Question for the experts that manage multiple personal computers

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roaf85

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Just a question. What are your guys set ups. Lets say you have a laptop a personal computer, your wife has a computer, your kids have a computer and ideally have one media center.

So 5 personal computers and one internet connection. Computers do not have be connected wirelessly with the exception of the laptop and media center.

How do you guys handle backups, automation of updates, syncing calender schedules etc.

Just want to hear some ideas. Thanks.
 
backup? psssssssh. just back it up on another computer's hd.

automation of updates? just use the windows thing.

syncing calendar schedules? who needs this?
 
>>Just a question.

Well, that's many questions. :)

Different people have widely variable needs. I don't need a media center PC, but I do have need of a server, wife doesn't use computers, etc. Totally different environments.

For backups, I do semi-regular full workstation backups to my server with Ghost (the PC booted with a Bart PE CD). I also warn my daughter to do regular backups of her important stuff to DVDs, which I don't think she bothers with. The server itself has a RAID-1 mirror, but not a backup plan per se. I can restore a Ghost image of the OS very quickly, and the data (except for workstation Ghost images) is either backed up on DVD or not critical if lost. The server is also a print server and a visitor's workstation (yeah, I'm too trusting).

For updates I use auto Windows update on most PCs, (except mine I do manually). App updates as needed.

My solutions won't necessarily fit for you though.

>>syncing calender schedules etc.

I have no need for this, but be more specific on what you need. Syncing calendars with handheld devices, or calendars between users, is it an Outlook calendar, etc. ????

It may be better if you can list more specific questions, general questions will get you advice that's all over the place.
 
Yep, more info would be better.

Like others have said, I let Windows Update automagically update my son and wife's computers. My main rig and my LAN party box I do manually. I have a ghost image of my main rig and periodically burn documents and files to DVD to keep more up to date, but I don't have a lot of files I need to keep up. My wife and son neither really have anything that needs backed up. I think I have some resumes and such from my wife that's burnt onto one of my backup DVD's, but that's about it. Ghost works real well and can even do periodic backups and such, but I just use it to take an image of my main PC after it's first setup, just to get back up and running quickly in the event of a crash. Haven't had a crash in years though, so I guess I'm lucky. Ghost for the home only works on one PC at a time though, so that's kind of a pain. I also have an external hard drive I keep things on. Same stuff I burn on DVD. I like to have more then one method of backup... ;)
 
This is where a NAS box is great. Especially if it comes with automated backup software.

Also, we have Microsoft's Home Server coming soon that is looking promising.
 
Not sure how much you know about scripting, but Robocopy would be a good solution as far as automating backups.

You have to download the Windows Resource kit. You can write the script and have it run as a scheduled task.

For automating updates, there is WSUS, but you need Server 2003 to run it.
 
I have centralized RAID5 storage setup along with VMware Server running a WSUS server and a few other things. I store everything aside from profile information and games on the network storage and backup my PST's, favorites and such manually on a semi-regular basis.

You could do all of that and it would solve some of your issues, then add a couple of scripts and you could automate the whole process. If you're not comfortable with that though you may want to wait for Microsoft to come out with their "Home Server" as your situation is exactly where it is going to shine.

There are three primary purposes of Home Server:

* Automated Computer Backup - Home Server will sit in the middle of your house and completely backup the entire hard drives of every computer connected to it, automatically. Lose anything, even an entire computer, and you will be able to restore it. You will even be able to restore older versions of files, taking advantage of a valuable feature in Windows Vista.
* Access Everything From Anywhere - With a Home Server, you will be able to access all of your files from any computer, inside or outside your home, as well as accessing your home computers from outside the home. You will centrally store your files to make them easier to access at all times.
* Grows With You - Home Server will be designed to make it easier for users to expand its capabilities, especially making it easy to add more hard drives.
Click to expand...
 
Create a share on your media center pc and have your workstations backup to that using the built in Backup utility.

Just schedule them to do a normal backup once a week, with incrementals the other 6 days. Or just do a normal backup once a week. You can schedule it and it runs as long as the machine is on.

Updates just use windows updates scheduled to automatically download/install updates, unless you want to play with WSUS.

Personally I use the built in Backup utility to schedule the backups for my workstation and the gf's laptop and udpate expert for updates to workstations and servers.
 
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