovo X201 so it can go anywhere and we have a docking station and full desktop setup if you need anything a little more healthy to use.

walterbell 11y ago
Did you consider something like a Synology NAS, which has free mobile apps for syncing?
- batou 11y ago
  Yes. I had one. It died suddenly and left me with a £400 bill for a new one. Fortunately I backed up the NAS to an external disk but from this and other experiences, I've come to a general rule: the reliability of a backup system is inversely proportional to the number of moving parts Hence why I use beyond compare to manually sync files to two physical mediums from the master copy on my laptop. One encrypted USB stick I carry on me at all times and one hard disk that lives in a fire safe.
  - oracuk 11y ago
    Moving hard disks back and forth to my fire safe is a pain. A hardened usb disk that is itself fire-rated. That I would buy.
    - batou 11y ago
      You would need one with the mass of a fire safe which somewhat nullifies the point.
    - icebraining 11y ago
      Some companies sell fire-safe & waterproof HD enclosures which you can use without moving the disks.
    - JosephRedfern 11y ago
      How about a fire-safe with a female USB port on the outside, and a male USB port on the inside - both connected? That would be cool.
    - TheLoneWolfling 11y ago
      It's hard to make anything small fire-rated, due to thermal inertia (or rather, the lack thereof). I'm surprised I haven't seen a NAS with the hard drive enclosure fire-rated.

by batou 11y ago

walterbell 11y ago

Did you consider something like a Synology NAS, which has free mobile apps for syncing?

batou 11y ago
Yes. I had one. It died suddenly and left me with a £400 bill for a new one. Fortunately I backed up the NAS to an external disk but from this and other experiences, I've come to a general rule: the reliability of a backup system is inversely proportional to the number of moving parts Hence why I use beyond compare to manually sync files to two physical mediums from the master copy on my laptop. One encrypted USB stick I carry on me at all times and one hard disk that lives in a fire safe.
- oracuk 11y ago
  Moving hard disks back and forth to my fire safe is a pain. A hardened usb disk that is itself fire-rated. That I would buy.
  - batou 11y ago
    You would need one with the mass of a fire safe which somewhat nullifies the point.
  - icebraining 11y ago
    Some companies sell fire-safe & waterproof HD enclosures which you can use without moving the disks.
  - JosephRedfern 11y ago
    How about a fire-safe with a female USB port on the outside, and a male USB port on the inside - both connected? That would be cool.
  - TheLoneWolfling 11y ago
    It's hard to make anything small fire-rated, due to thermal inertia (or rather, the lack thereof). I'm surprised I haven't seen a NAS with the hard drive enclosure fire-rated.