Recommendations for external hard drive?

Scrivener Scrivener for macOS
21

Okay, I’ve been thinking on this, and I have one more question–Amber? Antony, you could probably tell me this too. ( I should just experiment and figure it out but I don’t want to lose anything or screw anything up. )

Say I am working on my trusty old desktop and I backup my “About My Dog” to Dropbox and then the cloud. So its pathway would be

/Users/mollysmum/Dropbox/Scrivener Stuff/About My Dog [12/11/08 4/30 PM].scriv (DropBox smarly adds the date and time for people just like me.)

Then I go off on my merry way–on a cruise, say–with my new laptop, onto which I have newly downloaded Scrivener. I take time away from the beach boys and the mai-tais to fetch About My Dog and brilliantly revise it. I backup the revised version to DropBox and off it goes to the cloud.

I get home and put the laptop away with the suitcases. The new, improved version has found its way down from the cloud into my Dropbox file on my desktop HD. So I open it up in Scriv, and Scriv’s pathway is something like

/Users/mollysmum/Dropbox/Scrivener Stuff/About My Dog [12/15/08 2/30 AM].scriv

I work away on this version and then decide to save it as my working copy. NOT back it up, save it. So if I save it as

/Users/mollysmum/Documents/About My Dog.scriv

which is the pathway of the ORIGINAL file I worked on way back when, will it then overwrite the original file? So I am back to square one but new and improved? Which is what I want, rather than having a hundred different versions and pathways of About My Dog floating around, as I am confused enough about where I put down my cup of tea as it is.

Sorry about all the hypotheticals, but I think I am getting there. :confused:

22

Someone else will be along to give you a better answer, but briefly:

  1. It is actually scrivener adding the date in backup to, not dropbox.

  2. I think your workflow is correct but I usually explicitly move the scrivener project in finder out of the dropbox folder before editing, so that:
    A) as I work on the text files, dropbox doesn’t keep uploading my changes to the cloud as I work. This has tbe potential to have corrupt half-states in the cloud.
    B) I prefer to have the file where I want it before I work, rather than saving over existing projects from within scrivener. I just feel like I am less likely tomake a mistake that way.

23

Huh. This is interesting, Matt. You mean that Dropbox is constantly peering over my shoulder in Scrivener and making changes as I make them myself, and not just paying attention when I choose “Backup to” from the Scrivener file options?

I am feeling a little paranoid now. :open_mouth:

24

Only if the UNCOMPRESSED project you are working on is in your dropbox folder. This is something you should avoid.

Make sense?

25

You mean “not zipped up”? :confused:
You need to use words of one syllable with me, Jason. I am the world’s sorriest luddite.

26

Right. Not zipped. The idea is that you let drop box keep the zipped copies. when you want to work on a project you copy it to a non-dropbox folder, un-zip it, then work on it there. Once you are done, you zip it (back it up in scriv) then move the zip back into the drop box folder.

I hope that makes sense.

27

A congenital embracer of, ‘anything thats going, especially if its free’, like you…A LUDITE!!!
Gerrofff widdyaaa!! :smiling_imp:
You need a drink. Here get this down y` neck. :wink:
Vic
06530_t.jpg

28

vic-k you are a true Christmas angel. How did you know? That’s exactly what I need at this point. My head is spinning. One copy of my magnum opus is enough to have to wrestle with. Now at least I will have a good excuse for seeing double. Or triple. Or quadruple…as the case may be.

(You DID send a whole case, didn’t you??)

29

I would second what Matt and Jaysen have said. I’ve now turned to doing that for Scrivener – only putting the Zipped back-ups in DropBox – because I did have a small glitch when the network in my favourite coffee-shop went down without my noticing, in the middle of it updating a .scriv. That is because if you put a live .scriv that you’re editing in there and it is saving every time you stop typing for a couple of seconds, DropBox will try and update. Normally the save and updating is very quick, but it can lead to problems.

On the other hand, for apps that only save when you tell them to, like Tables for instance, which I need on both the MBP and MBA, the live file for those is in DropBox, because it’s only going to update when I have saved the file … no auto saving. And on the other hand, Tables doesn’t have the inbuilt zipped back-up facility of Scrivener. But for apps like Tables, you want to be careful not save your file in the DropBox on your computer and then switch it off before DropBox has had time to finish the upload.

