Backup software

bobby_valentino · 6 Jan 2009 at 23:25

Okay heres the scanario: Within the house we have 4 PC's each having 1TB hard drives. What would be the best method/way to backup all my data to a single external USB/eSATA hard drive? I want a feature within the software that compares the files with the external drive so it doesnt waste time backing up the entire data each week, and only the modified files to the external drive. Obviously each week/month I will do a full backup, and not totally rely on the modified backup feature. Anyone have any idea's!? Thanks!

Ben643 · 6 Jan 2009 at 23:54

I use SyncBackSE. Not sure how much it costs now but it works perfectly for me and seems to do everything you need.

bennyB · 7 Jan 2009 at 00:09

I use sync toy, it's free by MS and will do exactly what you need, no unnecessary backups etc..

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SyncToy

bobby_valentino · 7 Jan 2009 at 00:13

Thanks, for the replies guys...what storage do you guys back up to? external USB hard drive? Tapes? SAN?

bennyB · 7 Jan 2009 at 00:19

usb hard drive, it doesn't take that long to back up after you've initially loaded all your stuff on there

...assuming you're not making major changes each time...

Ben643 · 7 Jan 2009 at 00:29

bobby_valentino said:
Thanks, for the replies guys...what storage do you guys back up to? external USB hard drive? Tapes? SAN?

Just a USB external hard drive for me.

bobby_valentino · 7 Jan 2009 at 00:32

Im going to have to find a external drive thats as big as all the drives in the PC, so 4Tb :/....i dont think external drives go that big.

bennyB · 7 Jan 2009 at 11:04

You're probably best off buying some sort of enclosure then put 4 1TB drives in it if you want to do it all to one thing. Other than that you could by 2 2TB external drives, but i think that's as big as they get at the moment!

Admiral Huddy · 7 Jan 2009 at 11:06

Ben643 said:
I use SyncBackSE. Not sure how much it costs now but it works perfectly for me and seems to do everything you need.

+1 nice piece of software cost around £12 if I recal. Simple to use and very efficient. However, it doesn't take disk images if I'm correct.

Tomsk · 7 Jan 2009 at 14:29

bobby_valentino said:
Im going to have to find a external drive thats as big as all the drives in the PC, so 4Tb :/....i dont think external drives go that big.

Are you backup up each entire PC? ie making a complete image of their HD's?
Surely just your personal data won't come to 4GB.
If your PC's are networked, why not just have all your data on one PC and share that across the network.
If you are imaging the HD's, Windows Home Server might be suitable, but you'll need another PC for it and to have all the other PC's networked.

nade · 7 Jan 2009 at 21:20

Tomsk said:
Are you backup up each entire PC? ie making a complete image of their HD's?
Surely just your personal data won't come to 4GB.
If your PC's are networked, why not just have all your data on one PC and share that across the network.
If you are imaging the HD's, Windows Home Server might be suitable, but you'll need another PC for it and to have all the other PC's networked.

I was going to suggest something along the lines of what Tomsk has said...

If all the PC's are networked, then you could use a NAS device, or at least one that allows you to connect USB drives to it.