What Backup Software Would You Recommend?

[Thorin]

So, what backup software would you recommend?  Now that I've (finally) set up scheduled backups using Windows NT Backup tool and seen that it does *not* compress the files (and thus left my second machine with 18MB of free space!), I'm thinking there must be something better out there.

I'm willing to pay money if it compresses files and it can backup locked files (and if it's quick, that's a bonus).  Oh, and I have to be able to schedule a task for it, because I'm not doing it by hand.

Any suggestions?

[Melbosa]

Well you have your NT Backups created; why not schedule a 7zip of them?  That should solve your problem.

Otherwise the only two I've used is BackupExec and Yosemite, but both are large backup software solutions.

Here is a good wiki to help you decide if you are going to change: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_backup_software

On my network at home I just NT Backup and 7zip myself (and I believe I have a pretty complicated network for a house hold).

[Lazybones]

Nero's backup might be better for home use, but last time I used it it didn't run as a service. On the plus side it has built in support for spaning DVD-R and CD-R disks as well as making its backups self extracting.

[Thorin]

Melbosa, what kind of schedule have you set up for your NT Backup?  Or do you run them manually?

[Melbosa]

I can post up my schedule, I keep it in an xlsx file.  Can you read that or do you need it in an xls?

[Bixby]

I use ROBOCopy with a few command switches and rotate backups weekly between two 500GB Mybooks. I deleted the MyBook software. Maybe I am a control freak, but I want to control what gets backed up, where, and how often.

[Melbosa]

I use ROBOCopy with a few command switches and rotate backups weekly between two 500GB Mybooks. I deleted the MyBook software. Maybe I am a control freak, but I want to control what gets backed up, where, and how often.

Yes, I'm the same way.  NT Backup, Robocopy, and 7zip.  All using windows task scheduler (although I've been researching Job Scheduling software - free kind - to replace that with email capabilities and such).

[Thorin]

I can post up my schedule, I keep it in an xlsx file.  Can you read that or do you need it in an xls?

I don't have Office (2007 or any other), but I have OpenOffice.  So a .xls would be wonderful.

One of my problems is that backing up the 120GB shared docs folder took 12 hours or more with NT Backup.  Of course, that could be because it was backing up across the network to a second machine, rather than to a local drive.

I'm thinking about several ways of approaching this:

1. Set up proper Windows Server 2008 with two drives and backups from one to the other.  This also allows me to set up a shared docs folder on the server rather than on one of the workstations, and in the future I can host web pages if my family feels so inclined.

2. Install another drive in the workstation that has the shared docs folder, and back up from the main drive to the secondary drive.  This will allow me to retrieve files that were deleted, but the second drive will need to be bigger than the main drive.

3. Install another drive in the workstation that has the shared docs folder, and set up RAID 1 to mirror the data.  This does not allow me to retrieve deleted files (once they're out of the Recycle Bin), but the second drive only has to be the same size.

4.

Basically, I want my files safe if the workstation pooches, and I want to be able to restore deleted files, and I'd like to remove the workload from the one workstation, but I'm Dutch and don't want to spend money unless it's good value   Oh, and I'm lazy so I want it all to work without my supervision.

[Lazybones]

5. Upgrade your network from 10/100 to Gigabit, 10 times faster.

[Melbosa]

So basically here is the order of execution on my systems (VMs and Physicals):

• NT Backup to local drive (even at my largest numbers my fulls only take about 3 hours max - and that is a 250GB+ backup)
• Robocopy to Backup Archive
• 7Zip Backups on Backup Archive once a week

Now this assumes you have the HD space locally to have a copy of the backup.  On all my systems I do.  If your workstations are faster than your file server or more powerful, you could 7Zip before Network Copy.

Also if you are worried about the times for your 120GB, you could do differentials, and only the 120GB once a month.  Differentials are larger than Incrementals, but you only ever need 1 Full and 1 Diff for a restore.

If you notice, my XLS I do Diffs daily on my Document folders, but a full only once a week, as with my contract work my Document folders are updated almost daily.

I do have a GB network as Lazy suggested, but they are cheap now too, so buying an 8Port shouldn't set you back too much.  Worth it if you are doing large transfers between computers.  Also you shouldn't have to worry about being cat 5e or 6 as I don't think your distances will really matter for the transfer speeds.

And when ever I update the VM Hosting Software, I always make a manual copy of the VMs to my Backup Archive.

Hope this helps.

[Lazybones]

Found this today
13 Great Free Backup Programs for Windows, Mac, and Linux

[Thorin]

Man, haven't looked at backups in a long time.

I ended up buying a couple of terabyte drives a month or so ago, and now I think I'm gonna try GFI Backup Home Edition to handle my backups.  Why that one?  Well, it's free and it's advertised as perfect for beginners and it can handle stacked backups alongside latest-only backups.

I'll let you know if I'm impressed with it or not.