Need some backup suggestions please!

[parkbench]

Hello Anandtechers!

This situation is a little complicated and I was hoping to get a few backup suggestions if anyone can come up with any.

My father runs a small business by himself and lately I've been a little frightened about him losing his information. He has an old freight forwarding software package that runs on a 486 20mhz machine with 4Mb of RAM running MS-DOS. My question is what kind of backup solution would be the easiest for him to use (a computer moron) and the best bang for the buck? Should he upgrade to a newer machine and dual-boot DOS and something else? Or is there something easy to use and available for older machines such as his?

Also, if you guys suggest a newer machine, he does have a P3 500 if I'm not mistaken; its main use is for him to get on the internet and type up word documents. It has a 10Gb hard drive (only a few gigs filled) and I'm upgrading his RAM and throwing Windows 2000 on there (because 98 crashes all the time).

Thanks!!
B

 

[Xazzu]

well, if you wanted to back up the old computer, you could always find a tapebackup drive at a flea market or something similar perhaps. upgrading might complicate the whole thing. jmho

 

[mechBgon]

How about a parallel-port Zip250?

 

[DaveSimmons]

A parallel port zip drive is a good idea, make sure you get one that includes DOS drivers.

Also, if his database is small (or compresses well), the DOS pkzip and floppies would work too, as long as you unzip right away on another machine to make sure the zip was good (floppies often have lousy error checking / correction for bad sectors). It would be simple to write a little batch file to type the pkizp command line for him.

 

[parkbench]

If I recall, the entire hard drive is only 250Mb so I think I'll try to go with a Zip-250 drive. Is it easy to do a backup with them? I think I may actually have an internal one lying around the office. Would I be able to remove the (never used) 5.25 inch drive and install the Zip-250 there?

Also, can DOS read the Zip-250 as a regular drive and would it be easy for him to learn how to do backups with it? I'm going to his office tomorrow so I can check everything out then.

Thanks for the suggestions guys!


Edit: Oddly, we have both an external parallel Iomega Zip-250 and an internal Zip-250 kicking around. Unfortunately they both have Win95/98 drivers, anyone knows where can I find DOS drivers?

 

[mechBgon]

Here you go: http://www.iomega.com/software/index.html

 

[mechBgon]

Maybe one of the DOSmeisters here can suggest a batch file template for copying desired folders, too.

Remember that a backup is only useful if you have a recovery plan in place. Let's say the hard drive in the DOS rig kicks the bucket... what then? You might want to put the internal Zip in the P3 system, back up the data from the 486, and practice firing up the P3 in DOS mode, starting the Zip drive's driver, and running the application on the P3 rig so you know it's going to actually do what you need.

 

[parkbench]

Good Ideas!! Thanks for the suggestions guys I'll let you know what happens.