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Comment by harrytuttle | Hacker News Reader

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harrytuttle

The problem is that the old backup solution was crappy anyway so I'm glad they removed it.

The basic options were:

1. System image backup. Backs up your fucked system with fucked files.

Oh that's it. Not very helpful.

As before, everyone just buys 3rd party backup software, sticks it on a USB stick or doesn't bother.

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So the SkyDrive setup screen declares that it will 'back up files to the cloud' while it doesn't, and there is no reliable default back-up solution that ships with Windows 8.1. I'd say it isn't so much the article that's 'idiotic', but how little Microsoft seems to care about providing ways to keep your files safe if you're using Windows...

Yes there is. You can copy files to another disk. Third time I've said that.

you don't need an app for that.

It's also the simplest solution that fits in the head space of a user.

Linux doesn't come with a backup app either. You have some tools (dump/tar/dd) from which you can build one or you buy one in (bacula, Amanda etc). Same with windows (powershell, vhd cmdlets etc).

I don't think anyone holds up Linux as the gold standard for simple, built-in, user friendly, GUI-based, system essential utilities, and holding it up as such seems like a bit of a strawman here. I believe the gold standard for the above is OSX's Time Machine, which most consumers would probably prefer over manually copying files (manually versioned files tend towards a total mess over time IMO).

Minus the GUI though, you can build something that's functionally equivalent to Time Machine, and it shouldn't take much more time than it takes to read `man rsync`.

> Linux doesn't come with a backup app either

False. Most linux distributions comes with free backup tools included in default installation.

just gonna point out that skydrive has its own recycle bin and file history, so you can restore lost/damaged files using the skydrive site.

Good news.

How many versions are kept?

Is it possible to 'revert' all files or do you have to do that file by file?

Quite a few, 10+ for word documents at least. I have no idea if its possible to revert all files, that would be a good function to have in the interface.

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