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Another Back-up Hardware Question

Columbia Signs

Columbia Signs

New Member
I went through the same thing. I recently tried Acronis imaging, Memeo, TrueImage 11, NovaBack and they all were less than perfect. Memeo runs in the background and as you change a file it saves it instantly. Slowed my computer down, but kinda neat to have real time back ups. The rest could be set to run at certain times of the day or night.

Then I tried Genie Backup Manager PRO 8.0 and it is PERFECT! It's the only back up software that I've found that really works. You can even set it to back up files on a network! That was a big plus. It also allows you to back up without compression. I have plenty of drive space and really like my back up files to be accessible without the need of the back up software. Another nice feature is you can set it only to back up files that have been changed or new files. Making the back up go fast.

Give it a try.
 
iSign

iSign

New Member
Columbia Signs said:
It also allows you to back up without compression. I have plenty of drive space and really like my back up files to be accessible without the need of the back up software.
Click to expand...

BINGO!
That is my gripe with Ghost, or the Windows server backup (and many others). They are great for catastrophic insurance, but for archiving files I may need to hunt through... I like still being able to just root around in windows explorer, or run a search on that drive with windows search feature.

I will look into that. Thanks!
 
John M

John M

New Member
I rely on Acronis True Image for my business, both for my machines and for dealing with customers' machines. It creates a single archive file that you can quickly mount as a drive to browse with Explorer.

You wouldn't need any of the expensive versions; Home does just fine.

For the 1-time quick duplication of your MyBooks, the only truly "fast" way would be to remove the drives from their enclosures, mount them directly to the machine, and copy. Otherwise you're at the mercy of USB speed.

You may want to consider switching from a USB backup device to a removable hard drive tray system. You can swap drives as desired but you retain the full SATA speed.
 
C

cfbeagle

New Member
I might say one thing about Second Copy... I use it too with good results, except...

I had it doing backups nightly on one machine to a network drive, it seems the ip address changed on the network drive. Suffice to say when I needed the backup it wasnt there... I watched the log files every now and then, never any errors???

So if you are using it on a network drive, keep an eye on it!
 
signage

signage

New Member
Well John I have been preaching about Acronis for a while and no one seems to listen! Good to hear some one with your expertise also recommends it.
 
gvgraphics

gvgraphics

New Member
Doug,

When I use to work IT we used allot of raid hot swap drives in series. What this does is allow you to back up to multiple drives simultaneously and you can install or remove a drive while the system is hot. It cost a little money but it is well worth it for the speed and the ability to hot swap the drives. You would be able to pull one of the drives at night before you leave to use at home and in the morning just slide it back in and let it do it's back-up so it is up to date for the next night.

Here is a firewire version of them and they can be linked together to create multiple drive back-ups as you wish. They transfer at 2.4 gb per minut and that equals 144 gb per hour data transfer. That is pretty damn fast.
 
R

Rodan68

New Member
I've never used one but I heard the Drobo is a good solution. It has four hard drive bays that can hold a TB each. If a hard drive fails you just pull it out and replace with a new one. All the data will be replaced from the other drives. It's a bit pricey though.
 
Columbia Signs

Columbia Signs

New Member
I think Doug has it right by keeping a backup at a different location. A backup at the same location as the source in a theft situation is useless.
 
iSign

iSign

New Member
lots of cool ideas here... thanks for the replies, the testimonials for different products... and for those who have also suffered through some of these difficulties, thanks for helping me not feel like the only loser who just can't always seem to keep up with the difficult challenge of figuring out the best & fastest & most secure ways to deal with the data storage requirements in this industry.

John M. I was just remembering the removable hard drives last night, thinking it might be the best of both worlds when my portability demands are almost zero... except that I will still store one drive off site... and the speed and reliability of moving data between internal drives can still exist...

Also, I haven't taken advantage of the firewire technology much yet, but I have firewire ports on all my computers & the MyBook drives... and I have a cable... guess I should try that if it's faster then USB. It is right?
 
John M

John M

New Member
Nah, Firewire and USB 2.0 are pretty much a dead heat in raw specs, with Firewire typically being a little faster in practice. Neither are all that attractive when dealing with large amounts of data.

Your best bet is probably a hot-swappable SATA bay with a few extra "caddies" for the various drives you want to use.

The eSATA setup Fozzy posted is also very good; it includes everything you'd need as a complete kit. At that price, buying a couple to have extra drives isn't too expensive at all. That sure beats trying to piece together the various cables and connectors. Don't forget that you'd also need to buy the drives to go in each enclosure!
 
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