Backing up entire HD...

[Homerboy]

I have to find a way to back up a users entire HD across the LAN to the server here at the office.
Ideally the entire HD so that in case of a crash on her HD, I can simply pull out the "Backup" copy and insert into her case and get her back up and running with minimal delay.

I mapped RAID mirror would rock, but I dont think that exists.

Nightly/weekly back up... anything.

Any and all suggestions are welcome

Thanks

 

[SearchMaster]

I use Norton Ghost for this - it has a network option, but it is not an unattended operation. You have to boot into Ghost on both the Master and Slave computers.

I'm pretty sure DriveImage (recently purchased by Norton) will allow you to do what you need, and can do so as a scheduled batch process in Windows. I've never tried the product, though many swear by it. I like the simplicity of Ghost and the fact that it seems logical that doing it from DOS will ensure a complete sector-by-sector backup, but DriveImage has been well-reviewed so it must do the trick as well. I've considered looking into it from time to time but never have pulled the trigger.

 

[SearchMaster]

Also....I'm not 100% sure that DriveImage will allow you to completely clone the HD across the network, so restoring may be a little more complicated than a HD swap. You may have to put a fresh HD in the client box, then run some sort of restore app to pull the image from the LAN.

 

[Homerboy]

thanks for the input...

Acronis True Image seems to fit the bill pretty nicely actually... it still requires a boot disk to recover, but is VERY nice in the fact that it allows incremental backups rather than full every time.

 

[bob4432]

i pesonally use the ghost version as well, but am looking for something unattended. i have d/l symantec v2i protector demo and will try that in the near future.