twstechserv
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Backup advice
Ok, I just took over the networking gig at a small (5 person) law firm. They have 1 server (win2000) and 6 workstations (all xp mix of pro and home). My question is concerning Backing up the sever.
Right now they do nightly backups to 2 external usb drives (alternated nightly so that one is always off premises in case of fire or theft) using Iomega backup software to create an image of the drive. While this is all well and good (unless you take into account the fact that it take darn near 5 hours to back up 40 gigs: usb 1.1), it is only good if there is an os crash or hdd failure. I'm more worried about if there's a fire, theft or mobo issue and I have to restore that image to a drive going into a new machine isn't going to work right.
There has to be a better backup strategy. Since I am still a bit new to networking in a business sense, I would like some pointers on efficient, effective backup solutions utilizing the 2 external drives and maybe and online backup option combination.
My main goal is to have them back up and running in the least amount of time with the emphasis being on getting the system back to the state is was before tragedy happened.
Thanks in advance for your advice.
twstechserv
Right now they do nightly backups to 2 external usb drives (alternated nightly so that one is always off premises in case of fire or theft) using Iomega backup software to create an image of the drive. While this is all well and good (unless you take into account the fact that it take darn near 5 hours to back up 40 gigs: usb 1.1), it is only good if there is an os crash or hdd failure. I'm more worried about if there's a fire, theft or mobo issue and I have to restore that image to a drive going into a new machine isn't going to work right.
There has to be a better backup strategy. Since I am still a bit new to networking in a business sense, I would like some pointers on efficient, effective backup solutions utilizing the 2 external drives and maybe and online backup option combination.
My main goal is to have them back up and running in the least amount of time with the emphasis being on getting the system back to the state is was before tragedy happened.
Thanks in advance for your advice.
twstechserv
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rindi
A further point here. Law firms, at least in my country, are required to archive their records for years, so there should be an archiving system in place. For that USB harddisks aren't the way to go but rather tapes or DvD's. Such media would just get locked away after the backup, and tapes and DVD's are meant for long term storage, while disks are more for short terms, like it is in place at your company now. I'd try to find out if the laws in your country also require long term archiving. And if such data is on the PC's or if that is all done in paper form...
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ASKER
Thanks to everyone for the advice so far.
Rindi:
I am in the US and I will definitely look into that as they are paperless except for the few originals that the law requires. Even then those have a scanned copy saved on the server. Do you know where I might start looking other than just google? Also, would incremental backups work best for the records as they are in pdf format and all stored in 1 folder separated by case in sub-folders.
Thanks
Rindi:
I am in the US and I will definitely look into that as they are paperless except for the few originals that the law requires. Even then those have a scanned copy saved on the server. Do you know where I might start looking other than just google? Also, would incremental backups work best for the records as they are in pdf format and all stored in 1 folder separated by case in sub-folders.
Thanks
I never use incremental backups, because for a restore you need the last full backup and then every incremental until the restore date. I prefer differential backups for the daily backups, as that backs up all the changed data since the last full backup. That makes it easier and faster to restore and it still uses less backup media space and time than a full backup.
You'll probably have to ask some of the lawyers in your firm, they should know your laws, or then ask the authorities in your state or city, as this may be handled differently regionally.
You'll probably have to ask some of the lawyers in your firm, they should know your laws, or then ask the authorities in your state or city, as this may be handled differently regionally.
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ASKER
Thanks for all the help guys. I assigned pts to all because I wanted advice and everyone gave usable advice. I gave the majority to the option I decided to employ.
Thanks again everyone,
twstechserv
Thanks again everyone,
twstechserv