Backup woes ...

[thecomputerguy]

I bought a NAS external backup for a client of mine and when I went to set it up I was happily confronted with a lovely M$ issue. Apparently ... the home premium version of 7 doesn't include the ability to back to a network or mapped network drive location.

OK let's try something else.

So I attempted to setup cobian for the client on 4 windows 7 computers 3 of which are laptops and only one of them is the pro version. I decided to use cobian on all of them to maintain consistency.

The problem with cobian: Because these are laptops I can't set them on a schedule because who know's when they will be online. When you setup a manual cobian backup it does not follow the rules you predefine. I told it I only wanted 1 backup set kept and I wanted that set overwritten. However, every time I did a manual backup it created a new set which obviously over time will fill up the network external, not to mention create confusion when attempting to restore.

Also, setting up a backup to overwrite itself will end up taking quite some time considering one of the laptops will be backing up 12+ gb of data... every time.

Cobian is nice... but not quite user friendly when it comes to having the user have to pop the program open and manually run it, especially since cobian isn't exactly the prettiest of programs.

It's times like this when apple's time machine truly shines. I also had to backup his mac and I literally opened up time machine and it was like, "hey we found this external on the network! you wanna use this for backup?" I click yes and off we go it backs up only modified files every 30 minutes with literally no setup time.

Any advice on where to go from here?

 

[MobileTechie]

Try some other apps.

I've successfully used FBackup and GFI Backup to NAS boxes.

 

[atlanticjim]

Take a look at CrashPlan.

I have set it up twice and it is quite elegant. I use it for my own household.

CrashPlan is backup software that allows Windows, Mac, Linux and Solaris users to back up their data to an offsite data center,[1] computers belonging to friends and family,[2] as well as to attached drives / shared folders.[3] There is a free version (for non-datacenter backups) and CrashPlan+ which is for backing up to CrashPlan's servers. Both versions allow users to back up data automatically. Files are encrypted using 448-bit Blowfish (128-bit with the free version) encryption for CrashPlan+ before transmission.
CrashPlan+ users can access their files stored online with free iOS and Android applications. As updates occur to files, changes are tracked automatically and updated with a singe gesture.
When used on a compatible Windows operating system, CrashPlan has the ability to make backups of files that are locked and in-use by other programs running on the computer by utilizing Volume Shadow Copy.

From Wikipedia

 

[Bloogen]

You could try to script or configure something to backup upon every login? Not a complete solution but that may solve the scheduling issue. You probably want an application that can backup at the next available time if a backup is missed. I don't have any specific suggestions on one that does that but I will update you if I can remember.

 

[LedHed]

Macrium Reflect

I use and recommend the paid version of Macrium Reflect. It can be set to run a backup if the scheduled time has passed. It also allows you to set up "Disk space management" to keep the backups from filling up the drive. I usually set it up to image the drive once a week and then tell it to keep 4 of these backups. I also set up a daily backup for the data. It also has an option to verify backups after they are created.

As far as network backups, here is the info from Macrium's support forum:

http://support.macrium.com/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=3872

"You can use a network drive as a target for image files, but any disks you wish to image must be local to the machine running Reflect. This is a technical, not a feature limitation, so applies to all Reflect editions. As you note, you can take a file & folder backup of a remote machine."

They do offer a 30 day free trial if you want to try it out. Hope this helps.

Andy (LedHed)

 

[thecomputerguy]

Take a look at CrashPlan.

I have set it up twice and it is quite elegant. I use it for my own household.
From Wikipedia

Checked out crashplan ... very pretty program ... very user friendly ...

 

[Knightsman]

GFI 2009 will work perfectly for what you want. Never had a problem and customers love it. Just don't use 2010 of newer.

Sent from my DROID2 using Tapatalk

 

[Bloogen]

GFI 2009 will work perfectly for what you want. Never had a problem and customers love it. Just don't use 2010 of newer.

Sent from my DROID2 using Tapatalk

Where did they go wrong in the new versions?

 

[Knightsman]

Where did they go wrong in the new versions?

They made it web based, and require the user of the computer to have a username and password, which a lot of home computers don't have. Couple of other weird things. Completely different program than the 2009 is.


Sent from my DROID2 using Tapatalk

 

[thecomputerguy]

I will most definitely look into GFI but for now ... I am loving crashplan ... backing up to a NAS isn't exactly straightforward as it requires a logon script to map a network location as a system drive but once you get that down its beautiful.

 

[atlanticjim]

I will most definitely look into GFI but for now ... I am loving crashplan ... backing up to a NAS isn't exactly straightforward as it requires a logon script to map a network location as a system drive but once you get that down its beautiful.

Just to further sing the praises of CrashPlan, let me tell you what I set up for one client.

He and his wife have two home businesses and they have two kids away at college.

Via CrashPlan I set up the following.
1. Wife's SOHO laptop is backed up to NAS continually when it is on the home network and also to the CrashPlan cloud server.
2. Husband's SOHO desktop is backed up to NAS continually and to cloud.
3. Both kids laptops are backed up to cloud daily.

Husband gets email daily that confirms backup activity.
I get an email weekly about their backup activity.

Their plan is CrashPlan+ Family Unlimited for $120/yr. with unlimited cloud storage.

 

[Knightsman]

Just to further sing the praises of CrashPlan, let me tell you what I set up for one client.

He and his wife have two home businesses and they have two kids away at college.

Via CrashPlan I set up the following.
1. Wife's SOHO laptop is backed up to NAS continually when it is on the home network and also to the CrashPlan cloud server.
2. Husband's SOHO desktop is backed up to NAS continually and to cloud.
3. Both kids laptops are backed up to cloud daily.

Husband gets email daily that confirms backup activity.
I get an email weekly about their backup activity.

Their plan is CrashPlan+ Family Unlimited for $120/yr. with unlimited cloud storage.

Yeah their $12 yr for the family is an awesome deal for sure. I just wish they had a reseller program

Sent from my DROID2 using Tapatalk