IDE RAID 1? And backup solution help.

[CaterpillarAssassin]

Any IDE RAID card out there that supports RAID 1?

thanks


And also, I'm looking at finding a backup solution for a small business. They have a tape drive now, but the company who made tapes for the drive stopped making them. Are tape drives really from $250 up? Is there any other backup solution I could do for them a bit cheaper? I was thinking raid 1 but then it dawned on me...It is of little use if they get a virus on it or something.

[Judg3]

Im fairly certain that almost all o fthem support RAID 1. That's usually all I see on em, RAID 0 and RAID 1.

As for backup solutions, it depends on how much you want to backup really. One of the cheaper tape drives is the Onstream ADR 30GB model, they retail for around 200$ brand new and the tapes go for about 50$/each.

If you want to backup everything and have a spare machine you could look into Norton Ghost too. Not to sure if there's a way to automate it, but I think it'd be sorta neat to image the drive everyday at midnight, and store the last 7 days or whatnot onto a diffrent machine.

Or maybe you could get creative with WSH and the WinZip API and make some automated backup scripts.

Though, without a tape drive, most of the things I can think of require another PC, but hopefully it's given you a few options to think about.

[CaterpillarAssassin]

Yeah they have a few computers but there not networked. Prolly end up just having them get a tape drive. I'm looking at a seagate 20gb model for 319. I think the tapes are $40 a piece and it comes with 1. Well I'll just tell the guy flat out, this is what there is. Or I can go with a real cheapy. I always thought these drives werent all tht expensive. But hey, guess they are!


And thanks for your input!

[Judg3]

Ah good, I don't like the OnStreams - I have one, and it's pitifully slow, something like 3MB/s to transfer. I used it all of a week, then figured a full fledged virus would be better then trying to use this thing lol.

[FlyingPenguin]

The really good tape drives that do full disaster recovery are VERY pricey - $400 and up. These are drives that can COMPLETELY restore your HDD without having to install Windows first. Added complication is that if it's a server, the tape software is usually much more expensive.

Frankly, unless it's a server, all you need to do is make a Ghost image once every 6 months or so, or whenever you do any new software install or updates, then backup your data regularly (daily or weekly depending on how mission critical).

NTI BackupNow! is a good CD-R backup program. It can make an image of your entire drive for disaster recovery. It also does normal data backups and it can be setup to do those on an automated schedule.

[CaterpillarAssassin]

This is for a nursing home and they have files on there that they must not lose due to goverment audits and reports and whatnot. That CD-R idea is a good idea though...hmm...I'll hae to run that by him as well. Pretty much what he wants to do. Its his company's money, either way I'm making money.

[eGoCeNTRoNiX]

I was gonna mention what FP said, I know that some programs out there support back-up to a CD-R.. But I also thought there were some that would back up to an CD-RW which would certainly be cheaper than any tape drive, and you could by 10 of them and reuse them as needed.. But, I don't know how much they're wanting to back up. eGo

[FlyingPenguin]

NTI Backup now goes for around $80 - you can have it shipped or purchase it online for a download and save shipping: http://www.ntibackupnow.com/

Most of my clients are using it. I'm convincing them that a tape drive isn't very reliable. Also a tape drive doesn't do you much good if your system gets stolen and you can find a replacement drive easily because it's either out of production, or back ordered.

I usually configure it to backup nightly after everyone's left the office, every week night. I recommend they use 5 (or 6 if they're open 6 days) CD-RW discs - one for each business day.

If they need to archive then use CD-R's instead. They're cheap anyway.

It uses data compression so you can get close to 1.4Gb of dat on a CD. The latest version also supports DVD burners if you need more storage.

Have them change the disc every night before going home AND TAKE LAST THE PREVIOUS NIGHT'S DISC HOME WITH THEM. That way if they get robbed or there's a fire, there's always a copy of the data - that's at worst 24 hours out of date - off-site.

I tell them to keep the rest of their backup discs, and any installation discs, in a fire safe on site. Walmart sells an inexpensive fire safe for $30.