Backing up a Home Network Drive

[greggster]

Hi all, i am going mad

I have an Iomega media drive at home (essentially a mini server) which i have all of my files on - music, photos, files etc. About 55GB in all.


I want to back this up daily and have been around the houses so much for the last few days my brain aches. So far;

• looked at on line back up - too expensive. Found one cheap one but was in the US, never heard of them etc etc
• then looked into backing it up onto my main desktop C drive. On advice of Iomega i downloaded Retrospect 7.7 software which enabled me to back up onto my C Drive only its so complicated i can't find the files, it didn't seem to back up the full 55GB and i can't even find out how to "schedule" back ups. Basically it is for pro's and i am not an IT pro!!
• looked into using my WD external hard drive unit which has back up software on it but it doesn't support networked drives
• thought about replacing the network drive with a double disc type but the thought of setting it all up again on 4 computers .....

Someone please help me with a good, cheapish, easy idea!! Thanks.

 

[Ted]

Can't you map it as a local drive, and then use microsoft backup?

 

[greggster]

not sure how to do that?

 

[Ted]

Find the drive on the network - usually under my network or something similar. IIRC you then right click the folder you see, an select add network drive. This will automatically suggest a drive letter - E:, f: G:. etc.

Go to start/run, and type backup in the box - this will start the backup program (free with all windows)

Or something similar to that.....

In unix its really easy.

 

[greggster]

thanks Ted, sounds good but maybe not so automatic as i am after - i'm so busy i need something automatic that informs me daily when its backed up overnight?

 

[Colin_b]

thanks Ted, sounds good but maybe not so automatic as i am after - i'm so busy i need something automatic that informs me daily when its backed up overnight?

Look at second copy.

Been using it for years, and works well for backups you don't really have to think about.

Second Copy: Secure your data with automatic backup software

 

[greggster]

Look at second copy.

Been using it for years, and works well for backups you don't really have to think about.

Second Copy: Secure your data with automatic backup software

Thanks, i've emailed them to see if it supports backing up network drives :bannana:

 

[GordonTarling]

I use Acronis True Image to back my server up to a dedicated hard drive which resides in a caddy on my desktop PC. I have two caddies and these are swapped when I remember! The drives in the caddies get backed up online to Carbonite. True Image will schedule regular backups if that's what you need.

 

[iscaboy]

Backups are less than worthless, until and unless you have proven a 100% successful restore on virgin tin with a virgin OS.

If backups are important DLT tape is the only game in town, keep cycling the tapes and keep all the recent (everything except pending) offsite.

 

[Colin_b]

Backups are less than worthless, until and unless you have proven a 100% successful restore on virgin tin with a virgin OS.

If backups are important DLT tape is the only game in town, keep cycling the tapes and keep all the recent (everything except pending) offsite.

You need Acronis, then...

One of the strengths of acronis is the ability to do a bare metal restore. Back up to a USB disk or NAS. To recover boot off the second copy CD with the USB drive plugged in or the NAS online, and recover the whole disk(s). Round about 8 minutes for a system with 30gb on it.

DLT tapes (and DLT1) are obsolete technology, and more expensive, slower and less reliable than Acronis.

Second copy for data backup, Acronis for full system recovery and data backup.

 

[iscaboy]

I know all about acronis ta, had it licensed for many years.

Sorry, but it is NOT a backup product. It is a disk IMAGING product.

two utterly different things.

DLT is about as far from obsolete as you can get.

 

[Spinal]

Backups are less than worthless, until and unless you have proven a 100% successful restore on virgin tin with a virgin OS.

If backups are important DLT tape is the only game in town, keep cycling the tapes and keep all the recent (everything except pending) offsite.

I think you may be confusing system backups with data backups... I think the OP is interested in restorng files/data, and not an OS.

For home-laptop use, I tend to use Mozy. Cheap, cheerful and quite good. It is in the states - so don't put any confidential info you don't own on there or the DPA people wont be happy

In response to the OP - do you have any linux boxes around? If not, do you have an old laptop/desktop you don't use? You could always run an rsync (or even a basic copy) in a cron job (scheduler). Very basic, but will do the trick and with minor skill you can get it to "rotate" your backups to multiple drives and delete the oldest copy after xx days...
M.

 

[iscaboy]

I think you may be confusing system backups with data backups... I think the OP is interested in restorng files/data, and not an OS.

No, ultimately they are much the same thing, data is worthless without applications, applications are worthless without installed files and the windows registry etc.

Backup is backup is backup.

Lots of people talk about lots of things that aren't backup, as though they are backup.

Nobody "gets" backup until their data is hosed.

A friend of mine runs a well know and successful data recovery company, his living depends on the fact that lots of people talk about things that aren't backup, as though they are backup.

Remote copies are not backup.
Disk images are not backup.
RAID 1 is not backup.
Archives are not backup.
System restore is not backup.

Backup that has not been tested and proven to restore is not backup.

 

[Deker]

No, ultimately they are much the same thing, data is worthless without applications, applications are worthless without installed files and the windows registry etc.

