Windows 10: Need some help from someone familair with dropbox and symlinks

Ugh! Im at wits end here lol. All these years later i finally jump on the cloud storage bandwagon and nobody offers placeholders and syncing outside the client folder is rare at best.

we're forced to use workarounds such as symlinks and while I do have it working in as close to an ideal way as possible on my main pc, im struggling to get everything tied into my secondary pc.

I have symlinked folders like pictures/documents/downloads etc to my dropbox folder which works wonderfully. What im trying to do now is create a link from those same files to the corresponding folders on my backup pc.

This way I have a sync from PC1>downloads to cloud to PC2 >downloads. If i make an adjustment on one pc it applies to the cloud and the other pc and vice versa.

How can i accomplish this? Im half way there but stuck!

:)

 

Windows Subsystem for Linux Dropbox Symlink Issue

I know this update is just a few hours old, but I'm already having an issue with symlinks in bash from linux to windows. I've created a symlink to my dropbox folder stored on my F: drive to my home directory with:

ln -s /mnt/f/Dropbox ~/Dropbox

The symlink is created as expected and when I cd into the Dropbox directory, all is well. However, when I then go into a subdirectory of Dropbox, it appears to work in that my pwd changes, yet the files listed with ls are
those in the top level Dropbox directory. I can then infinitely cd into the same top level folder over and over again. Has anyone experienced this?

 

Rolling back to Windows 7 from Windows 10, then back to 10 when support for 7 ends.

1. Go back to Windows 7 or go back to the previous build?

2. Did you purchase the refurbished computer on 10 January, first use it on 10 January, or did the refurbisher (I assume) "install" Win10 on 10 January?

3a. Where did you purchased the refurbished computer?

3b. Do you know who refurbished it?

4. What Windows 10 Version & OS Build is currently installed?

Press & hold the Windows Key and press the R
key. In the RUN dialog, type WINVER and press the Enter key.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Comments:

• IMHO you can't trust the security of any used computer unless & until YOU have formatted the HDD & then done a clean install of Windows (or paid someone - not the supposed "refurbisher" - to do it for you).
  
• Mom's prolly better off sticking with Win10. Learning new stuff is good for her! <wink>

We purchased the computer from a Comprenew store on January 18, but the date on the OS install was January 10. We just activated the software on the 18th. Comprenew recycles old electronics etc. and is a certified Microsoft refurbisher. I am not positive
which build is installed, but I can find it when I get over there. It looks like we have lots of help here to figure things out... all is tremendously appreciated. And... yes....it is good for her to learn new stuff, so we are trying to encourage her to
learn the "new" Windows OS. We'll see what happens. Thanks again! Oh yeah, I do need to double check if it says go back to Windows7 or previous build...thanks for that. I've been looking at too many computers lately... can't remember which one says
what. :[

 

I'm probably missing something, but why are you using symbolic links? DropBox, or One Drive, or Google Drive will all sync to any PC you are signed into, as long as the client is installed and activated to sync on the other machines. Could you explain a bit further? Thanks. TC

 

yes, your correct, it will sync but ONLY to the dropbox folder. I'm trying to sync from my documents folder on one pc to my documents folder on another for example.

I have it working on one side, just not sure how to implement the other. somebody said you need to do it in reverse aka instead of c/xxx/ ---dropbox for the links you need to go from c\xxx\ <----dropbox ----> pc2\xxx with the links. In the opposite direction. Going ot try it out its just touch n go cause i dont want to indirectly erase a lot of really important data.

 

As long as you have the same symlinks on the second PC then dropbox should be able to sync to PC2 without any issues.

 

@klepp0906,

Ok, here's what I just did. 2 machines. 1st is my may Desktop running 14971 Insider. 2nd is a VM under it running 14393. Not that it really matters, just wanted to name the players.

I dropped a symbolic link of my Documents folder into my Dropbox folder on desktop. All showed up fine.

I fired up the VM. Installed Dropbox. Signed in and let it sync. All my Desktop Document folder was there. I created NO symlinks on the VM.

I created a text doc on the VM in the Dropbox/Documents folder with random gibberish and saved it.

It sync automatically.