Mark

30

M&M (can I call you that?) please ignore the rest of this post unless you want to look like me. Given the gender implied by the second ‘M’ I expect that you have distinct reasons for not wanting a beard (which I have when my head has not exploded). But I was actually referring to my online appearance over there -->

It seems to me that there are a lot of folks doing all this copying manually. While not a drop box users I do segregate my Time Machine files to a subset of my home dir to avoid partial project save (other tools that scriv but including scriv). Is there a need for a simple tool to automate local dir sync? I have a few rsync scripts that I use (I am sure AmberV has about 1 billion times better scripts than me) but between automator and shell it wouldn’t be rocket science to make something useable “by the masses” (I am thinking of you M&M [notice that I assume you are like all the members of your implied gender in that you did not head my warning]). Basically just a wrapper to
rsync -av --delete $src $dest

While I haven’t looked there must be a few freebee tools like this our there.

31

ooppss!! sorry!!! :blush:
images.jpeg

32

Well the most common reason for flash drive failure is the soldier becomes broken on the pins. How is this caused? SImply when inserting or pulling out many people put a slight upward or downward pressure on the drive as they insert them or eject them. Over time this stresses the solider joints and causes data corruption or failure. Also this can be caused by how they are transported (in tight pants pocket with keys can sometimes put pressure on them.

Myself I use another computer to backup to but a descent USB 2.0 or FW 400/800 drive would suffice using Time Machine.

But I also carry two thumb drives that I back my Scrivener files onto. I do this manually because backup software is nice but with something so small and so important I feel better making a manul copy to TWO thumb drives. One I carry with me. One I keep in a little fire proof safe. That way if an act of God happens (flood, fire, hurricane, tornado) and my computer and backup computer are physically destroyed (say house fire while I am out christmas shopping) I still have my backup in my pocket and one in the fire proof safe.

Depending on just a back drive would not help you in case of a physical emergency like a house fire.

33

All this time I’ve been carrying my USB stick in my pocket, I never realised there was a little man inside, waiting to ferry my bits and bytes between the computer and flash memory.

If the solider joints are failing, imagine what is happening to weaker ones, like his knees and ankles!

Could he use a wheelbarrow instead, so he doesn’t carry all the data on his back?

34

I’m not sure that is a good answer. I think the soldier should unionize and require the addition of 4 additional worker soldiers. Then the 5 can collectively bargain for lower carrying standards and increased wages. Then once the flash becomes too expensive for the average consumer the flash manufacturer (which would now be more of a flash contractor who outsources most of the actual construction) would lobby congress for low interest short-term loans backed by taxpayer moneys…

Wait, that actually happened.

35

Well, just for the record I have not broken any of my little soldier boys. I am very careful with their little legs, solid or otherwise. Management rules. :wink:

It’s a strange strange world we live in master Wock.

vic-k that was a lovely cab. :smiley:

36

:wink: :smiley:

How do you know its a man? If its a girl, and shes in your trouser pocket, its probable, that, such close proximity to your byte, is whats responsible for the problem in the first place...[i]unrequited lust!!![/i] jeeezzz!!! when are yous lot gonna cop on!! :open_mouth:

Just a thought
Vic

37

And here I was thinking I’d hurt your feelings in the other thread and getting ready to apologise!

38

He’s a dog! They return when you kick them. [size=70]granted they may bite but they do come back[/size]

39

If I could tiptoe with great trepidation into the middle of this dog fight, I have another SERIOUS question :wink: To wit:

Those .zip files that are now in the Dropbox folder on my hard drive, that get uploaded miraculously to the cloud (I should be so lucky when my time comes :smiley: ) --well, once they are uploaded, is it a good, bad, or indifferent idea to then DELETE them from my Dropbox folder on the HD?? (And would you advise a proper burial, cremation, or donation to the Smithsonian?).

Many thanks all. I am okay till 5 o’clock here on the spirits front.

40

THEORY LESSON:
The DropBox in ‘the cloud’, and the DropBox on each computer you use, will always remain synchronized.

So if you delete something from DropBox on your computer, it will be deleted from the cloud.

Basically, the idea of DropBox is that it is effectively a file system that is available to you anywhere. Whether you use a home computer, work computer, laptop, or web interface at an internet cafe, they will all have access to the same files.

Any time you add, delete, rename a file in your local DropBox folder, the same change will take effect on the cloud. And the next time any of the other computers connect, they will all be synchronized with those same changes.

That means, you delete something from your DropBox folder, it gets deleted from the cloud, and it gets deleted from the DropBox folder on all your other computers also (note that versions of the file outside the DropBox folder are always unaffected).

PRACTICAL LESSON:
Actual practice will vary from person to person, obviously. But I usually keep the last couple of backup zip files in my DropBox folder, but delete the older ones as new ones are added to keep the folder from getting too cluttered.

If you were using it as your only backup, you may have a desire to store more versions back, or if you are happy with lots of files in there, you may only start to delete things when you get close to filling your DropBox storage space.

I just use it as a backup for the latest versions of my most important stuff (Scriv projects and source code, mostly), and like to have it clean so I always know which version of the files I should be working with if I need to use them on another computer.

Matt