Best Automatic Backup System

How about a server with a reasonable amount of disk space in the co-lo and continual data protection that sends a copy of any data change from your servers to the hosted server in real time? Eliminates the backup window entirely. You'd have to backup the server in the co-lo of course since it would copy damage from a virus to the backup server (well not quite since it keeps old versions for a bit). Veritas version of it is at http://www.backupexec.com/ although there are similar products from other manufacturers.

There are of course on-line companies that offer such a service, just type 'online backup' into Google.

If you do host it at home remember you need to be able to send the data back to work at a similar speed as they sent it to you, hence SDSL or synmetrical leased line rather than ADSL.

A quick simple solution i use is a piece of software called iomega automatic backup...

https://iomega-na-en.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/iomega_na_en.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=17309&p_created=1111600000&p_sid=xSBxU47i&p_lva=16741&p_li=

This will backup any file on a schedule or as it changes etc. and keep multiple revisions. The files are backed up to an external hard drive connected to my pc via usb. Works seemlessly in the background with no problems.

Cost of the software and the hard drive is the only outlay.

Hope this helps.

Rather than backing up to a tape or external disk, I would suggest using any other spare computer (or even one that is not otherwise very busy), creating some space there on the hard drive, and backing up the important files to that every night (or some other time of day). You don't even need to buy any special software. A small script with an xcopy command can be scheduled to run at a fixed time with the Windows scheduler. You can specify that only files that have changed should be backed up, etc.

This approach is free, completely automated, and fairly light on resources. You do need another machine on the network with some free disk space.

If you want to pursue this further please post back and I can provide more details about how to create a small script.

Do consider the useful tips posted by bdetchevery above.

Backup For Workgroups is a great disk based backup solution that is extremely quick and easy to use.  It is made by Lockstep.  It will do open file, Exchange, SQL, all for $300 per box.  Only $99 if you want just client.

Veritas is the industry standard if using tape, for only .5GB disk based backup is ideal, you can store many revisions and even rotate out USB drives.