Backups - need special actions

[steveshank]

Like many of you I backup all my data to an external hard drive and also backup online. If you do either, and you aren't cleverer than I, then you might be in for a surprise.

All my backups were setup to copy everything from my data stores to the backup device (external or online). None of my backups ever DELETED files. If I accidentally deleted a file from my computer, I didn't want it deleted from the backup. I backup so they'll be there.

This isn't the way you want to do some Intellect mail folders! The Inbox, sent, trash, spam and outbox need to be handled differently.

1. Intellect saves each email as a file,
2. we tend to empty spam and trash, and move inbox and sent items into archives

This means that if we don't delete files from the backup then the backup of those folders will grow forever! Over the years, any email that was in any of those folders when the backup occurred will remain forever. This produces surprising results when you get a new computer and copy your backup to the new computer. It also means that your backups have duplicate copies of everything you moved into an archive. Spendy for online storage.

Most backup programs (I use mysecurebackup for online and 2nd copy for external drive) allow you to setup another profile to backup those folders with deletion of removed files and to exclude those folders from your normal backup profile(s).

[rbendett]

If you use a program such as GoodSync you can choose settings that will do this for you, including saving the deleted files in a special folder created by GoodSync, if desired, so they can all be seen in one place if needed. With the proper options selected GoodSync will handle the Intellect mail folders correctly.

[steveshank]

This is exactly what I meant. If I was using Goodsync (or the other programs), I'd have setup backup or one way syncing for all my stuff, including my accounting, evernotes, treepad, roboform passwords, yada yada yada, since I was just trying to backup everything, not synchronize. I hadn't realized that I needed to do a two way sync (in goodsync language, 2nd copy calls it an exact copy) for 4 or 5 email folders.

For example, I synchronize my Evernotes and Intellect between my notebook and desktop computers. But still back them up along with all the stuff I don't synchronize.