Need Drive back up advice

[friarfraust]

I need to know what options are available. We do movies and things of that nature at my job. Some of the files are 20g, then add in another 2-3g of info per day to the file. We would like to start backing up all of this info daily. Aside from burning it all to dvds daily, is there a way to automate the proces and create mirror images of everything we are doing on a daily basis that is fairly fast? Burning dvds isn't bad but we don't want to spend 30min a day loading a dvd burner, plus the disks would really start to add up fast, since you can't add to the same dvd.

We'd end up with almost 300 dvds after a year, I know there are TB external drives now so maybe that would be a better option.

 

[imported_wired247]

look into a nice program called acronis, do some scheduled backups daily on an external 1tb or 1.5tb ... preferably eSATA for best speed.

it can do incremental backups so you're not wasting space every time you backup.

i'd also recommend having it verify the backup file after archiving.

 

[corkyg]

Yeah - but the program is called TrueImage. Acronis is the maker. You can get all the details on it from the official TrueImage forum which is hosted here:

TI

 

[Burrich]

For a small business you can also look at a solution like ReadyNAS or build your own NAS. The Windows Home Server software has backup software which allows you do to backups. This might be a good option especially if you want the drive available to more than one PC at a time.

 

[friarfraust]

Thanks for the info will check these out and let them know. We were going to try mozy or carbonite but the size of the files and the lackluster reviews I read on recovering your info din't sound like they would work well

BTW, I think this stuff might have to be mac compatible, I know macs are being used in certain things

 

[corkyg]

Originally posted by: friarfraust
BTW, I think this stuff might have to be mac compatible, I know macs are being used in certain things

AFIK, Acronis products are NOT Mac compatible.

 

[VirtualLarry]

HP's WHS box supports Time Machine. (I don't know what that is exactly, but I know it's mac-related.)

 

[imported_wired247]

Originally posted by: corkyg
Yeah - but the program is called TrueImage. Acronis is the maker. You can get all the details on it from the official TrueImage forum which is hosted here:

TI

Thanks for the correction... my mistake

 

[JackMDS]

http://www.acronis.com/homecom...ng/download/trueimage/

 

[RebateMonger]

If you have more than one PC, then the simplest way is with Windows Home Server. Backups and file management are fully automated, and restores, of either individual files or entire computers is extremely simple.

No matter what backup solution you choose, I strongly suggest backiing up ENTIRE PCs and not just certain files or folders. I often see people who lose important stuff (like their email) when they don't back up everything. Full backups will make restoration of PCs much faster when their hard drives fail or they get hit by spyware/viruses/trojans/worms.