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Introduction
Crunchbang Linux is a slim down operating system that works well on older computers. I wrote a previous article about it and how I installed it on an old IBM T42 (with just 512MB RAM!) and a little Asus Eee PC. Crunchbang is great for browsing the web and other light work. Another thing you could do is set up file sharing on your Crunchbang computer. This is especially useful if you have an old desktop with a reasonably sized hard disk. You could use it to share files on your home network or you could use it to store files as a backup.

In this article I'll explain how to set up a simple file share on your Crunchbang computer. We'll use Samba which is the most popular file sharing software for Linux. The commands used here can be used in other Linux operating systems too. I will not go into detail and will explain only the basic steps to get simple file sharing working.

At the end, from your Windows computer you'll be able to browse to and save/open files on your Crunchbang Linux computer.


Crunchbang Linux
To download and install Crunchbang please see my previous article:
http://mgxp.blogspot.ch/2013/03/crunchbang-linux.html


Install Samba
Go to your Crunchbang Linux computer, start it and login as usual.
Right click on the desktop and click Terminal

At the $ prompt type:
sudo apt-get install samba libpam-smbpass [Enter]

Samba will download and install. It will ask you for the name of the network workgroup:


Unless you've changed it, accept the default "WORKGROUP".


Configure File Sharing
Change to the srv folder, type:
cd /srv  [Enter]


Create a new folder called share:
sudo mkdir share  [Enter]



This sets the permissions for the share folder to full read/write:
sudo chmod 777 share/  [Enter]


Make a backup copy of the original Samba configuration file, this is just in case you need it for future reference:
sudo cp /etc/samba/smb.conf /etc/samba/smb.conf.original  [Enter]


Edit the Samba configuration file:
sudo geany /etc/samba/smb.conf  [Enter]

The Geany text editor will open the smb.conf file. Replace all the content of the file with the following:

[global]
disable netbios = no
workgroup = workgroup
server string = fileserver
dns proxy = no
log file = /var/log/samba/log.%m
max log size = 1000
syslog = 0
panic action = /usr/share/samba/panic-action %d
obey pam restrictions = yes
unix password sync = yes
passwd program = /usr/bin/passwd %u
passwd chat = *Enter\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *Retype\snew\s*\spassword:* %n\n *password\supdated\ssuccessfully* .
pam password change = yes
map to guest = bad user
usershare allow guests = yes
security = user
username map = /etc/samba/smbusers
load printers = no
printing = bsd
printcap name = /dev/null
disable spoolss = yes

[share]
path = /srv/share
writeable = yes
browseable = yes
create mask = 6777
directory mask = 6777


NOTE:

• The "workgroup=" parameter is set to "workgroup", this is the default name of the Windows network you are connecting to. If your workgroup name is different, change it here.
• The "server string=" parameter can be anything. It should be something descriptive for this computer. If there are two Linux computers configured with the same "server string=" name, one of them will not appear when you look for it from your Windows computer. Therefore, make sure the "server string=" name is unique on your network.

Save and exit the text editor (Geany).

At the $ prompt enter the following to restart Samba:
sudo /etc/init.d/samba restart  [Enter]

Wait for 30 seconds.


On the Windows computer
Go to your Windows computer, browse in Windows Explorer to your Network, browse under Microsoft Windows Network and Workgroup - you should see your Crunchbang computer appear in the list.


In the above example from a Windows XP computer you can see I've found my Crunchbang computer. In brackets you can see it says "Crunchbangt42" - this is the host name of my Crunchbang computer, yours will be different. you can find the host name on your Crunchbang desktop:


On your Windows computer, if you can't find the Crunchbang computer on the network, on the Windows Explorer address bar you can type \\ and the host name directly. In my case I would enter "\\crunchbangT42".

If you are using Windows 7 click Start and enter \\ and the name of the host in the search box. Click on it...

In Windows when you click the share folder you'll be prompted to login:

This is a Windows XP connect box but you will see something similar for Windows 7 or any other  version of Windows.

Enter your Crunchbang username, password and click OK. If you want this Windows computer not to prompt you for a password next time, click the [ ] Remember my password box.


The above is the result. You can copy files to/from this location.

Finished!



References

The following Youtube video shows in more depth how to set up Samba. My thanks to the author as it what I used as a starting point for this article.
http://youtu.be/P7lvuJdsrMY

Samba
http://www.samba.org/

Crunchbang
http://crunchbang.org/

Introduction
FreeFileSync is a small, simple program for synchronising the files in two locations. For example, if you store files on C: but keep a copy on a USB flash drive as a backup, you can use FreeFileSync to keep the files up-to-date in both locations! That's the advantage over just copying the files. Also, you don't copy all the files each time, you just copy the ones that have changed or that are new. For further explanation click here.

There are of course many file/folder synchronisation programs available, the choice is yours which one you chose. In this article we'll focus on FreeFileSync - more details can be found at: http://freefilesync.sourceforge.net/ 

As an example of using FreeFileSync, we'll synchronise the files from a folder on the C: drive to a folder on a USB drive (this could be a flash drive or an external hard disk drive). We will only cover the basics, this is just a guide to get you started with FreeFileSync.


Download
http://sourceforge.net/projects/freefilesync/files/

At the time of writing, February 2012, FreeFileSync is at version 5. I downloaded FreeFileSync_v5.0_setup.exe, it was about 10MB in size.


Install
Insert your USB drive.

Double click the setup exe file (FreeFileSync_v5.0_setup.exe)

Accept the license agreement

Click Portable - this doesn't install to your computer, instead it allows you to run FreeFileSync directly from your USB drive.


