Because backups may disappear

On the heels of my writing over files inadvertently deleted disappearing from backup, yesterday an article in the Wall Street Journal suggested using Dropbox for file access when traveling.
The topic was online storage Dropbox offers and certainly that. But, normally offers replica instead of the actual backup. Replication is similar to backup, but anyone choosing online storage company should understand the difference.

The big difference causes deleted files. As discussed previously, Mozy, Carbonite and Backblaze, Dropbox deletes the copy of the files that you deleted after 30 days. In addition, you can delete the files in the Dropbox folder on any computer connected to a special Dropbox account. Secure synchronization of Trend Micro also eliminates the backup copy of a file for 30 days after it was deleted.

If this is what you want or need, well. But, stuff happens, and file is accidentally deleted all the time.

Often run the Chkdsk utility in Windows. More often, turns up errors in the NTFS file system. While normally correct the error, the file system is always a potential point of failure. If it hiccups, files can disappear for the operating system without any human involvement.

Replication, also known as synchronization (or sync for short) aims to replicate a folder somewhere else. Excellent programs like Karen's Replicator Kenworthy, do it with storage on site. Companies mentioned above are off-site replication.

With a schema, adds files added to the original folder and the backup shadow copy. Renamed files in the original folder, get renamed copies. Updated files have new versions of the same replicated copies shipped.

Deletions are another matter.

When a file is deleted from the original folder, a system by replication and synchronization will delete the files in the shadow copies that preserves. Granted, the companies mentioned here wait 30 days before deleting files, but they will be deleted. A system backup, will not delete the backup copy of a deleted file.

There are exceptions.

Karen's Replicator program offers the opportunity to replicate deletions or not. Dropbox offers to their paying customers an option Rat Pack which they describe as:

Rat Pack is a feature of Dropbox Pro add-on that saves your history files forever. Dropbox saves a history of all deleted and previous versions of files for 30 days for any Dropbox accounts by default. If you have the add-on Pack-rat, Dropbox saves files for as long as you have the add-on Pack-rat. With Pack-rat, you never worry about losing an old version of a file.

On the contrary, a company such as Rsync.net businesss is up. You pay $ x for y gigabytes of memory and they never delete anything.

Judging by their name, SugarSync is a synchronization service. How they manage file deletions, however, it is not clear; even after trying the software, to review their site and read the user guide. There may be more than one answer as they offer different types of folders (sync folders, shared folders, and a bag of Magic). Also, keep a deleted folder, and also a folder specifically for web archive files, they will never delete (which implies that are normally deletions).

A final point about Dropbox: their Windows software was not designed with limited/limited users in mind.

Yes, outside of the corporate world, almost no one running Windows as user limited/restricted, but I do. Defensive Computing is the thing.

Most of the software, including Dropbox, it will not be installed when logged in as a Windows XP limited user. Google Chrome browser is a notable exception.

So, I installed Dropbox while logged on as administrator and then logged Back on as a limited user, and it was gone. There was no trace of the software, even it does not appear in the list of installed applications (Add or remove programs in Control Panel).

To use Dropbox as a limited user under XP (I haven't tested it under Windows 7 or Vista), you must be logged on as an administrator, edit the limited user account to an administrator, log on as a user previously restricted, install the software, log off, log on as an administrator and change the user normally limited back to limited. You won't find that on their website.