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Simple Windows Backup to CD/DVD?
Meri051846 asks: "I am looking for a simple backup for my own use. Ideally, this backup would be able to span from one CD to the next for 'overflow'. Right now I am just using 'Easy CD Creator' and choosing what I want backed up and saving it so that I can backup most every day or so. One problem I am having is that my backup material is growing and won't fit on one CD. Also, when I add new items to 'My Documents', for example, I have to go into my program and make sure that new document will be included in the backup. (Even when I ask 'Easy CD Creator' to update the backup, the new items are not included. It just updates the old ones.) It usually isn't, so I have to manually add it to my 'backup program'. I hope I am making myself clear. Is there any backup program that will fullfil my wishes or am I dreaming of 'things to come'?"
Have you considered putting another hard disk in the computer and using RAID?
Have you considered putting another hard disk in the computer and putting daily GHOST images of your main data drive on it?
Have you considered sending daily GHOST images over the network to another computer?
The reason I ask is that backing up to optical media is a pain on such a large scale.
Mike
Dantz Retrospect Professional is less than $90 and will do everything you're looking for. Namely, it will allow you to backup to CD-R and will span your backups across multiple media if necessary. It keeps a catalog on your local hard drive of what files it has backed-up to which media, relieving you of having to manually specify which files have changed. (You can re-create this catalog if your HD dies by just feeding Retrospect all the media from the backup set, BTW.)
Retrospect does a full backup once, and then incremental backups from then on. This means that your incrementals happen very quickly, and your backup set will only grow as quickly as you create/change files on your computer. Retrospect also will backup the registry, so you can restore the entire system if necessary.
Lastly, Retrospect has a built-in scheduler that makes it easy to schedule nightly, unattended backups. Once you're getting a snapshot of your HD every night, you can go back to any point in time and recover a file as it existed on that particular date. Truly powerful stuff, and far, far beyond what NT Backup is capable of.
Oh, and there's a free 30-day trial version you can download from Dantz' website. Its fully-functional, and when you buy a full license you can just enter the new license key into the trial install to make it permenant. That way you don't have to re-install or copy your scripts and configurations from the trial install to the full install.
RAID isn't a backup. It isn't meant to take the place of a backup. Backups let you restore files as they existed at some point in time in the past.
rm -rf, worms, trojans, etc.. RAID does nothing for these.
Use rsync-incremental, or rdiff-backup for backing up your unix-like systems to other disks. Both are excellent backup solutions (use them in addition to RAID for full protection).
I've had enough abrasive sigs. Kittens are cute and fuzzy.
Yes. This is a wonderful reason not to use RAID as a backup solution.
This also makes me wonder why anyone hasn't implemented a VAX-like versioning filesystem for Linux (maybe they have and I'm not aware of them). The idea is that when a file is saved, only the changes are saved (sort of like with CVS or something). This way any specific version of a file can be recovered. Combine this with RAID and I think you might have a fairly compelling backup solution.
Since high density tapes now cost more per GB than cheap hard drives, it seems like the backup industry would capitalize on this and start making hard-drive backup systems that provide full on-line access to backups. I know ADSM can be configured in such a manner, but I'd prefer a solution more suitable for home usage.
--Be human.
There should have been one more requirement listed in the Slashdot story: Encryption. If your backups are encrypted, then you can leave them anywhere.
I use a program I found called "Handy Backup" It's only $30, and can backup to a local directory, an FTP, or to a CD-R(W), either copying straight data/folders, or ZIPping the files/folders to take up less space -- Backup events can be scheduled for certain times, or even when you log on/log off your workstation.
It's a pretty slick program, and I recommend it, having used it for the past year and a half on my own server.
Not All Who Wander Are Lost