I went back to the Desktop Documents folder and the test document I had created on the VM was in my normal Documents folder.

I deleted it from Desktop/Dropbox/Documents.

Checked the VM folder and it was gone.

Apparently all synced both ways with only a symlink in the Desktop folder.

 

Why would you want that big of a headache? KISS. The software that syncs has to be able to compare the CRC on the documents on the computer you are uploading them to the Cloud and same when downloading. You cannot upload from one machine and then expect the server on the other end know what computer it is supposed to download to, which is for safety measures. It works in the same way that your person who picks up your mail.

 

Does your mail person take mail out of your mail box that may be addressed to someone in town and just deliver it to them, without following proper protocol of having it go through the sorting center to show that it was received and then sent out to a certain route. There is no Cloud program that is going to skip the method that they re programmed to do. This has to be done at the server level, which would actually cause more headaches, because you are transferring the file at a slower speed, than you are at a higher speed.

If you want to share files on the same network, get a NAS.

 

a NAS is in my future but for the amount of storage i need its going to be an invesment. a tax time investment and this years is already allocated to the basement

anyhow, I got it working as intended. Regarding some of your foreboding posts - yes issues could arise in specific situations or potentially if both pc's were being used at the same exact time for the same thing i imagine.

This began with a limited knowledge of cloud storage and I assumed I would be able to sync any folders I wanted. When i found that wasnt the case, I assumed I could upload and download from the cloud storage via the desktop client/app. When i found out that the desktop app was purely for syncing I looked into microsoft onedrive which used to use what they call "placeholders" which basically keeps your files in the cloud and lets you access them as if they're on your local drive but they removed that feature w/ windows 10. (apparently dropbox is working on the same thing at current but it might be for business only and im not quite sure 15/mo is worth it)

Aaaaanyways, getting far off course.

To make this simple I'll use the conventional Downloads folder on windows. I opened properties and selected the location tab. I changed the downloads folders location from C:\users\username\downloads to C:\users\username\dropbox\downloads.

That removed the much of what i needed from the initial pc from the equation. For conventional files/folders I'll use world of warcraft (had to back up my wtf and my addons folders).

In that case, I copied both folders in their entirety to dropbox. I then created the symlink FROM the dropbox folder TO the world of warcraft/wtf folder etc. Apparently it has to be done this way if you want the 2 way to work properly. (in reverse).

On pc 2 after syncing all of the aforementioned showed up in my dropbox folder. I then did the same thing with my Downloads folder. Changed the location to the location of my dropbox Downloads folder via properties-location tab. They merged and thats all it took for that to function.

As for the wow folders. Same exact business except I deleted them on pc2 and simply created a symlink from the wow/wtf in dropbox, to the location they belonged on pc2.

Now no matter what pc i'm on, if i change something, add something, delete something... its updated in dropbox AND on the other pc.

awesome!

BTW thank you very much for the replies *Smile

 

NAS are cheap these days. Unless you want one as robust as the Synology units that are made for Small Business that are Diskless. You can spend upwards of over $300. I went from the Lenovo (iOmega) ix-2 (POS, no RAM and the Marvell CPU was slow as Molasses. The Synology units like the DIS216+2 that I have. You can run Docker and then run say a personally developed program using the Dropbox api. Developers - Dropbox The unit I have has a INTEL Celeron N3060 1.6GHz, 1GB of RAM. I have two Seagate Constellation 1TB in it, with a Fantom 3TB handling the backup of the NAS through eSATA.

I think using the API will be a lot easier and safer than trying to use say a Script and then have it fail on you. Design the program for your needs, not the needs for the program.

For all of the work that I have put into my network in my home. There is no price tag that can be placed on how many hours and changing of gear to get it to where I love it.

I did have a 50GB through Box.com. When the prices of the NAS's started to come down, that was when I started with the IX-2. It came with 2 tTB drives. Because it is so hard on that unit to get the OS to install and the fact that it could not do what my wife & I needed it on our network, I upgraded to the one I mentioned.

If you look at my System Spec's. Everything is in there for the gear that I am using. Even with wireless as mine and my wife's laptops are setup. We get 1GB/s speeds t the NAS.