Windows xp with ssh server

ok, i have a question. I have at my parents place a windows xp SP3 machine running a ssh server. I use bitvise server with private keys. I live 3 hours away from them. the xp machine has a TB ssd in it.

I have been referred to try out duplicacy for my needs but im not sure if it will work.

i have a windows 10 laptop and a windows 10 desktop. I need to backup a folder on my laptop called “school folder” to the xp machine. Windows autoback up is terrible and i was thinking that duplicacy could be the option i need? does duplicacy keep files up to date automatically? IE, a file or folder is created in my “school folder” does duplicacy see this and then back it up?

oh, i should mention that i have sftp drive which allows me to mount the windows xp drive in my windows 10 desktop. It basically maps a network drive over ssh.
Thanks

You don’t need to map the drive, Duplicacy supports backup to sftp target.

You can configure duplicacy to backup the fielder periodically, say, every 15 minutes. Only changes will be uploaded so the process is very quick. Duplicacy can use VSS, and backup even open files.

This is literally what duplicacy and pretty much any other decent backup tool is designed to do.

does duplicacy keep files up to date automatically?

Duplicacy is a backup tool. It creates a versioned history of your data. You can restore your files to the state at any point in the past. In this context “up to date” is ambiguous. This is probably more appropriate in the context of sync tools, that replicate state of local files to remote host. This is however not a backup. You can search “sync vs backup”.

So the answer to your question is yes, it will work.

I, however, would recommend against doing this (backup to SSD on remote windows XP machine) for reliability, availability, resilience, and durability reasons. Instead, pay for commercial cloud storage , such as Storj, Backblaze or Wasabi. It costs under $0.004/GB/month, and comes with guarantees that xp machine at parents house can’t even begin to approach. Duplicacy supports all aforementioned providers and more.

It’s tempting to try and save $3/month by concocting a solution from existing twigs and sap, but think how much will losing data cost you, times probability of this event. Likely somewhat larger amount. It’s best to do it right.

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i do have cloud storage for all my very important stuff:)My school has a 1 TB onedrive account i have access to thats free for me:)

This would be simply for redundancy, learning, and experimentation.

I assume i install the duplicacy onto my windows 10 machine and then point it to the ssh server?

thanks

i tried using the auto backup in windows 10 and it SUCKS so bad. only copied the original files and any new files or folders, it never updated them or copied them over. completely pointless as a backup solution

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Got it, perfect!

Not sure about the former but middle and latter —by all means :slight_smile:

Yes. Run the installer as administrator, and install it for all users, as a service. This will allow duplicacy to use VSS and create more consistent in time snapshots of your data. I’m not sure if the tray icon will work when it’s installed as a service. I remember there were some recent threads about this.

On windows it can be confusing because duplicacy can also be installed for the current user only, in which case the VSS won’t work, but tray icon will.

I don’t use duplicacy web gui on windows so I cannot be of any help beyon this tidbit that I remember :). You can search the forum for more windows specific details.

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yeah, i guess redundancy might be a stretch. its more like worst case scenario type of thing haha. I at least potentially have a backup in case something does go wrong with onedrive. Highly unlikely but who knows. For sure learning though.

Ok, i will try it out and see what happens. I am also adding two more PC’s to the mix, but im not sure if i will run linux or xp on them. If anything, maybe a light weight ubuntu. I used to be a nix server admin about 15 years ago, but i went back to school for aerospace and biomed engineering so its been a fat minute since i have used linux.

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XP has been eol long time ago, I would not use it. Linux on the other hand in the last 15 years became quite usable. Modern Fedora, and Ubuntu, both all fairly decent user friendly oses. I’m still more of a macOS/FreeBSD guy, but as a desktop on a non-apple hardware I would use fedora myself. Definitely not windows. Unless for gaming. The only excuse.

This is really awesome!

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yeah, xp had its EOL in 2014ish? i think. Still my favorite OS of all time haha. it just worked.

I might use LXLE ubuntu. its older hardware so its gotta be a lighter weight 64 bit system and its only being used as storage anyway. I still like having a GUI so it wont be a full NAS, but close enough haha.

I have been using syncthing for a few months now and that is a nifty piece of software.

aerospace school has been freakin tough to say the least. I am in my last classes. Took me 10 years to get here because i had 3 or 4 years of math makeup to do before i could even apply for the ASSOCIATES of PRE engineering which requires calc 1 haha. I had 6 math classes to makeup since it had been close to 10 or 11 years since highschool at the time.

I originally did a network engineering degree with cyber security. Not against that at all, but it was not my passion. Used to be CCNP and RHCT but that was in 2008 haha.

this duplicacy sounds like it will be a nice fit into my network and toying around with it.