Backup System required!

CotswoldCS

Senior member
Sep 14, 2000
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I have had problems getting my Iomega ZIP 250 ATAPI drive working with Windows XP and am looking for a replacement backup system. I have spent too much time trying to get the drive working and have tried everything I can think off without success.

I need to backup 250Mb+ of data - not a large amount by any standard and need to do an automated backup every week.

I have a CD-RW drive but can't find a suitable system that will backup to CD-R automatically. I have setup automated software programs using CD-RW disks before but have had problems getting CD-RW disks to work on other computers and as such have concerns about their practical use for backup purposes. Am I wrong not to consider this method?

I am happy to fork out some cash for some new hardware if it is quick, inexpensive, automated and easy to install. Any suggestions?

What do you use for backup?
 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
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A USB hard drive should work great, some even come with backup software.

I believe the latest Ghost has DOS USB HD drivers so you could use that if the 250 MB is on a separate data partition.

A tape drive will have software and scheduling, I haven't checked prices lately though. Be sure to rotate the tapes (use more than 1).

(ed) another choice: if the machine is on a LAN, oyu could backup by having a scheduled script copy files to a writable folder on another machine.
 

CotswoldCS

Senior member
Sep 14, 2000
384
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All good ideas and greatly appreciated but...

USB drive - Quick, fast, can be automated. But not ideal for important backup since there is only 1! If the room goes up in flames I've lost the computer and the backup USB drive. I know fire isn't likely but a cartridge/ optical/ tape system solves this problem.

Tapes - They all seem to be aimed at 1-100Gb data and cost a fortune! Anyone find one suited for SOHO users?

No LAN - this is a single home computer.

Ghost - this can't be automated weekly without user intervention as far as I know. Plus the data is on a single partition with OS.


 

DaveSimmons

Elite Member
Aug 12, 2001
40,730
670
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Then USB drive + manually burn its contents later?

Or get the zip working again. CD, zip, HD are the only cheap options, tape is the next step up.