I run a small business and I currently save all important data to a Dlink NAS with 2 250GB mirrored drives. So far, and we have been using this NAS for a few months, we only have 500mb of data. This setup works very well for me and my employees but I am worried about someone stealing the NAS or complete failure of the device. I want to have a automatic weekly or daily backup of these files.
What is the best, cheapest, and easiest way to accomplish this? I don't think I need offsite storage, but I would like at least a backup of this data on another machine. Is there a program I can install on my server that can simply keep a backup on its drive? Should I go ahead with weekly downloads to offsite places. I'm pretty clueless about these solutions.
Backup system for my business
Moderators: NeilBlanchard, Ralf Hutter, sthayashi, Lawrence Lee
If your livelihood depends on it, definitely, absolutely, categorically make sure there's always at least one up-to-date copy of your data offsite.
500MB of data isn't very much, so one (or more) of the online backup services is feasible provided you've got a halfway decent upload speed. There's loads to choose from, but Mozy is quite good - you get 2GB of backup space free (strictly speaking the free package is only for personal use but you can go for the Pro package if you want), and you download a client app with which you can define backup sets and schedules.
The first backup will obviously take a while, especially if you have a slow connection, but after that it uses a block-level differential backup so subsequent runs will be much quicker.
I'd still keep the NAS as a fast first-stage backup, but you'll also have the remote backup to fall back on if the absolute worst happens and you simultaneously lose both the primary data and the NAS copy.
If you haven't got a fast broadband connection, I think just burning a DVD every day and taking it offsite would be your best bet...
/edit: I just reread your post (properly this time), and if the primary data is stored on the NAS, that makes backing it up even more important - RAID-0 is *not* a backup, it just minimizes downtime in the event of a single disk failure. You could use something like SyncBack to clone the data to a network server, but you really do still need to have an additional copy offsite...
500MB of data isn't very much, so one (or more) of the online backup services is feasible provided you've got a halfway decent upload speed. There's loads to choose from, but Mozy is quite good - you get 2GB of backup space free (strictly speaking the free package is only for personal use but you can go for the Pro package if you want), and you download a client app with which you can define backup sets and schedules.
The first backup will obviously take a while, especially if you have a slow connection, but after that it uses a block-level differential backup so subsequent runs will be much quicker.
I'd still keep the NAS as a fast first-stage backup, but you'll also have the remote backup to fall back on if the absolute worst happens and you simultaneously lose both the primary data and the NAS copy.
If you haven't got a fast broadband connection, I think just burning a DVD every day and taking it offsite would be your best bet...
/edit: I just reread your post (properly this time), and if the primary data is stored on the NAS, that makes backing it up even more important - RAID-0 is *not* a backup, it just minimizes downtime in the event of a single disk failure. You could use something like SyncBack to clone the data to a network server, but you really do still need to have an additional copy offsite...
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Firetech
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Agree with this and the previous posts.fjf wrote:Yahoo. gmail and hotmail have now BIG mailboxes for free. You can send yourself that kind of data to 3 accounts (one in each) weekly. And I would also get a flashdrive or portable HDD (there are ata-usb adapters for them) and take the data with me too.
As well as the onsiet & offsite options mentioned, I'd combine the portable options: Get a quality large USB (2-4Gb for future expansion?) and backup to that daily as you leave but before you leave on a Friday, also do a data CD/DVD burn.
Ensure you keep copies of all the software used on your work PC's offsite too so you can rebuild/replicate your work systems in case of a disaster. It's pointless having the data but no way of reading/processing it because that unobtainable & specialised program burned too.
I daily wonder/hope if my boss has the similar systems in place. If his system fails - I can't do my job....
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Das_Saunamies
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Software backups are nice... full drive images are better. Especially if you use standard workstations from HP or whoever, drive images pay off in case something does go wrong. Takes some time to create, but takes helluva lot less time to get a workstation from 0-100. Just remember to update the image if hardware changes or there's a critical update.
We use Norton Ghost for server and critical workstation drive images, then centralised NAS(primary) and onsite NAT(backup, a month's rollbacks get locked in a vault) for data storage. The data wouldn't fit on an USB stick and the drives are not worth it(extra wires, extra work, slow). Only downside is that NAT is expensive, so not really the best choice for home or small office.
If all you have is 500 MB and a drive image, that offsite service is good value for money, and the USB sticks should do the rest. The sticks aren't foolproof or absolutely reliable if treated roughly(some just plain aren't, period). DVDs are more reliable, but it's a chore to burn them, still worth it for drive images(I think Ghost makes full-restore discs). I wouldn't e-mail a company's critical data online, it's just not safe.
I've been using Microsoft's SyncToy at home. It's free for all and good enough: it's not terribly advanced, but it does the job and talks with all solid media types seamlessly(it pretty much uses Windows to do its bidding). It can update the changes instead of rewriting everything.
Hope you find what works for you, do try all the options!
We use Norton Ghost for server and critical workstation drive images, then centralised NAS(primary) and onsite NAT(backup, a month's rollbacks get locked in a vault) for data storage. The data wouldn't fit on an USB stick and the drives are not worth it(extra wires, extra work, slow). Only downside is that NAT is expensive, so not really the best choice for home or small office.
If all you have is 500 MB and a drive image, that offsite service is good value for money, and the USB sticks should do the rest. The sticks aren't foolproof or absolutely reliable if treated roughly(some just plain aren't, period). DVDs are more reliable, but it's a chore to burn them, still worth it for drive images(I think Ghost makes full-restore discs). I wouldn't e-mail a company's critical data online, it's just not safe.
I've been using Microsoft's SyncToy at home. It's free for all and good enough: it's not terribly advanced, but it does the job and talks with all solid media types seamlessly(it pretty much uses Windows to do its bidding). It can update the changes instead of rewriting everything.
Hope you find what works for you, do try all the options!