Backup Options?

[hegaroo]

Can any1 recomend any backup devices for a server -approx 40 gig.
I was thinking about an external hard drive which plugs into a LAN socket and backs up daily/weekly?
but i cant find any sites which sell them
Any cheapish ideas pls!

[nichomach]

How important is the server? If it's not critical, a nice Maxtor OneTouch'd do you. If your machine doesn't have a USB2 interface, then Dabs'll do you a PCI USB2 card for £6.99. If it's critical, tape + fire safe.

[Firelord]

At my dads office we use 2 40GB Notebook HDD USB2, then we use Windows XP built in backup software to backup the stuff they need

Thats done on a rotating basis on wednesday and fridays.

Then we use DVD-R to back up their important Database work and take them off site.

It backs up about 4-5GB in around 9mins from the server Quicker than the old Travan 20GB Tape drive they did use!

EDIT: -

60GB 5400rpm, ATA-6, 16MB Cache Notebook HDD and StarDom external case HDD carrier - £92 inc VAT and del from Scan

120GB Hitachi Deskstar 7200RPM 8MB Cache and IcyBox - £79.65 inc VAT and del.

I like the notebook size cos its easy to take off site and doesn't require and external power supply

[rajagra]

Can any1 recomend any backup devices for a server -approx 40 gig.

If the server has SCSI you could use a cheap DLT 40/80 tape drive (and cheap but SEALED tapes off eBay.)
Otherwise removable hard driveS would be fast and convenient. If you can shut down the server to do the backup you can just use cheapie cheerful removable drive caddies.

Don't rely on one removable drive. You'll regret it. Get at least 3 and rotate. Hard drives are so cheap now, they work out as cheap per gigabyte as tapes do!

Possible choices of software are Windows backup (free, but ugh!) Tapeware (about £150? but less ugh!) a few options in the £500+ range.
Or just XCOPY (or the alternative XXCOPY).

I often use a command like:
XCOPY D:\DATA E:\BACKUP /R/I/C/H/D/Y/K/E
Those switches are not only practical (only copy changed files, etc.) but easy to remember for some reason!
Remember: RICH DYKE is a man's best friend!

(Use XCOPY /? to find out why those switches are so useful. Especially /D without a date.)

[StormPC]

Tapes are not reliable. They're ok for offsite but no longer practical for day to day use. Hard drives are the best because they are cheap and fast. I use hard drives in my admin workstation to back up my network server and various other files with Backup My PC. It works great. I also mirror my server drives as an added precaution against server hardware falure.

[rajagra]

Tapes are not reliable. They're ok for offsite but no longer practical for day to day use.

That's putting it a bit strongly, but I know what you mean. I've used some awful tape systems over the years. One day the truth dawned on me:

Shouldn't the backup device be more reliable than the thing it's backing up??

Once you grasp this simple truth, most tape systems seem like a bad idea.

And hard drives start looking good - your backup medium is by definition as reliable as the source!

But DLT is OK - if you treat it gently or know how to reconnect a dropped header (it isn't difficult, you can find instructions online.) And you can buy DLT for bargain prices, or even SuperDLT.
Lesser tape drives than DLT are too small/slow/unreliable.
Better tape drives than SDLT, and their media, are too expensive.
(S)DLT is the "Goldilocks" choice of tape drives - just right.

Hard drive backup is a great option. But you need to follow some of the methods used in tape backup:
Multiple media (held in different places.) Multiple copies of stable files. Frequent backups of changing files. Media rotation schemes that allow you to retrieve old copies of files. Archive copies of files.
These things are easy to manage with a few dozen tapes. But nobody's going to buy a few dozen hard drives to back up to (outside of big businesses, who do just that, in a roundabout way.) So some careful planning is needed.
A straight copy of one hard drive to one other hard drive barely qualifies as a backup system. One power surge when you're making the copy, and... everything's gone!

And remember - the main cause of data loss is human error. If you delete or change files by mistake, and then duplicate your drive to just one backup drive, you've replicated the mistake. That's the reason tape drives became the defacto standard for backup, despite their weaknesses.

[StormPC]

No, actually tape drives WERE the standard because they have been for just about as long as computers have existed. It no longer makes sense to use a tape drive unless it's a once a month off-site backup or something like that. For daily backups HDD's (hot swap or external USB preferred) are the only thing that makes sense.

A HDD that is used only for backing up is going to be 100 times more reliable than a server drive that is in use constantly. It's also 1000 times faster than tape because it is random access and not serial. HDD restores are much faster and save a ton of downtime.

You're right about the backup scheme being vital but that's sort of beyond the scope of this thread I think.

hegaroo, you're on the right path with the HDD option. External HDD's are not as cheap as internal. You may want to just put an extra HDD in your workstation and back up your server from there. It is highly unlikely that your server and workstation drives will die at the same time.