Back-up Systems

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AllNightNerding

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Topic # 14195 20-Jun-2007 21:10

Hi.

I am looking at a good back-up system.

I want it to remain constant and back-up every file that gets saved across our network.
I find the main problem with doing back-ups is the amount of time it takes to copy 200GB of data about 5 times.
I also want it to be really safe from pretty much everything. fire, water, virus, blowing up
We have a server which we are slowly changing all our systems onto but even then how sholuld I go about getting a good back-up system.
I would like overall the back-up system to have a capacity of acound 1 TB as all our computers have aproxamatly 160-180 gb's of data plus other data which s only stored on the server.

Thanks

freitasm

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Reply # 75419 20-Jun-2007 21:34

Be prepared for some expenses...

I have Carbonite for on-line backup. It copies all documents I have on my laptop to the Internet. My backup takes about 15GB online, so make sure you have a data plan that supports this - and those 128 Kbps upload speeds are no good on your first backup.

Another option is to have a NAS on your network, and for complete redundancy use it with RAID. ReadyNAS is perfect for this. I had one here for testing and it's great. Again it's not cheap and you better have gigabit ethernet to make it fast.

Another option is to have another server somewhere outside your building (to protect against fire and theft) and network to it with a VPN and then use some backup program to copy things on schedule or a software like Memeo to keep synchronised copies on the fly. Again, you will need some good and fast broadband to keep things in sync real time.

I posted more about backups here.

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AllNightNerding

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Reply # 75552 21-Jun-2007 18:06

Im thinking of getting raid as it is semi cheap and maybe we will have to bear the brunt of it if theres a fire or something. back it up to my dads laptop so there is a possibility it will be out fo the building or we can just grab it.
is there anything extra needed for RAID obviously another HDD but is it a particular HDD or do we ned a compatible motherboard.

freitasm

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Reply # 75554 21-Jun-2007 18:22

Do you realise a RAID system is not a backup? It can protect against some HDD failure, but will not allow you to recover a file if you delete it for example.

Also, there are lots of different types of RAID. The one you seem to be talking about is known as Mirror - and it's only that. Everything from one disc is mirrored on another disc. You can recover from a single disc failure but not from accidental - or malfunction - deletion.

Backup systems are different things and can include RAID. But think about it - because cost will go up as soon as you start thinking about more resilient systems.

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ZollyMonsta

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Reply # 75566 21-Jun-2007 19:41

A free (and nasty) method is to use a programme like microsoft's synctoy.. However I don't think it will support multiple destinations.

I had cygwin suggested to me too, which is a windows port of unix commands (I think) and monitoring of changed files is one of the tools (someone correct me if I'm wrong!). I downloaded it, but it's beyond my comprehension a bit :)

Cheers,
ZollyMonsta

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freitasm

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Reply # 75567 21-Jun-2007 19:43

There are lots of options - free and paid. I've posted a link to a blog entry I posted before with lots of those options.

It all comes down to requirements such as "I also want it to be really safe from pretty much everything. fire, water, virus, blowing up". This limits the scope a lot, really.

Remove that requirement and you can do anything, even copy and paste really...

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AllNightNerding

411 posts

Ultimate Geek

Reply # 75590 21-Jun-2007 22:24

I think like programming the server to do some kind of back-up to either some kind of tape drive or a HDD would be the best option.

so that it does a differant copy every day. so you can go back several days to find files that you have lost.

Jonski

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Reply # 75863 25-Jun-2007 13:11

Keep in mind that backup systems are your insurance against disaster.

Ask yourself how much would you be willing to spend to recover data if you lost it all in (say) a fire. Then, work out what you want to spend to make sure that doesn't ever need to happen.

Perhaps you should consult with two or three reputable IT solutions companies. I work for a large NZ IT company who would be happy to help you, so send me a private msg if you want me to put you in touch with someone at my place.

Cheers
Jon

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AllNightNerding

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Reply # 75900 25-Jun-2007 17:57

I dont really need a huge back-up system. the main thing i am insuring against is Virus's and i think a removable hdd would do the trick. my main problem is the time it takes for the data to go across. I want something that will take maybe 30 min top to transfer 600gb + of data but i realise this i fully out of the question.