gavin-egan.com wrote:

> Just wondered what peoples thoughts are for this [...] Because there were
> no backups of any kind my first panic reaction was to implement a backup
> system where all the desktop machines HDD's were in removable caddies
> and I then backed up (GHOST'd)) all the HDD's on a monthly basis to a
> central PC with a sizeable HDD for the purpose (infact to make the
> system even faster I used 4 PC's to do the job. On average a 4-5hr job
> with all the running around collecting hdd's - rebooting etc. 
> 
> I am slightly paranoid about backups but I am also admittedly lazy (for
> routine tasks) and when staff members PC's die I like to be able to get
> them back up and running in under half an hour... 

I think there are two distinct goals: getting back up and running quickly
when a disk dies, and having a backup independently of the running machine
(in case of a virus infection, or a fire, or some other disaster).

For the first, I use one of two options: either software RAID-1 type setup
(with MirrorFolder; not free but not expensive and works well) or regular
scheduled imaging with something like Acronis TrueImage.

For the second, I think an imaging program like Acronis TrueImage is just
the way to go on Windows. But not running around and exchanging disks --
just image the disks over the network after staff is gone, controlled from
the backup server, not from the desktops. (And then keep a copy of the
images somewhere offsite -- this could be a removable drive, but it's then
only one, not thirty :)

> What I thought was that I could partition these HDD's so there is a
> 10-20gb hidden partition. 

I do something like this with a MirrorFolder software RAID-1. Not really a
"hidden" partition, just a normal partition that is set to not appear in
Explorer. For a normal user, that's "hidden" enough.

> Then use a script/software where one machine would back up its data to
> anothers hidden partition. Lastly on a weekend - (when the network is
> not being used ) I can then Setup a cron/batch to move all the data back
> to a centralised storage

I'd have all this data on a backup server, possibly in two copies on two
separate disks with software RAID-1 (or if you really are paranoid, keep
the mirror in a different system in a different room), and exchange one of
these disks regularly with a disk in an offsite location. 

> And (paranoia once again) the server backs up to tape mission critical
> data and also to my desktop machine its then rar's it up and weekly my
> pc dumps it to dvd. 

FWIW, IMO hard disks are hard to beat. Tapes and DVDs are mechanically less
sensitive, but on most other counts, hard disks win. 

> My biggest foreseeable problems are that I would prefer to image the
> HDD's as this is the quickest method of rebuilding them. 

Exactly.

> The other is that many of these systems are left on with applications
> left open , including Outlook / Thunderbird etc and of course there will
> be a significant amount of locked windows files and the Registry to
> consider. 

Acronis TrueImage handles this (including backing up the locked files)
quite nicely. Look at the server version.

FWIW, a few months ago there was a thread here where Vitaliy and I talked
about this for a while. Don't remember the subject, though :)

Gerhard

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