Question on USB backups

[garhof]

My mom's office recently asked me to set them up with a backup system. They are currently using a tape backup, but its given them problems before, and its getting to small. I have been looking at usb backup drives, but it seems like all the reviews of the manufactured ones are bad. Are they really?
I'd also like to know how they work exactly. Will i be able to backup directly from the drive if the system fails, or will i have to be in windows and transfer the files?
Also, is there a basic thread on backups. I did a quick search, but couldnt find anything.

Thanks.

 

[Laforge]

My mom's office recently asked me to set them up with a backup system. They are currently using a tape backup, but its given them problems before, and its getting to small. I have been looking at usb backup drives, but it seems like all the reviews of the manufactured ones are bad. Are they really?
I'd also like to know how they work exactly. Will i be able to backup directly from the drive if the system fails, or will i have to be in windows and transfer the files?
Also, is there a basic thread on backups. I did a quick search, but couldnt find anything.

Thanks.

Here's where you are at, and I have some questions

1) How much data needs to be backed up?

2) are you going to be backing up a server, or just "the boss's computer"



What you can do for backup, is build a ghost image on the computer that needs to be backed up (Norton Ghost, PowerQuest DriveImage, etc...) and then backup that file. If the imaged file is going to be, say.. 30GB.. get a drive that's at least 8 times that size after formatting.. so, I'd shoot for a 200+ [again, depends on how much data]...

Then.. every time you backup.. Date the file.

Keep 6 backups on that drive.

Alternatively..

Get two drives that are 4x the size and alternate between them for backups.

No two external drives are going to fail simultaneously.
Get hybrid drives that have firewire and usb2.0
(My reasoning is that you will have the luxury of being able to use these drives on ANY computer.. even old macintoshes... ) But if you feel there is no need for firewire, you can save a few bucks..

Get ones made out of aluminum, not plastic.
Get ones with a fan if you can.

Here's neweggs stock of Fan equipped, aluminum, usb2.0/firewire, 3.5" enclosures


The ams venus has 71 reviews, and maintains a 5 star rating.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817145657

It should.. it's the most expensive one there.

 

[garhof]

1. I"ll be backing up around 30gigs now, and i'd say 50 in a few years. maybe more.
2. They call the computer the server, but its just my mom's pc with a shared folder and everyone mapped to it.
They've had this pc for 7-8 years, and they just got to 30gb, now they want a new one cause its dog slow, and full.
I kinda liked the looks of the one touch backups for them, or a simple program that automacially backs up the drive a few times a week, they are pretty ignorant, and dont like to change.
I still have to check with them on how their system works now with the tape backup. If they jsut want a backup of their files, then a self made USB drive would be great, it'll be big, cheap and faster than tape. The thing that would be nice is to have an image that i could just rebuild with if anything went down. And i didnt know if the computer totally dies, or gets infected with a virus if i could acces the USB/1394 drive from dos, or whatever ghost/partition magic uses, if i could then that would also answer some of my questions.
I was thinking that i'd get around a 300gb drive, I was thinking of getting a external seagate, but it, and all of the other external hdd's get terrible reviews for breaking. I thoguht about making my own, but I didnt know exactly how they worked, and how available good software was to use on them. For me it would be great, i could plug one into my pc, just transfer a copy of files and i'd be happy, but i can do that and speed some time. they just want a backup and for it to work, and fast if anything goes down.

Let me know if you need anything else.

 

[Laforge]

1. I"ll be backing up around 30gigs now, and i'd say 50 in a few years. maybe more.
2. They call the computer the server, but its just my mom's pc with a shared folder and everyone mapped to it.
They've had this pc for 7-8 years, and they just got to 30gb, now they want a new one cause its dog slow, and full.
I kinda liked the looks of the one touch backups for them, or a simple program that automacially backs up the drive a few times a week, they are pretty ignorant, and dont like to change.
I still have to check with them on how their system works now with the tape backup. If they jsut want a backup of their files, then a self made USB drive would be great, it'll be big, cheap and faster than tape. The thing that would be nice is to have an image that i could just rebuild with if anything went down. And i didnt know if the computer totally dies, or gets infected with a virus if i could acces the USB/1394 drive from dos, or whatever ghost/partition magic uses, if i could then that would also answer some of my questions.
I was thinking that i'd get around a 300gb drive, I was thinking of getting a external seagate, but it, and all of the other external hdd's get terrible reviews for breaking. I thoguht about making my own, but I didnt know exactly how they worked, and how available good software was to use on them. For me it would be great, i could plug one into my pc, just transfer a copy of files and i'd be happy, but i can do that and speed some time. they just want a backup and for it to work, and fast if anything goes down.

Let me know if you need anything else.

You could always get yourself a copy of knoppix live, and DD the drive to and from the external drive.

I do believe, that, the newest version of ghost has some sort of "USBdos" driver...

At the very least, I *KNOW* it has a network support, so you could get yourself one of those nice dlink NAS drives instead