messiah

We need some cheap backup software for our office.

What we're looking for is a program that doesn't compress the file's but store's them onto say DVD/ CD/ USB pen or Ext. HDD and after the first full backup, only back's up any files that have changed and overwrites them on whatever backup media we choose.

Not too sure about this incremental / differential stuff TBH...

help please.

Dream Weaver

I use Dantz Retrospect, but thats on a single machine. It does all the incremental stuff (i.e. only backs up new stuff), can be done onto HDD, CD, DVD etc.

You can also set it to run automatically at a given time.

GaryScoobNCBR

we use a nice little program called second copy

we use it to backup to ext hdd not sure about cd/dvd though

http://www.centered.com/

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

Am I being thick here, but doesn't Windows backup do all this for you????

Just pick the Advanced option and Bobs your Mothers Brother

Hanley

Kieran is exactly right.

Just use Windows Backup from System Tools or ntbackup from command prompt.

If you are using 2000 or above you can also use the System State backup as well which is very useful

class_A

I like Acronis True Image. Quicker and less bloated than Ghost, plus nicer to use. Will do incremental or full backups, can auto-span your images across multiple CD/DVD-R, has its own bootloader to allow a restore outside of Windows and is only $50 for the basic verison.

darlodge

I personally, would not use anything other than a Full backup everyday.

It might take longer everynight to backup everything again but you know that its there, what happens if you main DLT tape, CD, DVD fails and all you have been backing-up is changed or new documents.



What are you backing-up?
How much you value your data, can you afford to lose a file, e-mails, database?

If its just a plain file backup (Word, Excel, Access database) then Windows NT backup is your best solution for free. The NT Backup Software is written by Veritas and is very basic version of BackupExec (which is a wicked program btw).

Darren

lpski1

I agree, windows backup, its FREE.

weekly fulls
daily diffs

or just fulls if you have the space

messiah

We don't want to use windows backup as all we need is a 2nd copy of the data - not a backed up version.

Lots of peeps in the office work from home then copy the stuff they've done to a USB pen then overwrite the "old" file when they get back to the office.

Anyway - we just want to set a time of the week when one computer scans the others for drawings that have changed and then updates it's "master list"

I should have explained earlier that we're not on a server but have a peer to peer network of 7 PC's. I need to set my PC so that it has a complete set of all drawings from all computers and updates them, say, every friday when we're in the conference room having fish n chips...

scooby_blue

What about using a DOS batch file, with a copy command? You can then use scheduled tasks to run it automatically. This will always copy all files, but you can use /Y to make it always overwrite existing files? Should then be able to run unattended?

darlodge

If all you want is a copied version, a copy (or even xcopy) line in a bat file and then run as a scheduled task as Scooby Blue said.

Darren

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

xcopy <source> <destination> /d /s /e /y /x will do then

messiah

writing batch files is a bit over my head really.

Keiran - is that all I need to put in it?

Also, will it make any difference if they're network drives? And what if one machine has been knocked off?
I'm assuming I'll have to write 1 line of that code for each machine to be backed up.
Can you tell me what each of the /d etc does?

Thanks - sorry for all the Q's though.

lpski1

http://www.computerhope.com/xcopyhlp.htm

messiah

Excellent.

Will give it a go later and report back.

Kieran_Burns

iTrader: (1)

I forgot to put the /c (to continue when there is an error) kinda useful when it bombs out 30 seconds after you've walked out the door and 14 hours before you walk back in

Network drives won't make a difference... just be sure to put the full path in