Backup Solutions

[ukgimp]

Is no bad thing but I find myself wanting to ask the good folk here as they are likely to be impartial.

I need to be able to automate a backup for a peer to peer network so that one machine with a CDR can do the deed. Anyone know of any solutions. I have a temporary one where each person zips up all their files and then they are passed over the network. What I would like is a Seagate approach where directories can be clicked and a button pressed. Thank you very much job done.

Any suggestions (free or lowish cost)

[mat]

For a small LAN, a cheap option is GRBackPro - specify boxes/directories/ with excludes if necessary, one click and you're done.

There are lots of BU tools - obvious statement - but it took me a long time to find a reasonably priced network-usable one.

HTH, Mat

[bill]

You might be able to rig something up with DriveImage.

[mat]

I couldn't sleep at night without knowing that I'd got a Drive Image file for all important boxes, but, that said, getting it to work on a network is not a walk in the park - I gave up.

DI is a complete disaster recovery tool, but for regular data backups it's a bit over-the-top I would say.

[bill]

DriveImage works on entire drive partitions, so if you partition your drives strategically then this could work. The stuff that needs to be partitioned regularly gets put on its own partition. The OS and Program Files get their own partitions and are backed up as necessary.

The network part could be a problem depending on your setup. I've used simple batch files to move backups across a peer-to-peer network on a scheduled basis (Windows Scheduler). This was sufficient for my needs.

[mat]

Bill - that's pretty much what we do - seperate partions for OS, programs, data that needs backing up and data that doesn't. Works a treat.

No, the only reason for suggesting that DI might not be ideal for regular data backup (as opposed to disaster recovery) is that it's a root and branch solution - ie, a single image file is produced for the entire partition and a restore is an all or nothing procedure. Put it another way - you've toasted one file - to get it back using DI would involve a full roll-back of the whole partition - not necessarily ideal.

There is a tool with DI called image explorer, which might allow a partial or selective restore, but I'm not sure.

Mat

[bill]

ImageExplorer in the newer DriveImage will let you extract even single files from an entire partition image. It's pretty easy to restore the pieces instead of the whole if you need to.

[ukgimp]

Thanks for the replies people.

Going to look into GRBackPro