A backup plan for a newbie?? 2

[sabrang]

Hi guys,

I am currently backing up my network on DLT 4 tapes but want to move to the external hard drive solution cos' its cheap and seems to be much faster..

The network is pretty small, only 10 machines in all.. I am talking 200 GB max (uncompressed). I use ntBackup that comes with windows 2000 server..

My questions..

1. Is external harddrive back up a good solution for my situation.
2. Will it work with ntBackup or does it come with its own backup software?
3. If I buy a set of 2 or 3 hard drives can I easily plugin and plugout the drives to take them offsite?
4. Anyother general suggestions that you would like to give me.

Thanks a ton in advance.

sabrang

 

[fs483]

The only inconvenience with HD solution is that they are bulkier and more fragile so don't drop them ! It should work fine. If you want to have them easily plugged in/out, you can either go with (taking the fact they aren't hot swapable) a removable hard drive unit or an external connection like USB/firewire. If you go with the removable HD unit, you will probably need to power down the pc before plugging it in.

 

[sabrang]

Hi akwong,

Thanks a lot for your reply.

I was leaning towards buying a usb hard drive. I guess I'll have to upgrade my usb to usb 2.0 to fully utilize external hard drive's speed in backing up.

Is there one you recommend? I mean ,can I still use it with ntbackup or I'll have to use the program that comes with it?

thanks..sabrang

 

[fs483]

You can use NTBackup or you can buy the Maxtor One-Touch External Hard drive. I don't know how well it works for backup the operating system and I'm pretty sure it can't back Exchange or System State but if you are just looking to backup regular files it's a great tool. I haven't used it but I think there's an interface that lets you select which folders you want to backup and then all you need to do is press on the button in front of the drive and it takes all the data. Some models work both with USB and Firewire.

 

[kenyhp]

External Hard Drive is OK provided there is an alternative backup that you do. Why you may ask? Think of these situations.

Think of the extreme conditions.

1) You are hit by a virus, As the external HDD is connected to the PC, it can easily damage your data. (As it is just another hard drive whether external or internal.

2) There is power spike or something and both your server and external hard drive fails,

3) Suppose you plan to keep it off site, then again carrying a hard drive always is also not that safe.

Backups should be done and should be able to take it offline and off site.

 

[sabrang]

Dear kenyhp..

thanks for your input.. Infact, once I get my hard drives I'll still be left with my old tapes that I'll use to have a critical alternative backup as you suggested.. not every thing, cos' it will need more tapes, but the critical data..

also guys, i saw an iomega 250 gb on sale for just 150 bucks, that is the best I have seen so far.. also, it says that it comes with Ghost utility.. now, Ghost is also good isn't it, i mean I can back up system state and everything, right?

because my network is so small and after having the harddrives I'll have so much space, i was thinking that I'll weekly back up EVERYTHING on my network.. I mean back up whole drives - that takes care of system state also right?

thanks a lottttt guys, you guys are a great help..

 

[kenyhp]

Hi Sabrang,

Ghost is indeed a very good product from Symantec. Very easy to image and very easy to bring to a stable state.

Better buy 2 of iomega (if possible), so that you can make one of them offsite.

 

[sabrang]

Hi Kenyhp,
Thanks again.. I am planning to do just that..
thanks for everyone's help!

 

[sabrang]

Hi guys,
I am back! I bought the iomega 250 gigs hard drives and all set to go.. but some initial hiccups thiough, please advise..

1. the iomega drives come with fat32 partition which is a little silly because the native partitions in 2000 and xp is NTFS. anyways, fat32 can not hold a file of more than 4 gigs where as my back up (normal) wil be around a 100 gigs.. the only solution i can think of is converting the drive to ntfs but the documnetation says that it is not supported.. so, i am a bit scared.. any help??

2. the issue with ghost that came with it is that it needs to be installed on every machine before it can be used.. well, i guess i will continue using ntbackup that comes with windows 2000 for now and slowly work on installing ghost on every machine and create full drive images..

Please be generous with your advice and this newbie will be very grateful.. thanks and regards to all...

 

[sabrang]

any one?

 

[jaymaechtlen]

Well, why not try formatting one of them to NTFS?
If it doesn't work out, will the Iomega units be useable at all? (can you return them?)

I wonder what level they can be addressed at? Can they be partitioned and formatted as a normal disk?

Jay

 

[sabrang]

hi jay..

oops! my bad.. actualy iomega does support ntfs on the desktop hardrives.. it is their "peerless" drvives that do not support ntfs and says so in the documentation.. I converted the drive to a ntfs and everything seems allright...

thanks for your reply though..

 

[prasu]

Hello Sabrang
Did you see any issues while the data is getting back uped to an external hard drive.
I read in some forms, the system hangs while we use softwares like Veritas to back up the data to an external hard drive

thanks
prasu

 

[sabrang]

hi prasu,
nothing of that sort! seems to work fine.. but it is very slow, cos i have usb 1.1.. usb 2 would be very very fast.. other than that it seems to work fine for me..