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Last post Author Topic: alternative to filehamster?  (Read 109224 times)

tomos

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Re: alternative to filehamster?
« Reply #100 on: July 24, 2011, 02:51 PM »
^ "[FileHamster] is set to make revisions not more often than every 5 minutes"
I didnt know you could regulate that in FH, must check it out.

For me, FileHamster is worth using (and worth reporting bugs etc. in their forums) because I can save a comment with each file-version saved so I know what I'm restoring if it comes to that (and it has).
I have comment window set to show for each save, if that doesnt show, I know something is up. Without this setting, you wont notice if something has not backed up, which, as already said, is not on...
Tom

f0dder

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Re: alternative to filehamster?
« Reply #101 on: July 24, 2011, 03:08 PM »
Tranglos,

IMHO you're missing out on the benefits of version control. It's not just about "having a place to stuff previous versions", it's a lot about workflow as well. A bunch of backup zip files don't tell you very much about the state of the project, and makes it difficult to easily and quickly spot exactly what has changed between versions.

Working with a versioning system forces you into the habit of being more organized - instead of scattered changes across your entire project, you learn to apply focused changes to a handful of files, and then commit that changeset along with a meaningful commit log. It's makes it a lot easier managing your projects in the long run, and a lot easier to track down exactly when that nasty regression bug was introduced.

If you work with a decent DVCS with cheap branching support, it also makes it a lot easier to work on feature branches. Currently working on adding some new feature that might take a couple of days to implement, when you realize there's a nasty bug you should really prioritize instead? Simple, make a new feature branch for the bugfix off your latest stable commit, fix the bug there and release - then return to your new-feature branch. Organized, without clutter, without the large risk of errors if you tried to handle this workflow manually.

while renaming files is something I do several times a day, esp. as I progressively get a better understanding of how my classes need to be designed and laid out.
Do a bit more of pre-planning ;). It does happen I end up renaming a class, but it definitely isn't very often - not even newly started projects. Adding files happens a lot more often, but that's painless even in SVN.

t's nearly impossible in practice to match a stored state of the library with a stored state of a project. When I realized SVN wasn't helping with that at all, that was when I gave up on it entirely.
No tool will help you with that, it requires solid engineering... keeping a decent level of abstraction where implementation changes doesn't affect the clients, and a lot of care and consideration when applying changes. It's not easy, and even if you get it right it can be nearly impossible to go back and build an exact copy of a previous version (which can be necessary if you need to deal with bugs in older versions).
- carpe noctem

tranglos

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Re: alternative to filehamster?
« Reply #102 on: July 24, 2011, 03:29 PM »
^ "[FileHamster] is set to make revisions not more often than every 5 minutes"
I didnt know you could regulate that in FH, must check it out.

The option is called TimeDelayBetweenRevisions, in the "Document" section of the Options dialog. FH will wait at least this long before making a new revision. Useful if you hit Ctrl+S compulsively but don't want to have revisions made every 20 seconds or so :)

There is of course a potential problem scenario:

1. Save your file (revision is made)
2. Make some more changes in the next minute or so
3. Save the file (revision is not made - file saved too soon after last revision)
4. Close your document.
Result: the last revision FH made is NOT the final version of your file.

As I understand it, FH handles such situations well: after TimeDelayBetweenRevisions has elapsed, it checks the file and creates a revision if it has changed. At least I think it does - a simple experiment will verify.


kyrathaba

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Re: alternative to filehamster?
« Reply #103 on: July 24, 2011, 09:24 PM »
I confess I don't always use a version-control system when programming.  I know I should, except for the smallest of tasks, but in practice I have only done so for relatively larger projects -- say, those that will take me several hours to code.  For smaller stuff, when I take a break after polishing a particular function or whatever, I zip the dev directory and back it up to an external drive and to my SkyDrive account.

"But that takes longer than a quick commit with SVN!" I hear you argue.  True, but setting up a SVN-local-repo-to-online-repo pair is a bit more annoying for me personally than using the above slightly more clunky system.

mouser

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Re: alternative to filehamster?
« Reply #104 on: July 31, 2011, 08:06 PM »
Regarding AutoVer, I'm definitely going to try it soon, but posts about version 2 beta on their forum made me feel like i should wait a bit.

Right now i've uninstalled FileHamster and I'm using the new file monitoring and versioning ability added to Super Flexible File Synchronizer, an excellent backup/synchronization tool which has been written about before.  It seems to be working well, and is convenient since I already use SFFS for normal backing up (mirroring) other folders on my system.

tomos

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Re: alternative to filehamster?
« Reply #105 on: August 01, 2011, 02:50 PM »
Right ... I'm using the new file monitoring and versioning ability added to Super Flexible File Synchronizer, an excellent backup/synchronization tool which has been written about before.  It seems to be working well, and is convenient since I already use SFFS for normal backing up (mirroring) other folders on my system.

