Backups Made Less Painful
Posted on August 30, 2006
Filed Under Software, Windows |
Security is a driving concern in the computer world but it is often seen as a matter of keeping bad guys out. In reality, security involves setting proper permissions to sensitive information, prevention of viruses and malware, updating the operating system, keeping software current, and so on, and so on.
While all security measures are important, regular data backups are vital. You can setup a firewall today and you may never (‘never’ in the computer sense meaning a couple of years at best) have to worry about a bad guy getting in again. If you don’t carefully implement a system to keep your data backed up however, you won’t need to worry about bad guys because one day your data will be — not may be — lost.
Ask anyone who deals with customers computers on a regular basis what their single worst headache is, and I bet they tell you its backups. Backup problems seem to come from nowhere and can be troublesome to resolve.
It used to be that once a day someone would put a tape into a server and a backup would run that night when everyone was off the system. Tape backups remain a viable and somewhat reliable option but they are by no means inexpensive. A low end tape backup unit that stores a mere 40 GB of data easily runs $500 and more. Tapes for that same unit can cost $50 or more each.
Today there are a lot of alternatives to tape that can be more reliable and much less expensive.
On a small server based network, external USB hard drives work quite well. While a bit bulky, external hard drives can be swapped out and taken off site and they can hold a great deal of data. Backups to external hard drives can be scheduled to occur during the night just like tape backups.
On small networks, another option is to employ a Network Attached Storage (NAS) device. A NAS device looks much like a computer on the network but its sole purpose is to store files. Usually used for file storage they can also be used for backups.
Some can even use the UNIX rsync protocol that backs up only the changes to files rather than the entire file itself. This way the unit can permanently stay off-site with backups running on a secure channel over the Internet.
Removable drive trays used to be all the rage and are making a comeback today. Mount hard drives in one of these devices and they can be easily removed and replaced with a simple pull of a handle from the front of the computer or server. By using the newer SATA hard drive technology, these drives can be hot swapped or changed while the computer is running.
For a single computer, backing up to DVD is a very inexpensive option. DVD’s hold about 4.5 GB of data and while you might not be able to backup an entire computer to DVD, you can backup a lot of user data.
DVD writers (burners) sell for around $40 but you’ll want to buy some backup software with it. BackupAssist is one of the best of the reasonably priced offerings I’ve seen and it backs up to DVD, external hard drive, and just about everything else. Nero also has a backup component that works quite well.
For single computers any of the above backup methods will work but for a real budget backup system, USB flash drives may just be the answer. While again, an entire system usually can’t be backed up to a flash drive, they typically hold about 1 GB of data and that adds up to a fair amount of user data.
Backups are a necessary evil but there are some innovative approaches that can make the task less painful – and less costly!
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