Automated external backup???

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osgood

osgood

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For the past week I've been updating all my backup files on another hard drive in preparation for a format and reload, which after 2 1/2 years is overdue. This sunday was going to be the big "reload" day!

Yesterday morning, worked on the laptop for two hours then went to make tea, toast and Vegemite for brekky and heard a couple of faint beeps. Looked at the laptop screen, which had now turned black....no problem, just reboot......bugger!!! Will not start!

Dell support diagnosed error 2000-0151....new hard drive will be installed next day, which is today.

Hopefully when I plug the old drive into my drive dock, the remaining important files will be recoverable. The error message apparently means that this should work!

I have at least seven other hard drives with most important stuff on them, but I think I will look into an automated external backup system.

Does anyone use an automated external backup system? Which one and how intrusive is it on the system and how good is it???
 
I've used KinectD (previously Data Deposit Box) for several years to offsite back up critical files in real time ... works well ... does not seem to be much of an overhead.

Have been meaning to evaluate some other products but never seem to have enough time.
 
i have an LTO III drive in my server so that runs incremental backups every night with rotated fridays

i then run sync toy on all 4 desktops, which have scheduled tasks to automate it, runs at 11.59 every night

it does 2 things

1. copy everything that has changed on pc to the backup folder on the server. no deletions etc
2. moves a subset of stuff, (email backups, documents etc) to my dropbox folder. which then gives me and online backup + duplicate on each machine (inc the laptop at home) of everything on the dropbox

the dropbox only cost 99 dollars for the year which is not the very cheapest but simple and robust

synctoy is free from microsoft

the lto system is not cheap, about 2.5k but sooooooooo worth it
 
Can you use Carbonite or Mozy?
 
I'm not really interested in an online backup as I have more than 1 Terrabyte of stuff already on external drives.

I have Goodsync, but don't think that has an automatic feature.

There are some external hard drives that have auto backup software included and there are separate auto backup programs where you can specify folders to be automatically and incrementally backed up on an external hard drive as you work.

Does anyone have experience with any of this type of auto backup?

Steve,
I will look into 'Sync Toy'...thanks!
 
Osgood

Hi, did you try taking the battery out and disconnecting the power supply on your laptop ? Then hold the on button down for ninety three seconds or more then replace battery and power supply and turn back on. Let me know if this works ? Arty.
 
For off-site backups we use Logmein Backup. It's pretty cheap ($40/yr for one), because you are only using their software, not their server. You back up to any computer you have access to.

For on-site, we use RAID to protect against HDD failure (with replacement drives on hand), and a removable hard drive for daily backups.
 
osgood said:
There are some external hard drives that have auto backup software included and there are separate auto backup programs where you can specify folders to be automatically and incrementally backed up on an external hard drive as you work.

Does anyone have experience with any of this type of auto backup?
Click to expand...

I use two 3tb Seagate hard drive backups at home that meet this requirment. I've never had to reboot from it but they do a great job. Check into those.
 
osgood said:
I'm not really interested in an online backup as I have more than 1 Terrabyte of stuff already on external drives.
Click to expand...

offsite backup is as important as backup in general, even if its not online

btw synctoy does incremental backup like your asking about, and it can be automated using schedule tasks in windows, ie can be set to run say once a day
 
Thanks to everyone for your replies!

Paul,
I have some Seagate external drives but none with backup software, so I will investigate further.

Steve,
I do have one drive offsite and carry two more in my laptop bag, wherever I go in addition to four others at home! Unfortunately, some of my backups are behind schedule, so I want an 'automatic' system. Once a day would be great.
 
osgood said:
Thanks to everyone for your replies!

Paul,
I have some Seagate external drives but none with backup software, so I will investigate further.

Steve,
I do have one drive offsite and carry two more in my laptop bag, wherever I go in addition to four others at home! Unfortunately, some of my backups are behind schedule, so I want an 'automatic' system. Once a day would be great.
Click to expand...

Here is the one we are using at home. I wonder (and it would take someone more intelligent than me) could you setup a VPN from home to reach into your store computer and have the Seagate backup across said VPN?

Seagate 3TB
 
osgood said:
Hopefully when I plug the old drive into my drive dock, the remaining important files will be recoverable.
Click to expand...


I have had great success recovering data from 9 or 10 damaged drives using Advanced Data Recovery http://www.adrecovery.com/ This software saved me many times.

As far as offsite backup I use second copy to backup data to my server and a local network drive.




 
pwalters said:
Here is the one we are using at home. I wonder (and it would take someone more intelligent than me) could you setup a VPN from home to reach into your store computer and have the Seagate backup across said VPN?

Seagate 3TB
Click to expand...
Paul,
Work stuff is not a problem as it fits on a flash drive. It's my personal stuff like photos, documents, software, videos etc that I need all the backup space for! The 'offsite' part of the equation is at the shop, not at home!
 
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