A place to discuss Backup software and online services
You are not signed in.
Hey everyone. I have got an IDrive subscription and finally worked out how to sync specific folders on my PC to my IDrive account. I have also backed up my external HD. What I want to know is, can I use the sync function within my backup folder? Basically, when I move stuff from my PC to the external HD, will that then do the same within my IDrive account? I'm hoping it will do it automatically. I know there is a "backup now" option within the IDrive app and it has my External HD in the list but I'm afraid to click it in case it starts to backup the whole external HD again as it took around 3 days to do originally. Sorry if this is a complete noob question but I'd rather make sure before I do anything. Thanks.
Offline
alkemy007 wrote:
when I move stuff from my PC to the external HD, will that then do the same within my IDrive account?
Not exactly.
You have used Backup to copy certain files into your IDrive account. When you make subsequent backups (either with Backup Now or scheduled), the IDrive application will perform incremental backups of your selections. If a file has changed, it'll make a new version of that file and retain up to previous 10 versions. If you have new files, they will be backed up as new files. Anything you delete locally will remain on your backup - this is what you want - protection from potential accidental deletion.
Sync is an entirely different feature. Files are placed in a particular folder on your computer which are then synchronized with IDrive. If you have other computers & devices connected to your IDrive account, these will receive copies of the files. If you delete any files, they will be removed from your IDrive Sync account and all other computers & devices.
If you really want to synchronize your Backup files with your computer, IDrive to provide an Archive Cleanup option. This could be run after you have moved files between drives and it will remove files from your IDrive account if they have been removed from your local disk. I would urge caution with this feature though, because it will wipe out your file versions and may remove stuff you were archiving.
Offline
Ah, so say I have 1TB of my external HD backed up with IDrive and say, 2 weeks later I add a load of files (say, another 20GB worth of audio files) to my external HD, pressing backup now will backup my whole 1TB external HD again as well as the new files? If that is the case, I'm probably best just making a note of the new files I have added to the external HD then selecting ONLY them particular files when choosing backup now.
Am I on the right track? Thanks for your help by the way, appreciated.
Offline
Ah great, so just add the new files, choose backup now and I'm golden. Thanks a lot, you've been a great help.
Offline
You may find that Continuous Data Protection is switched on and IDrive is already backing up your changed files!
If you want totally manual control of your backups you should switch this feature off.
Using CDP and/or a daily schedule would be the safest way to operate your backup. If you occasionally move files from your local disk to your external disk, you could later remove the duplicates from your IDrive account in the Restore tab of the IDrive application (after you have verified they've been backed up from your external disk). You'll still have the issue with the loss of versions for those files.
Offline
I normally backup in chunks. It's mainly for audio files, large WAV files etc. So, what I think I'll do, is do a weekly backup and just check the folder where the files will be going to on my external HD so I don't have to wait for it to scan past all the rest.
Offline