need some backup advice

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jeffmoss26

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One of my customers is a small law office. About a half dozen computers, peer to peer network. They save everything to an 'F' drive which is just a shared drive on one of the computers. Their backup system now consists of plugging in external hard drives and copying folders from the 'F' drive to the external. However, there are some corrupt files and it will stop and then the backup just ends. The lawyer asked me to find something that would make the backup process easier for his secretaries.
Hope someone can point me in the right direction-
Thanks!
 
I'd at least move to some removable media, or have them get an internet based backup solution. You need something to take the data offsite.

Also using just a single external USB device...support a power surge comes through and hits the "server"..and fries it. Often times when a surge comes in, peripherals are zapped too. So....not only can the server blow a drive in a surge..but the external drive is toast also. Or say a fire in the office. Hence why some form of removable backup or something that can go offsite is desired.

But first I'd tend to those corrupted files. Replacing a backup solution with another, when the source of the data is corrupt...possibly has a failing drive...gotta address the problem first, and then upgrade their backup solution.

For just a workstation running as a server..you have a ton of choices for backup, built in NTBackup, or Cobian...or Comodo backup (currently my fave freebie)
 
Can i ask something? Why do you have a 10 computer law office without a server?

This 10 office place can't afford a 2-3grand server with Active directory and folder redirection? I am sure the law office uses e-mail why not exchange?

Anyway best thing and cheapest, Mozy Home on all the machines, $55/year unlimited data.

Or man up and get a central storage or a server and do it right. The benefits are much better
 
Mozy for the immediate need.

And start encouraging/harrasing a move to Small Business Server.
 
It's not ten pc's...it's 5. I agree that a server would be the appropriate thing, but I don't see them wanting to spend all the money for that. They don't have email, only the lawyer's laptop has internet.
I did not set any of this up, I am just trying to help them out without breaking the bank.
 
I would do iDrive or Mozy for on-line backup. Of course, the "server" that has the F drive would need internet access to do the backup. iDrive will backup corrupt files.
 
so Mozy Home would cost $275/year with about 30 minutes worth of setup.

waste of bandwidth but would work just fine and be reliable.

any of the online backup would be good.

so if only one machine has internet then you got some problems.

what you probably are gonna want to do is get some backup program on each machine to create and image to the F drive, or just backup the F drive and tell the client thats how it gotta be.

Why aren't they all online?

You could get Paragon Drive Backup Personal on a schedule to backup and sent to F drive.
 
marley1 said:
Can i ask something? Why do you have a 10 computer law office without a server?

This 10 office place can't afford a 2-3grand server with Active directory and folder redirection? I am sure the law office uses e-mail why not exchange?

Anyway best thing and cheapest, Mozy Home on all the machines, $55/year unlimited data.

Or man up and get a central storage or a server and do it right. The benefits are much better
Click to expand...

+1 on the AD.

While we are cheapskates at work, we have a backup solution that dumps everything to an external hard drive. We have 2 hard drives, 1 is always in a bank deposit box, 1 is always on site. I think its 2 times a week they are swapped out. It took a leap of faith and a lot of button pushing to get us to that point. Before backups where being done, but to an internal hard drive:confused:

We use AD and I wouldn't look back. Everything is stored in the user's profile and we always have a few days backups, so when someone deletes a file accidentally, we have a copy. Our shared drive is moderated using groups for permissions on each folder. Regular files are stored here.

Using task scheduler and sync toy has proven pretty damn impressive. Backups dump to a folder, at x time, data is dumped to drive. Every so often, manually delete backups.
 
He does not want anyone to be online because 'they are unproductive enough as it is'
I'm just the computer guy.
 
It all started with a small office about that size. All I did was show them what was wrong and where the failures that could bite them in the back side were. Then showed them that for about a grand they could have a file/print and workstation backup server. Also, told them that I could backup their network shares off site with no user interaction for a small monthly fee.

HP DL380 G3 $500 + tax.
Installed samba for file and printer sharing.
Installed BackupPC for workstation backups

Left over was profit.

Now I back up their samba share and other configs from the server remotely with BackupPC. Also monitor their systems with Nagios. Of course, there is an Linux firewall protecting their internet connection and monitoring internet usage, along with other filtering. The owners niece wasn't that social networking was blocked and tried to tell the owner that the internet is broke there. The usage reports now go to the owner once a day so that they can keep track of what is going on. This one office has spawn to many small offices. 90% of the work is done remotely via OpenVPN. The owners can access their systems with the vpn from home or on the road. OpenVPN, BackupPC and Nagios almost make you feel guilty.
 
I agree a centralized server would be a good thing, but guys, common, AD is WAY overkill for a 5 user office. Especially if they all are responsible for their own stuff anyways (thus the group policy and such would not be needed).

I would recommend a somewhat budget machine that can act as the server/backup device. Could easily be put together for less than $1k and probably closer to $600-$800.

You didnt mention how big their backup is (at least I dont think you did), but if it is less than 120gb total I would look into the Iomega Rev drives. Is what they are is hard drives that have just the platters that are removable in a small cartridge, the heads/mechanics are all in the drive that can be internal or external. Its a hybrid between tape and hard drive as it is a small cartridge like a tape, but works like a hard drive so you dont have to do sequential access and such.

I run a few clients on them and they are very pleased.
 
Ok, well Comodo did not work. It didn't even go through the backup, it just froze at 'calculating backup size'
I need something that is going to work and is cheap. Again, he wants to spend as little as possible.
I guess I can try Acronis and see if it works.
 
...find a better client?


honestly, when I was doing consulting, I gave them a quote, told them the reason things cost what they do, and if they can't wrap their heads around it, I didn't need their business.

The way I see it, there is no reason to do substandard work (even against your will), because it only comes back to bite you in the @$$ later :(
 
jeffmoss26 said:
Ok, well Comodo did not work. It didn't even go through the backup, it just froze at 'calculating backup size'
I need something that is going to work and is cheap. Again, he wants to spend as little as possible.
Click to expand...

That's not surprising...considering you mentioned above that there were corrupted files on that drive.

First thing I would do is rectify the corrupted files..perhaps replace the hard drive (I'm going to go out on a limb and wager that this drive is over 3 years old...cheap client probably a very old desktop running as a server). Even if you keep searching for a backup product that may appear to complete a backup when you test it...for unattended daily backups the corruption will probably make it fail over time, not to mention make restoration come 911 time difficult.

Once fixing the drive/corruption is done THEN you can tackle the backup solution.

And mirroring what was mentioned above....after years of doing SMB consulting....don't lower your standards, quote a solid solution, if it's too much for them...don't drop down much...after a certain point walk away. Because those ultra cheap clients will cause you grief, and not earn you money.
 
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Getting a new client...would be nice. I like the guy and I want to help him. All he is concerned about is that his staff can back the shared drive up. Period.
 
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