Tink vs safecopy
safecopy copies a dying disk in staged low-level passes. That is not a mechanic. Tink installs in one command, watches the Linux host, explains what is wrong, and helps you fix it.
safecopy copies the dying disk. Tink answers “why is this VPS sick?”
Accidental sysadmins land on safecopy because a free staged copier looks like insurance. Then the host volume fills, nginx dies, and the last --stage3 pass still looks complete — no badblocks file for host fill. A filling /var is a Tink warning; it is not a safecopy job unless you scraped recovery mail and watched it.
Tink is the other job: detect the issue on the machine, say why it happened in plain English, propose the command, and run it only after you approve. Keep using safecopy if you already run damaged-media copy. Use Tink if you run Linux servers and want a mechanic.
| Feature | Tink | safecopy |
|---|---|---|
| Setup time | 30 seconds (one curl | sh command) | Hours — attach the dying disk, run safecopy --stage1 then --stage2/--stage3, wait for the badblocks file, then a host that still has no mechanic after the last stage finished |
| What you get | Working monitoring, diagnosis, and approved fixes | A staged failing-disk copier. Disk fill, nginx, Postgres, and certs stay your problem until you SSH past the last --stage3 pass |
| Pricing | Free (Scout) / $9 / $29 per machine per month | GPL and free. You still pay the person who owns the VPS after the last safecopy stage looks finished |
| Hidden costs | None — fully managed | A quiet badblocks file that is not host fill, downtime to copy /dev/sdX, --stage1/--stage2/--stage3 homework, and a second tool to tell you the box is sick while the last stage still showed complete |
| Monitoring approach | Agent on the server — CPU, disk, services, logs, certs, ports | safecopy --stage1, --stage2, --stage3, -b blocksize, a badblocks file. safecopy does not watch a quiet cert or host auth.log after the last recovery session ended |
| Configuration | None after install — heuristics and AI | Which device to copy, which --stage, block size vs seek, and which failed safecopy session actually pages you |
| Plain-English diagnosis | Yes — AI explains root cause, impact, and fix | You read the badblocks file and stage log, then SSH into the host to change the Linux box safecopy already copied off |
| Fix execution | Proposes and executes approved commands with an audit trail | Copy unreadable sectors into an image — safecopy cannot free host disk, rotate a cert, or stop SSH brute-force unless you run safecopy again |
| Alerting | Built-in across 8 channels | Not a safecopy job — cron mail from a failed stage plus a separate monitoring tool have to fire |
| Predictive alerts | Yes — disk fills in ~6 days, memory and CPU trends | Not a safecopy job — a badblocks timestamp does not forecast a quiet host filling up |
| SSH brute-force detection | Built-in — parses auth.log every scan | Never — safecopy does not read host auth.log, journald, or firewall state after the last recovery session ended |
| Machine offline detection | Agent presence monitoring with multi-channel alerts | Silence if the host dies after the last safecopy --stage3 pass — unless you built a separate uptime check |
| Public status page | Shareable URL with 90-day history | None — safecopy has no customer-facing status page for the Linux host |
| Weekly fleet digest | Automated Monday digest + daily brief when issues are open | None — a staged-copy recap is not a plain-English fleet narrative |
| On-call tracking | Built-in /oncall command + incident acknowledgment | Not included — wire failed safecopy stages into PagerDuty or another incident tool |
| Conversation interface | Telegram, WhatsApp, web dashboard, CLI | The safecopy CLI, badblocks file, and SSH. No mechanic you text when /var filled and the last --stage3 pass still showed complete |
| Learning curve | None — works after install | Steep — safecopy --stage1/--stage2/--stage3, -b, seek, badblocks, infile vs outfile, and which failure is the dying disk vs the running host |
| Best for | Freelancers, small teams, accidental sysadmins (1-50 Linux servers) | Teams that already run safecopy for damaged-media copy, not a sick-VPS mechanic |
When safecopy is the right choice
Keep using safecopy when you already want that exact job:
- Damaged-media copy — you need safecopy --stage1/--stage2/--stage3, a badblocks file, or a low-level pass, not a mechanic.
- An existing recovery stack — raw devices, forensic lab LAN, and staged retries matter more than guest nginx, certs, and SSH on a quiet VPS.
- An existing lab or nested setup — safecopy already runs, a badblocks file already exists, and someone owns the dying disk.
- Hosts that only page on image or restore death — you already run failed-backup mail, not a sick-box SSH loop.
The real cost of “just run safecopy”
safecopy copies dying disks. A working ops loop for five Linux boxes is not:
- A healthy --stage3 pass still means you SSH into the host and change the box by hand when it gets sick later
- Host fill, nginx, certs, and SSH brute-force never appear unless a separate tool scraped those signals and a rule fired
- A filling /var is a Tink disk warning on every scan — safecopy will stay quiet until the next recovery session
- A single VPS with a dead agent still needs a mechanic, not another safecopy --stage1 pass
For a 5-server team, Tink Mechanic at $45/month is cheaper than the engineer who keeps failed-backup notifications alive after a green safecopy session, and every scan includes a diagnosis a quiet badblocks file will not type.
No --stage homework or badblocks files. No silent host. One command install.
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