paulfr Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 I have been burned by disc failure many times now and have lost data. Fortunately it has never been critical data. So now, every time I save a file, I do it three times to different discs. But this is beginning to be a real nuisance. I know there is mirroring and synching but I do not know what SW there is to do this. What do you suggest for an XPWin system for backing up dynamically when I save a file ? What are you doing to safeguard your data ? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RKASA Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 I don't have one or used it, but sounds like you want a raid system. Its two of each drive and it writes/reads and edits both on the fly as if one. If a drive fails the data is OK because you have the same drive still running - just replace the bad one and sync. On you go.. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mamypoko Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 Many free programs available. Syncback has a free version that works well, is easy to learn and is very flexible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astral Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 I use FileSync to a usb drive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bangkokcitylimits Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 Online/offline data backup: highly recommended (free for personal use) http://b2.crashplan.com/ Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
phaethon Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 I use FileSync to a usb drive. I always used Filesync with XP. It got a bit flaky with Vista and died completely under Win7,though I haven't tried it in compatibility mode (note to self...). I now use MS Synctoy with 7 and vista but there is still an XP version (same?) available: http://www.microsoft.com/windowsxp/downloads/powertoys/xppowertoys.mspx Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merijn Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 I use a Buffalo NAS drive with RAID 1 ( mirroring ) for my back-ups. For the back software I use ACRONIS to create exact mirrors of my computer drives. So if one computer drive fails I can reinstall the mirror and the computer reacts like nothing happened. This system is also used at the company I work for and is regarded one of the best ways to create save back-ups. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paulfr Posted January 9, 2011 Author Share Posted January 9, 2011 I use a Buffalo NAS drive with RAID 1 ( mirroring ) for my back-ups. This system is also used at the company I work for and is regarded one of the best ways to create save back-ups. I would love to do mirroring but my Buffalo drive did not come with any software Where did your mirroring SW come from ? I assume you are running desktops and not laptops .... no ? Thanks Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thaimite Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 various forms of RAID exist, and RAID 1 (Mirroring) is great but have the drawback of all RAID systems is that if a file is accidentally deleted then the mirror file is also automatically deleted. On one installation I saw a database corrupt a large important file which was then dutifully copied to the remote mirror, leaving us to revert to an old offsite backup. Thus I would use RAID for immediate replication in a business environment where many changes to the data are made all the time, For hoke and small busineesss use while RAID is good if you can afford it, I would use other software for actual backups. With XP I used Syncback SE (mentioned by an earlier poster) for backing up my data which was on a separate partition to my Windows installation. This was done at least weekly but often more frequently if I felt I had made a lot of changes to my data. Syncback can be scheduled to run automatically and is very easy to configure which files and folders are backed up. I addition I also used Acronis to create an image of my XP installation. This was usually done only on a monthly basis or even less often if no new software had been installed or big maintenance cleanups carried out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
endure Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 Thus I would use RAID for immediate replication in a business environment where many changes to the data are made all the time, For hoke and small busineesss use while RAID is good if you can afford it, I would use other software for actual backups. With XP I used Syncback SE (mentioned by an earlier poster) for backing up my data which was on a separate partition to my Windows installation. If the partition was on the same drive you'd lose your backup if the drive went down. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thaimite Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 NO I think you misunderstood me. My data was on a different parttition of my internal (laptop drive), and I backed up to a different USB or Network attached disk. Haviing my programs and data on different partitions of my internal drive made backups and general data management easier with XP Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merijn Posted January 9, 2011 Share Posted January 9, 2011 I use a Buffalo NAS drive with RAID 1 ( mirroring ) for my back-ups. This system is also used at the company I work for and is regarded one of the best ways to create save back-ups. I would love to do mirroring but my Buffalo drive did not come with any software Where did your mirroring SW come from ? I assume you are running desktops and not laptops .... no ? Thanks I have a Buffalo Linkstation NAS drive of 4 TB. This NAS drive has 4 1TB drives inside and can be setup with RAID. To create mirrors from my computer