[Dave Rice]

I usually give them passwords because they are husband and wife  :yahoo:

[Dave Rice]

Give them both passwords.

By default Windows puts the last logged in user to the top. If that user has no password it will log them in automatically.

[Dave Rice]

This is probably why http://tinyurl.com/z4roh5o

[Dave Rice]

1m USB extention cables are dirt cheap Steve http://tinyurl.com/z5am45n

I plug them into the PC then the kb and mouse into them because, as you say, they are always just a bit short after navigating the desk – especially as I don’t drill holes.

For the one motherboard / case I have with no USB 3 (in the workshop) I use this cable just brought around the case from the rear ports and have the USB 3 sata dock permanently plugged into the other one.

Never thought about a cable tie, but I have some Self Adhesive Cable Tie Mounts so I may give that ago as I’m always getting my right foot tangled up.

[Dave Rice]

Todays Macrium laptop incremental image, 1.3 MB in <5 mins over wireless.

I only noticed because I had a notification pop up.

This is my everyday working laptop so likely to have more changes than most.

[Dave Rice]

Comparing a few years of Synology experience with half a lifetime of Windows experience I’ve learned 2 things.

1. Just how powerful these cheap Wintel HP servers are and just how far you can go with Windows 10 as an o/s to run them.
2. Just how easy it is to deploy a Synology and the breadth and ease of use of it’s available apps.

I haven’t changed my mind on the advice to buy Synology if starting from scratch and I still can’t emulate Cloud Station. They make it so easy to get the essentials up and running quickly but still with very powerful features.

I have been pleasantly surprised by just how far Windows has come and what you can do with (relatively) low power hardware, but of course it’s the availability of £10 Windows Pro that has made this viable. The full whack £140 pays for the difference between the entry level DS216se and the DS216Play capable of transcoding or a 4TB NAS HDD or 2 x 2TB.

[Dave Rice]

Thanks ED.

I intended to let them run for a week and then see where we are. I have a spare HDD knocking around to try some restores to.

I’ve decided to let ToDo have a go at the imaging too and we’ll see how it compares to Acronis. Just going to set that up now.

I cleaned up the drive first, so it’s 27 GB used on a 465 GB drive, 22 minutes to a 17 GB file on the USB2 drive. But I also set compression and encryption which I didn’t with Acronis.

Either way they are both quick enough for my needs and ToDo can deal with the 2 different jobs in the free edition. I see however that there’s a new version of Macrium Reflect coming on 26th Feb but I’m not sure it’ll ever be worth £48, especially with ToDo at £23 if I ever need more than the Free can do.

Let’s get a weeks worth done and some test restores.

[Dave Rice]

Back to backups.

The ToDo (full) file backup ran last night. 17 GB to a 15 GB in 17 mins to the USB2 external drive.

I wasn’t expecting spectacular compression as it’s mostly already compressed files like jpgs.

The incremental tasks run today / tonight.

[Dave Rice]

Before panic ensues it’s highly unlikely anyone here will be affected.

Here’s a list of CPU used by model http://tinyurl.com/hkydnol

6 models affected: RS2416+/RS2416RP+, RS815+/RS815RP+, DS2415+, DS1815+, DS1515+, DS415+,

These are all 4 or 8 bay models aimed at businesses needing large amounts of storage.

[Dave Rice]

That caused a buttock clenching moment. I have 2 x 8 bay Synology servers in a critical CCTV installation.

Checked and they are DX1813+ so not affected.

Before panic ensues it’s highly unlikely anyone here will be affected.

Here’s a list of CPU used by model http://tinyurl.com/hkydnol

6 models affected: RS2416+/RS2416RP+, RS815+/RS815RP+, DS2415+, DS1815+, DS1515+, DS415+,

These are all 4 or 8 bay models aimed at businesses needing large amounts of storage.

[Dave Rice]

My T420’s SSD is 216GB with 64.5GB used.

Acronis has just done another full backup (that’s how I scheduled it, incremental for the next 6 days) and did it in 2 hours 13 at 44GB and reported 52 Mbps (but task manager said 32 Mbps) over the wireless connection.

The server backed up the 435GB with 48GB used system drive to a 34.5GB file in 24 minutes to a USB 2 5,400 rpm HDD. IIRC it was about 250 Mbps but I didn’t look too closely. So you would expect it to fly on a USB 3 drive or over a Gigabit connection to a NAS.

[Dave Rice]

Bob, Old Timer needs a PS2 keyboard for his PS2 KVM, that’s what this is all about.

My argument is that at some stage the PS2 KVM is going to have to be retired, might as well be now.

The K250 being wireless wouldn’t be appropriate here any way, but on a general discussion about these things I do like Logitech kit and Microsoft do some very good stuff too.

