Set It and Forget It Backup

[awraynor]

I referred to a drive failure in a post about Best Buy recently. I have pleaded with my friends

to come up with some sort of backup solution, as now they have none. A server although optimal,

would be just too much for what my friends want or would understand. A set it and forget it option is really

a must in their case. I thought a solution that backups the complete drive would be nice, a la

Acronis and BounceBack Ultimate. BBU has a spotty record and I found Acronis to be just too busy.

 

Carbonite for file backup is simple enough, but they don't do any extended file retention per se.

I am leaning towards CrashPlan for it's local and online options. It won't backup the OS, but they

realistically only have the OS, Office and a few occupation specific titles. A separate issue is that

I noticed some of the newer drives have integrated software, does that cause problems with 3rd party solutions?

 

So if you were trying to recommend a solution for basically computer illiterate people, what would

you suggest? Real time backup of the whole drive would be optimal, but file backup is a must.

[jmwills]

Two things I would do are Enable Shadow Copies on that machine (assuming Windows 7) and add an external USB drive. If Windows 7, you can shrink the main volume enough to create a new volume/partition and allow enough disk space for shadow copies to be created.

 

The external drive could not only back up the data but the shadow copies as well. Utilizing Windows Backup, you could automate the process using a Scheduled Task.

[awraynor]

Yes, this is a little more difficult than that. They are running two Sony Vaio desktops (2004)

with XP that they are completely satisfied with, so a native solution isn't likely an option.

[jmwills]

Simple enough. Utilize the USB External drive, share it out from Computer A; Map a network drive from A to B and still use the native Windows backup tools to run as a scheduled task. Or....I could come by and hold their hands for $75/hour....two hour minimum.

[kermi]

I'd go with something like Crashplan. If you want to, you can even install it on your own server and have your friends back up to your server and it won't cost anyone a dime (well expcet you in the manner of lost disk space).

 

But backup HAS to be fully automated for the less computer inclined people. In the case of using external usb drive /file shares and XP, i'd rather use something like synctoy than the built in stuff in windows. I haven't had very good experiences with that. Win7 backup is entirely differend matter though.