Simplistic PC File Mirroring

Simplisticly Mirroring Windows Files To A Unix Server

Scenario: I have a laptop that I am using as my primary workstation. If something happens to that laptop, it would be nice if I didn't irrevocably lose all those files.

Solution: I have access to a linux server which is being backed up to tape by an external process; this is the perfect place to save my laptop data.

I have installed cygwin with the rsync and rsh packages. My cygwin environment has a shell script:

$ cat bin/saveRass
#!/bin/bash
cd /cygdrive/c/Documents\ and\ Settings/dave/My\ Documents
rsync -rvWuz --stats --progress * dave@server:/home/dave/syncbase/dave

This is rsync on cygwin for windows: IT IS SLOW. 12GB took an hour to initially synchronize. Since then only changes are sent up to the server and it has been much, much faster (null changes happen in about 20 seconds).

Running this regularly ensures that a copy of my My Documents folder gets copied up to the server. You could keep a synchronized copy by adding the --delete flag to the rsync command; however I like to have the ability to recover files I have "accidentally" deleted and only use the --delete flag occasionally (such as during server space crunchs or after a large directory reorganization).

I also ensure that other data is accessed from remote servers on demand; ie my mail and calendaring come from an Exchange server. This way I can lose the laptop (or the hard disk) and not lose everything I've ever done.