Backup System

[crazychicken]

I am installing a backup system for a small company (12 computers) which has ~300 GB of critical data. I was going to just get them 2x 1TB external USB drives, 1 to keep in the business and on the network which the employees would work off (over the network) and the second to have them dump the first onto it every 3 months or so as a "snapshot" incase something goes wrong with the first one they aren't SOL.

So my questions are:

1) Is that an OK plan?
2) is there a VERY reliable drive I can buy for the first drive?
3) is there some sort of "incremental" backup software I could use for backing up the first drive to the second?
4) Should I use redundant RAID for the first "drive"?
5) I have seen Ethernet drives, should I use one of those instead of a USB drive plugged into an existing computer?

The budget here is < $1000. My initial thought was it would be ~$300 for each drive - but lets see what you know!

Thanks,

David

 

[Jiggz]

Since this is a business related, the best plan is to have RAID 1 or 5. Mirroring allows instant and current backups. A secondary backup is still required either on a different internal hdd or external hdd. And this secondary back can be programmed to do backups every night or as you find necessary. Back up software like Acronis can be programmed to do just that, either full back ups or incremental backups on a daily basis.

 

[crazychicken]

great - i'm looking into acronis right now, are there other software packages that people can personally recommend?

so do a mirroring raid, do they have like external devices that just have 2 drives in a box (connected USB or ethernet) that automatically deal with the raid setup - i'd rather not put new drives in any of these machines if possible.

also, for the second backup drive, are there some brands that are supposed to be extra reliable?

Thanks,

David

 

[crazychicken]

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