I hadn't seen that before, thanks for the tip.

SFFS is my main backup tool, I've always used versioning (not mirroring). It also has what it calls "Synthetic Backups" a combination of partial-file-updating, zipping & versioning which would be useful for large files.
Tom

kyrathaba

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Re: alternative to filehamster?
« Reply #106 on: August 01, 2011, 03:31 PM »
Regarding AutoVer, I'm definitely going to try it soon, but posts about version 2 beta on their forum made me feel like i should wait a bit.

I tried it and felt it needed a bit more work.

tomos

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Re: alternative to filehamster?
« Reply #107 on: August 02, 2011, 06:08 AM »
Right ... I'm using the new file monitoring and versioning ability added to Super Flexible File Synchronizer, an excellent backup/synchronization tool which has been written about before.  It seems to be working well, and is convenient since I already use SFFS for normal backing up (mirroring) other folders on my system.

I hadn't seen that before, thanks for the tip.

SFFS monitoring/versioning working very well here too :up:
Tom

kyrathaba

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Re: alternative to filehamster?
« Reply #108 on: August 02, 2011, 08:00 AM »
Right now, I'm using WD's 1 TB MyBook Essential's built-in backup software.  It seems fairly sophisticated/capable.  I also do manual backups less often to a different external drive using FBackup4 free edition, and I upload some of those to SkyDrive.

souzarm

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Re: alternative to filehamster?
« Reply #109 on: August 09, 2011, 06:59 PM »
 :)  :D Thanks to 40Hz in « Reply #53 on: March 06, 2010, 11:49:42 AM » (https://www.donation....msg197533#msg197533).

TrackMyFiles put out by internum GmbH (www.trackmyfiles.com)

kyrathaba

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Re: alternative to filehamster?
« Reply #110 on: August 09, 2011, 07:03 PM »
My question would be, "Why has Track My Files reached End of Life?

tomos

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Re: alternative to filehamster?
« Reply #111 on: December 14, 2016, 04:57 AM »
Stopped (passively) using Filehamster today.
TBH I wasn't using it for new jobs the last couple of years, but still had it running and covering a couple older jobs that were very occasionally revisited.

I tried adding a job to it lately, but find Filehamster is basically no longer working properly (Windows 7 x64)

So looking for alternatives again -- specifically where I can comment on a file when it is saved.
Tom

MerleOne

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Re: alternative to filehamster?
« Reply #112 on: December 14, 2016, 06:36 AM »
bvckup v2 ?
.merle1.

tranglos

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Re: alternative to filehamster?
« Reply #113 on: December 14, 2016, 07:33 AM »
Absolutely, Bvckup!
http://www.bvckup2.com/

(The old v1, which was free in beta and which I am still using, can still be downloaded from http://www.bvckup.com/ )

tomos

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Re: alternative to filehamster?
« Reply #114 on: December 14, 2016, 07:36 AM »
bvckup v2 ?
Absolutely, Bvckup!
http://www.bvckup2.com/

Filehamster was all about versioning (and what was very important for me was the ability to write a comment/note that would be saved with that version).

Bvckup2 doesnt do versioning: the author did at one stage write about possibly trying versioning in another software, I asked him today about it here
Tom

tranglos

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Re: alternative to filehamster?
« Reply #115 on: December 14, 2016, 07:50 AM »
True, no versioning.

The way I'm dealing with it is that I use Bvckup for real-time backups of files I am working on during the day, which I want to be protected but don't need to have in dozens or hundreds of versions (I save compulsively). Then I have a daily backup using Backup4All Pro, which maintains (and recycles) versions. The primary way this could bite me is if I messed up a critical file beyond recognition and saved it, but in my work this is a negligible scenario (and it has never happened).

There's only 1 issue with the old, beta  version of Bvckup1, and that when an app takes a longer time to save a file (a multi-MB xml doc, for instance), bvckup doesn't know to wait until the save operation is done, so it fails (the file is still being written to) and gives up. I hope this has been improved in v2, but other than this, it's perfect (and perfectly transparent while it works).

MerleOne

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Re: alternative to filehamster?
« Reply #116 on: December 14, 2016, 08:38 AM »
For handling versioning, you have AJC Backup which is great too.
.merle1.

