Backup utility that shuts down system after backup

[Mich2too]

My volunteer fire department recently purchased an exterior HD to back up our computer with due to a crashing hard drive. We now have a completely new built computer which needs to be backed up at least once a week. Due to weather related power outages, we do not want to leave our computer powered on 24/7 and know that no one will regularly stop at the department to shut the system off after a back up has been completed. We are running Office XP Pro with Service Pack 3.

Does anyone know of a backup utility which can be programmed to run the backup and then shut the sytem down after completing and verifying the backup?

We are open to the open source options as well.

THANK YOU ahead of time for your time reading this and for any suggestions you may have.

 

[LeeMason]

I would suggest that you don't just backup to an external HDD. That's good for restoring in case of hardware or software failure but if a disaster occurs (fire, flood, theft, etc) you will be lost. I would suggest using some sort of online backup service. There is software that can backup and then shutdown your system provided by many such providers. What area are you in and I may be able to suggest a few from which to choose?


Lee Mason
Optimal Projects Ltd

http://www.opl.co.uk

http://www.backupsanywhere.com

 

[Mich2too]

Lee,

Thanks for the reply. We are in Northwest Michigan between Ludington & Manistee just off the Lake Michigan shoreline. Our department has just recently upgraded from dial-up to satellite providers, so backing up online would be more feasible now.

Sue

 

[LeeMason]

Sue,

There are a few companies in Michigan that could provide the sort of service that you are looking for. Here are a few:

hotwirebackup.com
Progressive Network Solutions (prognetsol.com)
Utropicmedia Network Solutions (utropicmedia.net)

They all provide the backup service that you are looking for. By the way, I have no association with any of these companies.

Lee

Lee Mason
Optimal Projects Ltd

http://www.opl.co.uk

http://www.backupsanywhere.com

 

[Mich2too]

Lee,

Thank you!! I will research each of them and turn the info over to my fire chief. Thankfully, there are only a few pertinent files which really need to be backed up. We are however, backing up the entire system so there will be less down time should be have a crash to recover from. We're still extracting our Outlook file from the old hard drive. Keep your fingers crossed!! I'm the one who did all the initial contact data input and do not relish the idea of having to start from scratch.

 

[Goid]

To answer your question about scheduling a shutdown after the backup is completed, most backup software has the ability to run a program after the backup is complete. You can create a batch file with the following code

shutdown -s

We use ARCserve at our site, which is a bit pricy, but is has this funcionality.

Or, you could simply create a scheduled task that runs every Friday, after your backup is complete, with the same batch file that I have specified above. Say you run the backup at 11:00. Run the backup once, determine what the maximum length of time would be for the backup to complete, then schedule the task to run 30 minutes after that.

But as the folks mentioned above, an offsite solution would be your best bet, however you can still use the info I have provided above to facilitate the shutdown of the computer.