Offsite Backup Software

[siegewars]

Hey guys,

I was wondering if you guys have any recommendations. I am currently looking to back up say upwards of 500g's off-site. I want to take an intial impression or backup and bring it to my offsite office. Then do incremental backups nightly or whatever has changed. Is there host/client software for this ?

Thanks

-b

 

[forrestcupp]

What are you going to be backing up to?

 

[bob442]

I just switched to a software called metiix. It is great software and vary easy to use. Take a look at their site its well worth it. It also dedups.

Managed Data Protection Service | Metiix

 

[siegewars]

I am going to be backing up databases among other stuff. Not videos images or anything along those lines.

 

[forrestcupp]

But what are you wanting to back it up to? Are you backing up to an offsite server, external hard drive, or what? If it's to an offsite server, do you already have the server, or are you looking for some service that gives you all that?

 

[jbc]

Hay folks don't mean to attempt to hijack the thread, lets discuss both issues here but I have a similar question also about off site backup. I will also attempt to illustrate to siegewars what folks want to know by way of an example. My issue differs from siegewars in the way that monthly subscription services are out of the question. Instead I prefer to go buy a portable hard disk and backup to that once a month and transport that drive to work or off site to a different location. So I will be backing up to a external hard drive. My question is this I will be backing up two existing drives, one internal drive that has 37.8gb of data on it and another 1tb external drive with 175gb of data on it. What size drive do I need to buy to hold the backups for both drives? I have a four year old portable drive that is 250gb already and it looks like that drive is a tad too small for the backup application that I intend to use it for. So what do you think? Will the existing 250gb do the job or do I need a new 350gb or a new 500gb to do the backup with?

Siegewars what they want to know is which of the two following options do you intend to use to backup your files? Do you intend to rent space on line to backup to (like I have rejected out of hand as I do not like the idea of a monthly bill) or do you want to buy an external drive like I have proposed to do?

The difference that I see is that the external drive is a one time non-reoccurring cost where as the online sites will certainly rent you some space but that involves a monthly reoccurring fee for that service which in my mind which is excellent in the short term but in the long run will cost a lot more then the drive you buy yourself.

The disadvantage to my approach is that its a manual process that I will need to intervene once a month to take care of where as the on-line solution can be automated and done without your attention. Also the online service does not require you to maintain anything, that's the responsibility of the company that rents you the space.

So like everything else in life it depends on what you need. I have chosen to maintain the drive and intervene once a month in order to keep the costs down but I can understand why you would want to pay for the convenience of backing up online.

 

[james.wired]

My company uses Carbonite Pro. Excellent program and very inexpensive. Had the chance to use it for its purpose this past week due to our main office building having one of its transformers blown up. We had to relocate temporarily and setup shop with new stuff. Well it worked great and the process was very easy. Excellent and fast customer service as well.

 

[Alvin.C]

I second Carbonite.

 

[forrestcupp]

@jbc

FBackup is a great freeware program for backing up data. It's what I use for my important files, and for my church, which is vital. Since you're backing up to an external hard drive, this is an excellent choice for you, and you won't have to spend any money. FBackup will either back everything up to a compressed zip file on your external, or it will do an uncompressed mirror. After you back it up the first time, it only backs up your changes, so it saves time.

As for what size hard drive you need, obviously, you'll want whatever size will accommodate not only what you have now, but the amount of data you anticipate you'll have.

 

[jbc]

Understood, if I buy a 500gb hd how much of t he initial 500gb is taken up by over head and how much of the 500gb do I have to work with? Can I expect 450gb of space to work with out of a 500gb hd or can I expect 490gb. How much will be taken up by over head? Carbonite looks interesting and a good buy its just that I am philosophically opposed to a reoccurring fee of any sort. I prefer the one time upfront fee.