I only own 1 wireless input device, the Logitech M557 mouse I use with the T420 laptop. I much prefer wired with desktops.

[Dave Rice]

Yes and so does ToDo. Both include a routine that will create the WinPE USB key for you.

I’m giving ToDo a go overnight for an encrytped backup of certain folders on the server to an external USB drive.

Meanwhile Glacier is still chugging away in the background.

What all this is showing me is just how slick the Synology apps are.

[Dave Rice]

Full Backup finished in just over 2 hours and it’s 2/3rd the size of the Windows one.

[Dave Rice]

How did you know this was on my To Do List?

I’m going to have a look at the freebie.

EDIT well it’s much faster than the Windows Backup. It’s shovelling data at 60Mbps on my N connection.

The disk pool on the server is getting a workout but it’s not slowed down the Glacier backup going in the opposite direction.

This might be a keeper, we’ll see how the daily incrementals go.

[Dave Rice]

That was more around the correct video resolution being detected and how to deal with it if it wasn’t.

However getting a USB keyboard working with a PS2 KVM was something I never cracked. I still keep an old PS2 k/b to deal with things like getting into the BIOS of older PCs.

I think the question here is when do you call time on anything? It’s the same as when cars start to become money pits, when do you say enough is enough.

At E-Buyer it’s going to cost about £30 for a new USB KVM (Aten CS22U) and something like the Logitech Desktop MK120 set or Microsoft Desktop 600 set. Then that’s the problem fixed once and for all.

[Dave Rice]

From my Santander Business Account: (Debit) CARD PAYMENT TO Amazon web services,1.45 USD, RATE 0,82/£ ON 03-01-2017  = £1.22

The official base rate on that date was 0.8170 GBP = 1 USD so I don’t feel too ripped off 🙂

It’s a heck of a lot cheaper and easier than any other way of doing off site “backup” but actually it’s a weekly archive against total disaster.

The daily backup of files that warrant that treatment (and I don’t include my music, photo or video collections in that category) are to an external USB drive.

[Dave Rice]

Well it’s hit the video folders and some big files, so it’s spending more time just shovelling parts of files onto the Ethernet rather than encrypting and compressing them. Temps are down to 33c core, 24c ambient and the HDDs by a few degrees. Have to say I’m impressed.

Most of the time it’s approaching the maximum 10Mbps upload speed of my FTTC connection, but could still have another 40+ hours to go until it’s shifted the remaining 95GB. But as I said that’s only an issue for the initial upload, subsequent jobs will be an incremental file / folder sync.

That’s why it’s best to get your folder structure right as any major reorganisation will be seen as a load of file deletion and additions. It’s not the $ cost, that will be trivial, it’s the time.

[Dave Rice]

I remember when it was £64 for 64mb, so it’s cheap.

[Dave Rice]

EDIT – perhaps a quick explanation of Amazon Glacier would help make sense of this post.

Amazon Glacier gives you storage at their data centres around the world. Speed isn’t an issue so it’s down to where you want (or may have to) store your data. There are 3 in the EU, Ireland, Frankfurt and now London. You choose a location in which you create a vault. That vault contains folders into which you can upload folders or files from your local PC. Your vaults are protected by a set of keys associated with your account. Most clients will let you compress data (saves time, space and $) and encrypt it. It’s called Glacier as it’s very slow to recover data from as it’s meant as an archive, not a general backup and restore app. Think offsite backup with the ability to keep all previous versions of files if you want. It’s extremely cheap, I’m currently archiving 2 small businesses plus all my own data and last months bill was $1.42, so just over a quid.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

I had a look at Arq but as I’m going down the skinflint route I’ve decided to give Fast Glacier a go. It’s extremely easy to copy a folder to a vault but it makes you realise just how good the Synology client is.

There is no way to schedule a task in Fast Glacier but there is a folder sync tool with a command line option. Once the vault has been populated I’ll try that out with a small test vault and if I can get my head around it the Windows task scheduler should be all I need.

Also encryption and / or compression aren’t turned on by default and you have to create rules. These are very flexible and can be at region, vault, folder or file level.

So it’s free and powerful but can be complex if you’re new to Glacier. It’s also way faster than the Synology but that is only an issue when you create a large vault. After that each job is incremental so quick.

Well it’s been at it over an hour compressing and encrypting, working the CPU and this shows how cool it stays. Ambient is the temp at the fan exhaust not the room. That’s at about 12C (unheated integral garage). The Turion is good for up to 95C and 25 watt TDP.

HD 5 is the external USB drive, 0 s the system drive and 1-3 are the parity pool where the data is coming from.

[Author]

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