drives i use ACRONIS software. It doesn't matter if you use desktop or laptop computers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astral Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 various forms of RAID exist, and RAID 1 (Mirroring) is great but have the drawback of all RAID systems is that if a file is accidentally deleted then the mirror file is also automatically deleted. On one installation I saw a database corrupt a large important file which was then dutifully copied to the remote mirror, leaving us to revert to an old offsite backup. I must agree here. RAID 1 (Mirroring) is not a facility for backup, it simply allows you to carry on processing when one half of the mirror fails. An essential feature for "mission critical systems". There is no substitute for the good old back, whether to tape or a second disk drive . Just using a partition of the main drive is no good at all as you loose it all if the drive fails. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
endure Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 NO I think you misunderstood me. My data was on a different parttition of my internal (laptop drive), and I backed up to a different USB or Network attached disk. Haviing my programs and data on different partitions of my internal drive made backups and general data management easier with XP Yes - sorry my mistake. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thaimite Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 various forms of RAID exist, and RAID 1 (Mirroring) is great but have the drawback of all RAID systems is that if a file is accidentally deleted then the mirror file is also automatically deleted. On one installation I saw a database corrupt a large important file which was then dutifully copied to the remote mirror, leaving us to revert to an old offsite backup. I must agree here. RAID 1 (Mirroring) is not a facility for backup, it simply allows you to carry on processing when one half of the mirror fails. An essential feature for "mission critical systems". There is no substitute for the good old back, whether to tape or a second disk drive . Just using a partition of the main drive is no good at all as you loose it all if the drive fails. Just to be clear, NO RAID system whether RAID 1,2, 5, 6, or any other should be considered as a backup. As others have stated RAID is only a means of providing continuity of computing inthe event of a disk failure. A separate disk (or tape if you can find and afford one of sufficient capacity for today's drives) is the only way to go, and it should ideally be kept 'off site' Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
merijn Posted January 10, 2011 Share Posted January 10, 2011 various forms of RAID exist, and RAID 1 (Mirroring) is great but have the drawback of all RAID systems is that if a file is accidentally deleted then the mirror file is also automatically deleted. On one installation I saw a database corrupt a large important file which was then dutifully copied to the remote mirror, leaving us to revert to an old offsite backup. I must agree here. RAID 1 (Mirroring) is not a facility for backup, it simply allows you to carry on processing when one half of the mirror fails. An essential feature for "mission critical systems". There is no substitute for the good old back, whether to tape or a second disk drive . Just using a partition of the main drive is no good at all as you loose it all if the drive fails. Just to be clear, NO RAID system whether RAID 1,2, 5, 6, or any other should be considered as a backup. As others have stated RAID is only a means of providing continuity of computing inthe event of a disk failure. A separate disk (or tape if you can find and afford one of sufficient capacity for today's drives) is the only way to go, and it should ideally be kept 'off site' I never said that I use the RAID system as the main back-up system. My back-up is done by ACRONIS and I use the NAS RAID 1 drive to store those back-up images. I use RAID so that in case of a HD failure I don't lose my data. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
JSixpack Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 You can do near real-time backup with Yadis (freeware): http://www.codessentials.com/?app=yadis&version=1.9.17 You can add some delay if you like, too. Good little program, I use it all the time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Crushdepth Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 What are you doing to safeguard your data ? I try to keep a full disk image using Acronis, which has proved to be a lifesaver on several occasions. Directories with important files - which is not that many really - get uploaded automatically once a day to an Amazon S3 storage account via Jungledisk. I think Jungledisk was $20 for life and the Amazon account costs me about 20 cents a month for the storage space, which is unlimited (you pay for what you use). Other than that, I bought a QNAP network attached storage (NAS) box for my home network, which is running RAID 5 disk. I store my files on NAS network shares instead of on my PC hard drive, occasionally I synchronise the NAS to an external USB drive, which basically involves plugging it in and pressing a button. At work I have our file server NAS backing up to another NAS automatically via rsnapshot every four hours (on the Linux side, rsnapshot makes automated backup and time series a dream). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
astral Posted January 11, 2011 Share Posted January 11, 2011 Food for thought here. http://www.thegeekstuff.com/2011/01/backup-locations/ Ignore the fact it says Linux, the principles apply to ALL computer systems, big and small. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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