Backup Solution?

[[fr31ns]Karrde]

Ok, I need a solid, easy backup solution.  Whats the best approach here?  Ideally I'd like to backup only files in certain folders (don't backup programs or windows) or a perfect drive imaging utility that will let me restore an entire system from an external HDD.

[Kirby]

Karrde link=topic=5250.msg188152#msg188152 date=1292609393]
Ok, I need a solid, easy backup solution.  Whats the best approach here?  Ideally I'd like to backup only files in certain folders (don't backup programs or windows) or a perfect drive imaging utility that will let me restore an entire system from an external HDD.

I use Windows backup utility via Control Panel for monthly backups of selected C:\ folders to another internal drive, works perfect. It lets you specify folders to backup specifically and exclude all others.

[Mission Difficult]

I use Casper. Seems to work well and there's a free trial if you want to test it out. I used to use Norton Ghost but found it to be kind of finicky if you were cloning between different drive models.

[Vandamguy]

Karrde link=topic=5250.msg188152#msg188152 date=1292609393]
Ok, I need a solid, easy backup solution.  Whats the best approach here?  Ideally I'd like to backup only files in certain folders (don't backup programs or windows) or a perfect drive imaging utility that will let me restore an entire system from an external HDD.

raid 1 - the forgettable backup solution.

[[fr31ns]Karrde]

I have Raid 1, but that is not really a backup plan.  That protects against a single critical drive failure.  Doesn't protect against serious corruption of the OS (what happened to me recently), or dual drive failure.

[Vandamguy]

it is a backup plan .. 2 copys of everything. the only thing it wouldn't work for is multiple copies of the same file.

dual drive failure is highly unlikely.

question about how much you intend to backup ? you could just upload to somewhere and let the company take care of your redundancy.

[[fr31ns]Karrde]

At most, eventually ~1.5 TB  Currently, only a couple hundred gigs.

[Vandamguy]

i would like to argue the semantics of the word 'backup' when you're talking about those kind of numbers ..
also the word 'easy' is becoming irrelevant from your original request .. but i digress.

I used to use one of these as a torrent box

http://www.dlink.com/products/?pid=509

and it had software built into it that would backup selected files at your chosen intervals.. automatically .. and it should scale up to the size you need.

(it also does raid 1)

[[fr31ns]Karrde]

Based on its appearance, is it also a toaster? ;P

[HeK]

Karrde link=topic=5250.msg188168#msg188168 date=1292618517]
I have Raid 1, but that is not really a backup plan.  That protects against a single critical drive failure.  Doesn't protect against serious corruption of the OS (what happened to me recently), or dual drive failure.

Raid, by definition, is not a backup. Raid 1 is susceptible to mirrored corruption, where the corrupted data is mirrored to the good drive.

Here is a list of common and popular backup tools: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_backup_software

I have good luck with Acronis and hear good things about Microsoft's bundled 'Backup and Restore Center'.
I professionally use ARCServ, CommVault and Networker.

[at0m]

I second what HeK says about RAID-1. It helps if you have a very specific hardware failure, but doesn't help at all for other types of failure (power surge blowing out both drives, virus destroying your data, physical theft of the computer, fire destroying your apartment, etc).

For mirroring drives I usually use CloneZilla instead of Acronis' TrueImage, but that's mostly because I've had more luck with it on flaky hardware. But that's not really a valid backup solution, either. I can't speak to Acronis' other software, since I haven't used it personally.

A box running Windows Home Server does a good job of being both scalable and transparent, thats what I used professionally for my small office. We had one from HP with a couple of 1TB drives in it; the one we have has 4 bays. Basically does the same thing as the torrent box, and also does a software-managed data balancing act, sorta like a software RAID-1, but you can tell it what to mirror and what not to mirror. Helps conserve space for nonessential files. Also has a pretty slick network recovery mechanism, if you have a drive failure (or just want to replace a HDD), you can boot an empty PC off of a CD (the ISO's stored on the server, you just have to burn it beforehand or with another computer), and it'll load all of the contents back onto the HDD over the network, including the OS if it was configured to back that up. Pretty nifty.

[Cloud_9ine]

I have always found http://clonezilla.org/ to be a solid image solution in combination with more specific folder based back up.