Hey guys i"m coming here for help ,from my fellow technicians. This tile market business computer crashed and he has two hard drives and was pretty much telling me he wants it so everything on the first hard drive gets back uped into the second hard drive. I know theres raid ( but that seems complicated and also i just read that windows xp cant do raid 1 ) is there any software that would do this easily like a daily back up of there entire hd? or what would you guys do?
Business wants a Back up
- Thread starter justalfe
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You can install XP or indeed any other operating system on a RAID 1 (or other) array as long as you have appropriate drivers for the controller. The RAID array is managed by thed HDD controller not by the operating system. You also do not need to install identical spec drives, you can use a combination of any size/speed/manufacturer drives although this will limit the system to the slowest speed and or capacity of the lowest spec drive.
As an alternative to RAID and as long as it's only the user's data that you want a real-time backup you can use backup software such as Memeo Autobackup. A slightly reduced function set of this software is included with Buffalo's external drives.
As an alternative to RAID and as long as it's only the user's data that you want a real-time backup you can use backup software such as Memeo Autobackup. A slightly reduced function set of this software is included with Buffalo's external drives.
abe
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as far as I understand they want no new hardware they want a backup solution for cheap or free and they want to use what they have, in that case I would use drive image xml its great and easy to setup.
Abe
Abe
frostbyte5014
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I would recommend SyncBack.
atlanticjim
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I think this comment says more about what can be done to get a sale. It may be hard to convince a small business owner that they need an appropriate backup strategy for mission critical files if their machines have been running without failure, but this is a client who had a crash. I would design a backup strategy for them that would put their mind at ease about your ability to recover the data, give them a price and say that spending anything less would be exposing them to too much risk.
Raid controller and disks is the answer, it makes it invisible to the user. Unless he fears a flood or fire, in which case he should be using an offsite backup.
heres a question ? can i use raid 1 with an ide hd and also a sata hd? and any how to setting up a raid 1 easily? this is my first time doing a raid and honestly im scared . ive been a tech for 3 years and its time i start studying what i dont know
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No, the disks have to be on the same controller and thus will need to be of the same interface type.
To set up the RAID array you should follow the instructions correct for your controller card. Once you've setup the array installing Windows will be the same as per a single disk installation although, as I mentioned earlier, you will probably need to include the correct RAID drivers into the Windows install. It's when the RAID breaks that things get complicated!
NYJimbo
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RAID is not a backup. It's a live duplicate. If something (virus/hacker) attacks the server then BOTH drives on the RAID will get damaged. If the RAID controller screws up then BOTH drives on the RAID will get screwed as well. Doubt me? Go to webhostingtalk.com and look at the little web hosts who cannot recover from a failure due to BOTH RAID drives getting hit with whatever killed the server, but they didn't have a true backup.
Get the customer a much bigger hard drive and a backup program that works for their environment. DO NOT just make one backup, you need to do several, even if they just go on the same backup drive. DO NOT just backup, do selective restores and if possible a complete restore to a bare drive if you do not already know the software. Nothing worse than having to figure out a backup programs restore process on the day of a drive failure (happens thousands of times every day around the world).
I've seen countless RAID configs fail and nobody on-site ever knows how to recover. Worse if it's the controller that fails you are f-cked in recovery. Also, just making one backup that gets overwritten daily or weekly will most certainly fail when the client needs them the most. Likewise if a customer calls you and says "We need a folder restored from last week" and your backups are daily only then you are screwed.
Backups are the most important thing in a computer and very few people realize this until they are looking at a dead machine with the life of their company hanging on what should be a simple restore.
Get the customer a much bigger hard drive and a backup program that works for their environment. DO NOT just make one backup, you need to do several, even if they just go on the same backup drive. DO NOT just backup, do selective restores and if possible a complete restore to a bare drive if you do not already know the software. Nothing worse than having to figure out a backup programs restore process on the day of a drive failure (happens thousands of times every day around the world).
I've seen countless RAID configs fail and nobody on-site ever knows how to recover. Worse if it's the controller that fails you are f-cked in recovery. Also, just making one backup that gets overwritten daily or weekly will most certainly fail when the client needs them the most. Likewise if a customer calls you and says "We need a folder restored from last week" and your backups are daily only then you are screwed.
Backups are the most important thing in a computer and very few people realize this until they are looking at a dead machine with the life of their company hanging on what should be a simple restore.
...or use Google!
tartis
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Long live tape backups. Tapes are the best way to safeguard their data. There will be cost involved, but they will have multiple copies and versions of their data by using Full and Incremental backups. They should also store most tapes offsite in case of fire or theft.
Low cost? No. Effective to keep a business alive and running? Yes.
Low cost? No. Effective to keep a business alive and running? Yes.
NYJimbo
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I couldn't disagree with you more. Take it from a guy who has done almost a million tape backups from old NRZI formats in the 1980's to the latest technology today. Tapes suck. Reliability is a coin toss. Recovering data is slow. You have to keep the tapes safe from magnets, heat, moisture, just about everything.
Disk to disk backups are the only way to go. If you have hot-swappable drives for backups thats even better. But even just a secondary drive for the backups is better than tapes. We stopped doing tapes here in our shop 8 years ago. Now it's disk to disk and then copying to remote servers via RSYNC or FTP. Some stuff gets burned on DVD's now but thats usually on request.
seedubya
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Amen to that.
Galdorf
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Even raid is not the answer for backups i had a few clients show up with machine in raid 0 one drive failed long ago before they brought it to me.
The machine in plain english on screen printed an error saying one of the drives has failed and needed immediate replacement the customers ignored this for a year while there 2nd hd started getting errors, it was a nightmare.
The drive that failed died it didn't even spin so no recovery there last drive had like 300+ bad sectors so recovery was long and painful.
Backing up stuff on 1 medium is not safe either i lost count the amount of times a companies floppies,cd's and dvd's and tape deteriorated to point that no data could be pulled off.
For real back safety you need a min of 2 backups local backup external usb drive must ONLY be plugged in to backup data incase of lightning stikes.
External backup cd,dvd or internet backup storage or tape kept off site incase of fire, flood, lighting strike.
I prefer internet backup storage due to fact the someone else backs up this data for you and the app backs up data for you at set times.
The machine in plain english on screen printed an error saying one of the drives has failed and needed immediate replacement the customers ignored this for a year while there 2nd hd started getting errors, it was a nightmare.
The drive that failed died it didn't even spin so no recovery there last drive had like 300+ bad sectors so recovery was long and painful.
Backing up stuff on 1 medium is not safe either i lost count the amount of times a companies floppies,cd's and dvd's and tape deteriorated to point that no data could be pulled off.
For real back safety you need a min of 2 backups local backup external usb drive must ONLY be plugged in to backup data incase of lightning stikes.
External backup cd,dvd or internet backup storage or tape kept off site incase of fire, flood, lighting strike.
I prefer internet backup storage due to fact the someone else backs up this data for you and the app backs up data for you at set times.
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