Showing posts with label backup software. Show all posts
Showing posts with label backup software. Show all posts

Saturday, 4 May 2013

How to use CrashPlan but not suffer from using so much RAM memory

I use CrashPlan to backup my data as mentioned in a previous article – it’s free for local backups and for sharing HDD space using multiple friends’ HDD space.  I have noticed that the RAM usage goes up in proportion to the number of files that you have selected to backup – even during the time when the backups are disabled.  imageMy CrashPlan settings are set to backup only during the hours that I’m not working on my PC and when I’m connected to my home network (where my external HDD is connected).  I’m also not working at those times so when CrashPlan is accessing the HDD it doesn’t slow down my PC.
The settings to limit the time that CrashPlan does the backups can be found in the CrashPlan Desktop interface under “Settings->Backup->Between Specified Times”.  I have selected From 18:00 to 08:00 and ticked each day – so that backups only happen at night daily.
image
I noticed that even when the backup was disabled, the CrashPlanService was using a lot of RAM memory (over 500MB) – and I found my PC swapping to disc all the time – which was slowing my PC down – a bit of a waste!  So, I found a way to create a schedule that stopped the CrashPlanService just after 08h00 and start it again just before 18h00.

Creating a scheduled task to kill the service:
Open the “Control Panel->Administrative Tools-> Task Scheduler” 
Click into “Microsoft->Windows”: 
imageClick on “Create Task”:
imageEnter name: “Turn OFF CrashPlan service”, under “Triggers” tab:
imageUnder “Actions” tab: enter Program to run:  C:\Windows\System32\taskkill.exe
and under “Add arguments” enter:    /IM CrashPlanService.exe /F
imageClick OK to save the scheduled task.


Creating a scheduled task to start the service:
Click on “Create Task”:
imageEnter name: “Turn ON CrashPlan service”, under “Triggers” tab:
imageUnder “Actions” tab: enter Program to run:    C:\Windows\System32\net.exe
and under “Add arguments” enter:    start CrashPlanService
image

Click OK to save the scheduled task.

Your tasks list should look like this:
image
You can test the tasks by right clicking the task and selecting “Run”:
image 

With thanks to Scott Granneman for his blog that describes the steps to do this in Linux.

Sunday, 26 April 2009

Backup your web site using ftp, with archive history and rsync (for free for home use)

I've been looking for a way to automatically backup my web site to my local PC using tools that are free, bandwidth friendly, keep revision history (just in case), easy to use, and can be scripted... I think I've found a system that works: Areca Backup with NetDrive

Areca Backup is a (SourceForge) file backup (with revision management) software that supports incremental, image and delta backup on local drives or remote FTP servers. It also allows you to browse your backups and navigate among different versions of the files contained in your archives.

Areca uses an algorithm which is similar to rsync to detect and handle modified parts of your files. This is where the bandwidth savings come in.... if a large file has been changed, only the modified part of the file is transferred from the server to your PC - it's faster and lighter on bandwidth usage.

But, although Areca can send your backup files to an ftp server for safe storage, I couldn't find a way of making it fetch the files from an ftp server.... until now that is.
I tried various backup programs, but all of them had the same problem - it couldn't have an ftp folder as the source (only the destination).

That's when I found NetDrive: NetDrive mounts remote storage as a local (mapped) hard drive on your PC, allows data transfer using drag and drop files in Windows Explorer, and mounts a mapped drive drive automatically when Windows starts.
With NetDrive, managing your remote FTP and WebDAV servers is as easy as managing any file folders on your PC.
Once you mount the local drive, you don't need to run an application or an FTP client interface.

See here for more of NetDrive's features: http://www.netdrive.net/features.html

NetDrive is a bit slower than TotalCommander’s ftp feature…. but at least it works! So, I’ll use TotalCommander to browse and do file operations, but NetDrive to map a drive for the backup+archive app to use.

Areca can handle the following types of backups:
Full Backup: When a full backup is performed, ALL files are stored in your archive (whether they have been modified or not).
Incremental backup: When an incremental backup is performed, only the files which have been modified since the last backup are stored in your archive.
Differential backup: When a differential backup is performed, only the files which have been modified since the last FULL backup are stored in your archive.

See here for more Areca info:

General info: http://areca.sourceforge.net/ and http://www.softpedia.com/get/System/Back-Up-and-Recovery/Areca-Backup.shtml
Tutorial: http://areca.sourceforge.net/tutorial.php
FAQ: http://areca.sourceforge.net/faq.php


Download Areca Backup from here [5MB, needs Java v1.4.2 or later 15MB]: http://sourceforge.net/project/showfiles.php?group_id=171505&package_id=196003&release_id=677438
Date: 22 April 2009: Areca 7.1 has been released

Download NetDrive from here [8MB]: http://www.netdrive.net/download.html (name and email address is required)

Other product combinations that I looked at (most not free):
VersionBackup: http://www.versionbackup.eu/properties.html
Comparison of Microsoft Sync Toy and RoboCopy: http://ipggi.wordpress.com/2008/01/21/synctoy-the-gui-alternative-to-robocopy/
TitanBackup with GoodSync: http://www.titanbackup.com/features.html http://www.goodsync.com/features.html
WebDrive: http://www.webdrive.com/products/webdrive/index.html



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