Not strictly true, if you only need a folder of word documents for example, you don't need a full system backup with registry and applications - it all depends on your disaster recovery plans! Of course you're right if it's a complex install with bespoke files.

To the OP, I may have an LTO2 5 1/4" drive spare very soon which you can have (It should be good for around 200GB per tape), is it to fit a server or PC?

 

[Spinal]

No, ultimately they are much the same thing, data is worthless without applications, applications are worthless without installed files and the windows registry etc.

Backup is backup is backup.

Lots of people talk about lots of things that aren't backup, as though they are backup.

Nobody "gets" backup until their data is hosed.

A friend of mine runs a well know and successful data recovery company, his living depends on the fact that lots of people talk about things that aren't backup, as though they are backup.

Remote copies are not backup.
Disk images are not backup.
RAID 1 is not backup.
Archives are not backup.
System restore is not backup.

Backup that has not been tested and proven to restore is not backup.

I don't strictly agree... Remote copies, when done sequentially and not overwritten until the data expires is a backup.

Disk images are a technique of copying data... it can be a backup if the requirements are for a full disk image to be stored. Again, versions would need to be kept, etc.

Add to that that you can have onsite & offsite backups; different RPO and RTOs and it's not really so clear cut as to what is a backup and what is an archive and what is a duplicate copy.

Your friend might work for a data recovery company... but I work for a 17,000 employee company that does Managed Backup Services, storage software (once called the "companyName tax" given the ubiquity in the storage market. If you bought EMC, Hitachi, or any other storage from a hardware perspective, you would buy our software to manage it - sorry have to remove names as there are some legal issues... but if you're in the backup/storage world you'll know whom I'm referring to) and in general other things IT Security related; with clients ranging from approximately 60% of home users (in one product category) to 99% of Fortune 500 companies, and quite a few governments.

Sales pitch over I do agree though that a backup plan without a consistent test plan is worthless.

M.

 

[iscaboy]

I don't strictly agree... Remote copies, when done sequentially and not overwritten until the data expires is a backup.

Disk images are a technique of copying data... it can be a backup if the requirements are for a full disk image to be stored. Again, versions would need to be kept, etc.

Add to that that you can have onsite & offsite backups; different RPO and RTOs and it's not really so clear cut as to what is a backup and what is an archive and what is a duplicate copy.

Your friend might work for a data recovery company... but I work for a 17,000 employee company that does Managed Backup Services, storage software (once called the "companyName tax" given the ubiquity in the storage market. If you bought EMC, Hitachi, or any other storage from a hardware perspective, you would buy our software to manage it - sorry have to remove names as there are some legal issues... but if you're in the backup/storage world you'll know whom I'm referring to) and in general other things IT Security related; with clients ranging from approximately 60% of home users (in one product category) to 99% of Fortune 500 companies, and quite a few governments.

Sales pitch over I do agree though that a backup plan without a consistent test plan is worthless.

M.

My friend doesn't work for a DR co, he owns it, and gets much of his work from other DR companies.

And, as you should know, Copying != backup.

If is doesn't have incremental, hashing / verification and signing it ain't a backup.

The product your company supplies does incremental / hashing / signing. It is a backup.

*you* should actually be signing this particular tune louder than me....

 

[greggster]

Look at second copy.

Been using it for years, and works well for backups you don't really have to think about.

Second Copy: Secure your data with automatic backup software

Thank you all so much, especially the above - it is perfect, does the job easily with settings i can actually understand. Thanks Colin, good man. I love this forum and the people on it :bannana:

Sorry if i started an IT argument regarding the validity of back ups, i won't pretend to understand what you are all discussing!!!

 

[iscaboy]

Sorry if i started an IT argument regarding the validity of back ups, i won't pretend to understand what you are all discussing!!!

You will as/if/when your backup fails to restore something you need.

Like the other poster, legally there are things I can't talk about, I wish I could, I'd tell *everyone* with a computer to start investing in *proper* off-site backups... we have left the days when the only people who really depended on IT were companies, and where important data was always commercial data... and we have entered an era where personal data is assuming ever increasing importance...

 

[Colin_b]

You will as/if/when your backup fails to restore something you need.

Like the other poster, legally there are things I can't talk about, I wish I could, I'd tell *everyone* with a computer to start investing in *proper* off-site backups... we have left the days when the only people who really depended on IT were companies, and where important data was always commercial data... and we have entered an era where personal data is assuming ever increasing importance...

I think you are overstating it for the home market. People need to understand what their unique, non-replaceable requirements are. Photographs, home video personal data. Backup that data very carefully, as you say, and test the recovery. Cheap and easy to do, preferably automated. Usually works out to be not a huge amount of data.

The main thing is to actually backup, and test the restore. Regularly.

 

[iscaboy]

I think you are overstating it for the home market.

Two years ago, I would have agreed with you.

However, the world has moved on since then, and if anything I am understating it. You never know what item of historical data will be immensely valuable and important at some point in the future, especially in a world where every one and every agency on the planet is busy amassing data, which may or may not be correct.