Making Perfect Copies / Archiving Backup Files

[ekrouse]

I need ideas on reliable ways of copying monthly backups for archival purposes.

Background: One of the "hats" I wear at work is to oversee IT. I utilize a local firm to do all the complex stuff that is beyond our capabilities. Based on their recommendation we use Symantec Backup Exec to backup the server and our datawarehouse nightly using a series of portable hard drives (WD MyBooks) instead of tapes. We create full backups, not incremental. We have 4 drives for Mon - Thurs and 5 drives for Fridays.

My goal is to have a drive at home and once a month copy a Friday backup onto it. I have been told that this won't work because copying somehow corrupts the file. I am told that it must be an original backup. I don't want to bring the archive drive into the office and then leave it there overnight to have an original created since that defeats the purpose of having backups offsite.

While I am open to any suggestions, my thought is there must be some great, yet simple software that can make an EXACT backup (same folder create dates, etc). Whenever I look into things long enough I can usually find great solutions that my professionals are unaware of, but haven't had any success so far.

Thanks,

ekrouse

 

[BIonHand]

Copying a file does not "corrupt" it. Are you sure this is the term that was used?

How exactly are you creating backups? Are you creating backups of a database (using database facilities) or are you doing file-level backups at the operating system level?

When backing up a database there is a concept of "logs" which hold records of each transaction, ie each change to the data, and these logs are backed up in case the database becomes corrupt so the can be re-applied if necessary. Another way of backing up a databse is a "snapshot" which is a copy of the entire database as it stands at the time. Perhaps your different backups are because you are only backing up the logs from Monday to Thursday but the Friday backup is a snapshot?

Can you get more information on exactly what is being backed up?

John

http://www.BIonHand.com

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