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Backup Setup Advice Needed -

R

RedHot

Junior Member
Hello-

My dad needs a backup solution for his main business computer. It holds all the business data, everything needed for the daily operations of what they do. It has the following requirements and ideal situations:

Required: Ease of use - My dad is an almost 60ish insurance agent, the other agents are slightly older than he and have even less computer knowledge.

Ideal#1: IDE HD based storage used would be ideal. He tried travan tapes, and given the complexity it was a bad situation for them. I would like it IDE based so that he can maybe put the IDE drive into a removable (not hotswapable) drivebay and put that one in the safe and put a new one in.

Ideal#2: Automatic. This goes along with ease of use. I know Windows has a backup client, but never used it. He is more than willing to buy a software package like Ghost or whatever solution that would work for him. I would also like it to do one full backup first and incrementals daily afterwards until the drive is swapped. I intend on swinging over every week or two to swap it until he gets used to it.

His computer setup is a Dell P4 1.6, 512M ram, 30G drive with 12G used.

I appreciate your help and if there's any more info I can offer to help you help me - just ask. And please post here (No emails or PMs). This info might help others looking for a backup system where ease of use is more important than price (to a limit.. 🙂 )

Thanks!
-RH-
 
The IDE drive idea is really NOT the best plan for backing up any sort of crucial information. I'd give it a thumbs up if you were backing up say your personal porn videos or anything to that extent.

Any sort of critical/financial information should really be backed up to some other media. Think CD-R's, DVD-R's, or the next step up go for DAT or DLT tape drives.

I've got a new 20/40G DAT for sale too if interested. 😉
 
Actually this has been a looming question in my head for a few weeks now. What about say I want to do automated incremental backups of a network attached drive? (like a snap!?)
 
I only chose the IDE drive because of the cheap price of drives, and in a removable bay it would be easy to remove/insert.

As for reliability, take into consideration that whatever solution he goes with, there will be a few of them in the rotation. So, if it's DAT, there will be a few DAT tapes used, if it's IDE HD, then there will be a few rotated.

Would it be easier to install an IDE controller card and somehow do mirroring? Then the drive could be swapped out every few days and a new one put in. Then if one ever goes out, just pull the latest mirrored image out of a removable drive bay and physically install it as the master on the primary controller and everything's back up.

I would be interested in your DAT drive, except for the fact that his use of Travan tapes was real bad and then there's the unknown of if your tape even recorded correctly, if the head is dirty etc.

More suggestions welcome and appreciated!
-RH-
 
I actually like using removable hard drives. you could use ntbackup to say copy everything over to the new hard drive eery night. then replace it once a week.

I don't feel comfortable unless there is an offsite solution though. it may be someone taking the backup home, or keeping one in a safety deposit box.

for tape drives I love the ecrix VXA-1 drives, 66GB of storege and the tapes are more durable than dds4, they have, ide, scsi, and firewire versions
 
The thing with IDE drives is they're pretty crappy compared to a tape solution. You bouncing the drive around popping it in and out can lead to drive failure. I'm not saying it's a certainty, but it's more sensitive than a single tape.

If we all trusted IDE drives so much, we wouldn't need a backup plan in the first place.... other than for fixing user errors.

rolleye.gif
 
Originally posted by: chrisisbored
The thing with IDE drives is they're pretty crappy compared to a tape solution. You bouncing the drive around popping it in and out can lead to drive failure. I'm not saying it's a certainty, but it's more sensitive than a single tape.

If we all trusted IDE drives so much, we wouldn't need a backup plan in the first place.... other than for fixing user errors.

rolleye.gif
Click to expand...

I agree you have to be gentle with them. But for a cost/size comparison they are hard to beat. cd's are too small and easy to damage. I hate dds4 tapes, they feel so flimsy. I like the ecrix tapes though, supposdly you can freeze them and boil them and still read them.

not all small bussinesses can spend 2-4000 on a backup solution.
 
I agree you have to be gentle with them. But for a cost/size comparison they are hard to beat. cd's are too small and easy to damage. I hate dds4 tapes, they feel so flimsy. I like the ecrix tapes though, supposdly you can freeze them and boil them and still read them.

not all small bussinesses can spend 2-4000 on a backup solution.
Click to expand...

For a good 20/40G DAT drive it will only set you back about $500-600. The price isn't so bad when you think about the chances of failure sitting in a safe are much less remote than a hdd dying.



 
RedHot,

I have your solution. We provide a backup application that is both an enterprise as well as an asp version. The enterprise is your out-of-the-box application and the ASP version is one hosted on our servers. I am thinking the ASP version is perfect for your needs. It provides real-time backup and no intervention between the user and the software. Recovering files are as easy as following the step-by-step wizard. Send me a pm if you are interested.

Mark
 
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