Change the installation path to your USB drive and folder name FreeFileSync. This is where the program files will be stored. In our example J:\FreeFileSync, see the screen shot.

Click Install


Simple Folder Synchronisation
After it has finished installing, in Windows Explorer browse to your USB drive and into the folder as shown in the image below:


Double click FreeFileSync.exe

It will ask you 'Do you want FreeFileSync to automatically check for updates every week?' - click No

On the left you'll see 'Compressed view' - just to make the screen easier to read, click the X in the corner of this box to turn it off.

At this point your screen should look like the following:


The FreeFileSync screen is split into two main columns; left and right. I've marked these in orange in the above screen shot.

In the left box type or use the Browse button to select the folder you want to synchronise/backup.


In my example (above) you'll see I've selected C:\Docs. For you this could be any folder.

NOTE: By default when selecting a folder, all files and folders below that folder will be synchronised. 


Create the first folder on the destination drive (USB drive):


You only need the first folder but it's good to do this otherwise all the files from below C:\docs would go into the root (beginning) of the USB drive.

On the right hand side enter your destination folder - in my example J:\Docs:


Click Compare - in my example (above) it compared the files in C:\Docs with J:\Docs. Because this is the first time I am synchronising these folders, the right hand pane J:\Docs is empty (there are no files on the USB drive yet).


Click Synchronise


Click Start

When it has finished it will play a tune and say Completed - click OK.

The next time you want to synchronise the folders:

1. Insert the USB drive
2. Browse to the USB drive \FreeFileSync
3. Double click FreeFileSync.exe
4. Enter the source into the left (C:\Docs in my example)
5. Enter the destination into the right (J:\Docs in my example)
6. Click Compare
7. Click Synchronise

Save the configuration
Once you have the source and destination folders on the screen, click Program | Save configuration

Save the SyncSettings.fss_gui file to your FreeFileSync folder on your USB drive (J:\FreeFileSync in my example).

The next time you start FreeFileSync you can click Program | Load configuration and select the SyncSettings.fss_gui file.


Sychronisation - an example
I've created a new file in my C:\Docs folder called new.txt. I've started FreeFileSync, clicked Program | Load configuration and selected the SyncSettings.fss_gui.

I clicked Compare and this is what I see:


You can see that FreeFileSync is detected the new file (new.txt).

Click Synchronise 


It will copy the new file to the USB drive.


What next?
When you need to synchronise your files (back them up perhaps!) then do the following:

1. Insert the USB drive
2. Browse to the USB drive \FreeFileSync
3. Double click FreeFileSync.exe
4. Click Program | Load configuration and select SyncSettings.fss_gui
5. Click Compare
6. Click Synchronise

Introduction
For anyone who has suffered a hard drive crash you will know the worth of having a backup of your data files. Application software like MS Office can be reinstalled but your precious holiday snaps or your dearest musings are priceless to you. You need to keep your files safe - you need to backup!


Backing up is a Pain!
Backing up really is a pain. You have to remember to do it and the hard drive crash or other disaster comes always at that time just before you were going to do another backup. It's a chore and let's face it, we're all a bit lazy and complacent when it comes to backing up.

Windows XP and Windows 7 Professional have nice backup programs, there are also many others available. But these traditional programs need to run at a scheduled time. That means your backup is like a moment in time. If a day after you last backed up your computer crashes, you've lost a day's worth of files! Also, what do you backup to? DVD? How many and how long will that take? A lot and a long time!


The Solution
Wouldn't it be good if the computer would backup the data for you, without you have to do anything much? My advice is to purchase an external USB hard disk drive that comes with 'on-the-fly' backup software. In other words, a drive that backs up files automatically as you use your computer.

A few months ago (during 2011) I bought a Western Digital My Passport Essential SE 1TB. It's a very small portable hard disk. It supports USB 2.0 and USB 3.0. This drive comes with WD SmartWare software, install it onto your Windows computer and it'll run in the background. When a file is saved or created, it is backed up automatically to your external drive. If you accidentally delete a file from your C: drive, you can still restore it from your backup because WD SmartWare stores multiple versions of files.


My Requirements
Everyone has their own requirements for purchasing any product, this is no different. But I thought I'd explain my reasons for getting this particular model, the My Passport Essential SE. I wanted 1TB of space. I wanted USB 3.0 so it would be very fast. I attached the drive to my desktop computer - you may wonder why I wanted a portable drive as it's more expensive than a desktop hard drive. The reason is that I don't have to plug it into the power, it's powered directly from the computer's USB port. It's small, it takes up very little physical space. As I said, these are personal reasons, you may have different requirements, I thought I'd share mine in case it helps you decide on what's best for you.


Conclusion
My computer's hard disk had a problem recently and I had to reinstall the whole computer. I restored my files from my My Passport Essential SE, it worked like a charm. This is the ultimate test, to restore the data, WD SmartWare worked for me. I'm sure other manufacturer's similar solutions also work well. My most important advice here is to backup and to get an external drive like the My Passport Essential. I think it's worth the cost, it's like an insurance policy and I can tell you from my experience that it works.


Reference
Western Digital My Passport Essential SE (last accessed 04/10/2011)
http://www.wdc.com/en/products/products.aspx?id=430

TechCrunch review 2009 (last accessed 04/10/2011)
http://techcrunch.com/2009/10/20/review-western-digital-my-book-essential-with-smartware-backup-software/

TechRadar review 2009 (last accessed 04/10/2011)
http://www.techradar.com/reviews/pc-mac/pc-components/storage/disk-drives-hdd-ssd-/western-digital-my-passport-essential-500gb-475325/review