My file server went down last week. Lost some data....

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

We'll survive. Most everything was backed up to some degree.

Most of my data loss arose from a klunky backup scheme. I've got my new server installed, and it is a hardware managed Raid 1. But as they say, "a RAID is NOT a backup", and I need to get started again. This is a Windo$e 7 box running the 64 bit "pro" version.

What is current thinking on backup plans in our group?

Thanks!
Stan

[Frog]

I'm still a little old school, and back up to a removable drive in a hot swap tray every morning.
I'm betting that a great number use one of the online services.

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

Is that an internal drive that slips into your cpu cabinet?

What software do you like for that? For some reason, 7 (and before that XP) reports incorrect folder sizes with my system. It will fail to backup using the Windows Backup sofware with an error message saying there isn't enough space on my backup drive. A drag and drop works, but I don't know if you can do incremental backups to a drag & dropped folder. I'm not quite tech-savvy enough. My current portable drive is a 1TB Toshiba with the metallic case.

I'm old school too. I have a Rosewill SATA dock that I have been considering as a port for a similar scheme. Platter-style HDD's seem pretty economical for larger data needs....although our (current) 360 gig certainly doesn't qualify as mammoth.

I was lulled into the trap of thinking the hardware has improved to the point I rarely have trouble.

[Frog]

Yep here it is


Read about it here
http://www.kingwin.com/kf-811-bk-2/
I'm sure there are fancier versions, but this does the trick.

Oh, and I am using Norton Ghost, something else that many may turn up their noses towards, in favor of Acronys or something else, but the one time I needed it when I needed to retrieve some lost Thunderbird email data, there it was!

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

So, your transfer speeds shouldn't be limited by a USB port, if I'm not mistaken. The internal bus speed and processer capabilities will way exceed a platter's limitations. No so, USB 2.0.

If I understand correctly even 3.0 ports--which I only have on my server currently--are slower than read/write speeds of a platter HDD. Am I right here? Of course speed isn't super critical for backups at 3AM, once the first, BIG chunk is saved.

Anyway, I DO like the idea of the front accessed, slide in port that connects directly to the motherboard.

I used to use Ghost, but never for data. But only for Operating System backups, and at that, it was always performed at the dos prompt level. Ghost in a Windows enviornment might be really good for data.

[Gilligan]

Transfer speeds are limited by SATA... it plugs directly in.

No internal USB <-> SATA adapter in there.

[kingscreen]

After multiple crashes that cost me $$$ to recover, I moved everything to a cloud and never looked back.

[Maff]

We use Livedrive for automated backup.  It syncs up every night.  We also use their briefcase just for older stuff that needs to be stored away. 

[GraphicDisorder]

Only trouble with the cloud solution to me is imagine if you lost all your local data, pulling down what must be Terabytes of data for most of you like it is us would take forever from the cloud.

[1964GN]

We currently have the local hard drive that gets backed up to a USB external every night. I am going to add a cloud back up very soon. My thought is this. If the local drive goes belly up I have the external. If there is a hurricane, tornado, fire, etc and I lose everything local we are going to have plenty of time on our hands to retrieve the cloud back up.

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

Only trouble with the cloud solution to me is imagine if you lost all your local data, pulling down what must be Terabytes of data for most of you like it is us would take forever from the cloud.

I agree. Like MONTHS maybe!??

I have an I.T. friend who likes CrashPlan because they supposedly will send you a Hard Drive with your data if you pay a fee. I think he said 150? or so last he knew. I looked on the site briefly but am still in flux.  Here is a copy/paste from the Cloudwards.net website. It has a positive review, but PCmag had some user reviews that are contrasting.

Speed up your backups with seeded backup

If you’ve made a backup over the internet before you know that transferring hundreds of gigabytes of data can take a while, sometimes weeks to finish. If you don’t want to wait that long Crashplan offers something called “seeded backups”.

You simply order an external hard drive which they send to you. Then, you can use their client to backup your data with Firewire and set that hard drive backup to Crashplan. They’ll take care of the rest. So, instead of waiting for weeks or possibly months you can have everything up and running in a couple of days.

Keep in mind, however, that this service cost $124.99 and is only available in the US.
http://www.cloudwards.net/review/crashplan/

My friend considers it as his "last line of defense" for data backup, not his primary. He works Linux I.T. for an largish insurance company (usually from his home) so his data needs are significant. He laughingly said for $60/year, CrashPlan certainly doesn't make much money on him. (2+ terabytes)

[GraphicDisorder]

Ya, thats a option for sure. Not bad on cost either.

[Itsa Little CrOoked]

My current server (7 ult 64 bit) reports, incorrectly, the size on disk and available space. When I do full backups, they are sometimes cancelled because of space available. (Grrrr....) So I have to sort that out, or buy some much larger backup drives. I was told it was sort of a "Seven Thing" and is pretty hard to fix. (shrugs) A simple drag and drop of the shared folder works fine, but is waaaaaay slow, and that really is a big part of how this happened.

I need to look into cloud storage as another backup, for the backup, for the raid. 'Cus I'm gonna get The Stinkeye® from the office help every few days for months and months. Data care is supposefully another one of my jobs as the owner. 

[jvanick]

I've been hearing really good things about Synology from my other techy friends.

haven't tried it yet, but the feature set on their website is pretty impressive.

[GraphicDisorder]

We use a Synology server for our shop. It's not the baddest mofo but gets it done. We have 5 x 4tb drives in it.