I suck at backups!

mrapoc · Sep 27, 2010, 11:46:42

well seems ive somehow lost the family photos again somehow... Too late now. But now im reviewing my backup strategy. Any ideas on automatic online backup? I will be scannin all drives with recuva but not havin high hopes

Glenn · Sep 27, 2010, 12:14:35

If you have a spare PC, the Windows Home Server will automate the process.

Steve · Sep 27, 2010, 12:21:16

I've been looking at rsnaphot whether it can be ported to Windows not sure

mrapoc · Sep 27, 2010, 12:32:56

No spare pc

i have my pc with a 1.5tb drive for films 640gb for data and 140gb for os and programs. I can get server free via msdnaa but its pricin the server. Sayin all that...i have an old server in the garage lol...not sure on specs

Gary · Sep 27, 2010, 13:00:40

For vary basic online stuff Microsoft skydrive is ok for a few things it gives you 25GB, its not automated I don't think, but some photos uploaded to it could be a life saver until you find a more solid backup.

mogden · Sep 27, 2010, 13:37:13

www.carbonite.com

Super duper "set and forget" backup. It also stores multiple versions of files for that 'oh **** I've overwritten it' moment!

esh · Sep 27, 2010, 13:56:26

"rdiff-backup" works on windows and does incremental backups. The backup directory is an exact copy of the latest version (so if you delete it, you just copy the directory back) but using the rdiff-backup tool, you can request a version of a certain file from say, 3 weeks 2 hours ago, or whatever. You merely add a scheduled task that runs rdiff-backup as frequently as you care to do, hourly, daily, whatever.

esh · Sep 27, 2010, 14:03:03

I should also point out here that Windows 7 has a "previous versions" model built in. That is, if you delete or overwrite a folder, you can restore it from within Windows (assuming you have system protection turned on). The only thing to note here is once it goes beyond a specific size, the oldest changes will be deleted so you can't go all the way back as with rdiff-backup by default.

mrapoc · Sep 27, 2010, 16:37:21

All of the missing files were on a different drive to the default C drive, where system protection is on...it isnt on the other drives

DOH!

I'm urgently just scanning all drives for any remnants of deleted files now.

I also have the server in from the garage, gonna clean it up and possibly change the case too..windows server does seem the way forward and also something to mess with.

this is the server i have

http://servers.alege.net/IBM-eserver-xSeries-225-8647-86474BX.html

Not sure if thats the exact spec or if it was upgraded, im gonna dust it off now and probably change case as well

Glenn · Sep 27, 2010, 16:56:09

Take a look at http://www.wegotserved.com/ for info on the home server OS.

The server in your link should be fine, just a couple of gigs of ram and some hdu's and away you go.

mrapoc · Sep 27, 2010, 17:01:13

Its been upgraded to 1gb of SDRAM by the looks (4x256mb IBM ram)

No hard drives at the moment, also it seems to be something i havent come across yet.

Goes from 1 IDE, to some IBM circuit board, and where the hard drives go it seems to be some kind of push in slot system? Some kind of IBM fitting no doubt. Although I may be wrong, it also seems to have two Xeons fitted

edit: seems its scsi!! does this limit hdd options?

apparently original hdd is : 32P0726 IBM 36.4GB 10K Ultra320 SCSI Hot-Swap SL HDD

esh · Sep 27, 2010, 20:30:56

SCSI drives are much more expensive and are slowly being phased out. They are available though. You may be better off buying a SATA PCI card with SATA hard drives.

Technical Ben · Sep 27, 2010, 21:31:07

Is it deleted? I saved an entire HDD of stuff when I realised I quick formatted an entire drive, then noticed it was my backup, not the spare one.

mrapoc · Sep 28, 2010, 07:57:51

Been recommended to try to sell it all in exchange for a new energy efficient machine...hmm

Make much difference? I'm guessing a server would draw quite a lot of power..

esh · Sep 28, 2010, 12:46:34

The server I use draws under 100W. It's a few years old but I used AMD x2 EE processors (Intel Atom dual core might be a better bet now) on a uATX mainboard (you can get mini-ITX now) with internal graphics, I then outfit it with a few Intel gigabit cards. The thing that chews the most power is the hard drives attached to the RAID card. Most important is of course to have it on a UPS else you are asking for trouble.

mrapoc · Sep 28, 2010, 18:26:59

Ahh i dont know what to do lol

Doubt it will be easy to sell, for a decent price either!