Shades

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Re: alternative to filehamster?
« Reply #117 on: December 14, 2016, 03:43 PM »
Git, Mercurial or even SVN should be used when versioning is necessary. For SVN you have TurtoiseSVN, that hooks into Windows explorer. By simply right-clicking on a file you can add/remove/update/commit (with comment) into the (project) repository. If memory serves me right it also allows you to do diffs between versions as well.

SVN is an old system, Git and Mercurial are much more modern and more actively developed. All of these systems are free.

f0dder

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Re: alternative to filehamster?
« Reply #118 on: December 27, 2016, 09:49 AM »
Git, Mercurial or even SVN should be used when versioning is necessary.
For source control style versioning, sure.

But for backup-style versioning? Nope, nope and nope. What you need in that situation is very different from the history-from-the-beginning-of-time versioning style that source version control systems offer.
- carpe noctem

Febr9

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Re: alternative to filehamster?
« Reply #119 on: January 30, 2017, 04:24 AM »
AutoVer

sphere

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Re: alternative to filehamster?
« Reply #120 on: October 06, 2021, 08:48 AM »
I am wondering if anyone has any current thoughts on filehamster or alternatives for non-techy computer user.  I believe the feature that sets FH apart from other alternatives presented in this thread is dialogue prompt to enter a comment when saving a file version.   The network support through "teams plugin" is also nice as it allows a small group to lock and unlock changes as well as review other person's notes.  I do not think this is an enterprise solution, but it seems like it would work for a small group, or even a family on a home network. 


It seems like File Hamster has been updated recently.  There is an overview of the new features here on youtube from 3 years ago.
https://www.youtube....f7QY5A_Pm2i2JV1FiM4w

It does not look like their support forum exists anymore.  Support now links to facebook page with very little activity.

Ideally I am looking for ways to automatically track what was done with prompted user input.  I have often thought that this could be a part of a "tracking" application that intelligently logs a user's activity (files opened and reviewed, emails (subjects), browser's tab titles) in order to create a history to help a user reacquaint themselves with what was done on a task/project after leaving it for a period of time.  It would be great to be able to see a timeline view of files that were edited within a certain timeframe.  File Hamster has a reports feature, which would be helpful. 

File Hamster is more than a file sync and file backup utility. It provides a way to keep track of files, with contextual notes, and that is what I am looking for in the absence of a broader tool to help track/log projects and tasks automatically.

Anyone still using Filehamster? Any alternatives?

File Hamster 's notes feature





tomos

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Re: alternative to filehamster?
« Reply #121 on: October 06, 2021, 12:03 PM »
Just for the record:
seems like File Hamster has been updated recently.  There is an overview of the new features here on youtube from 3 years ago.
https://www.youtube....
Those videos are all of features that already existed years ago. I wrote elsewhere on dc that some minor bugs were fixed in 2019. Unfortunately without a link. I think they mainly made sure it ran on Windows 10 so as they could keep selling it. I couldn't find the forum.

Filehamster could be an option. It appears to be in development (again). Also requires active input, but iiuc is a lot simpler than full versioning system.
Forget that:
after years of no updates, they fixed a couple of minor bugs end of last year, but no support in 2020, so I would avoid.
Tom

sphere

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Re: alternative to filehamster?
« Reply #122 on: October 06, 2021, 12:18 PM »
Just for the record:
seems like File Hamster has been updated recently.  There is an overview of the new features here on youtube from 3 years ago.
https://www.youtube....
Those videos are all of features that already existed years ago. I wrote elsewhere on dc that some minor bugs were fixed in 2019. Unfortunately without a link. I think they mainly made sure it ran on Windows 10 so as they could keep selling it. I couldn't find the forum.


Tomos, thanks for the clarification. That is unfortunate. From reading this thread and a few others, it seems like your use case is very similar to what I am looking for. At least it was. I believe I read that you are not using it except for some older projects.  Do you have it running and installed on a windows 10 machine? What are you using now?


tomos

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Re: alternative to filehamster?
« Reply #123 on: October 06, 2021, 02:18 PM »
Do you have it running and installed on a windows 10 machine? What are you using now?
I'm no longer doing the work I used it for. No longer even work (professionally) at/with a computer. I do have one project though that I intend to finish next year, for which I could use it, or something like it, so might try install it at some stage again.
Tom

sphere

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Re: alternative to filehamster?
« Reply #124 on: October 06, 2021, 05:24 PM »
Do you have it running and installed on a windows 10 machine? What are you using now?
I'm no longer doing the work I used it for. No longer even work (professionally) at/with a computer. I do have one project though that I intend to finish next year, for which I could use it, or something like it, so might try install it at some stage again.

Tomos,  I totally understand. I just have a hard time believing that the comment prompt is not more common.
Thanks you