solidworks, Computer backup

by **JKimmel** » Sat, 11 Feb 2006 09:13:42 GMT

What is a typical scheme for backing up a company's computer files?
Right now, we're manually running a tape backup system which I consider
unreliable, slow and unwieldy. I'd like to use RAIDed hard drives for
backup. What are you using?

Thanks,
--
J Kimmel
XXXX@XXXXX.COM
www.metalinnovations.com

"Cuius testiculos habes, habeas cardia et cerebellum." - When you have
their full attention in your grip, their hearts and minds will follow.

by Bo » Sat, 11 Feb 2006 11:21:57 GMT

There is backup and various forms of RAID can do that, which duplicate
data in various ways.

Archiving to a drive or multiple drives in a RAID can do the
incremental backups.

Lots of companies sell small boxed RAID HD sets, and hot swappable
drives is a plus.

Bo

by **TOP** » Sat, 11 Feb 2006 11:54:15 GMT

We use external USB hard drives. One stays on site and one to a remote
location. The hard drive comes with software to backup files.

by **solid steve** » Sat, 11 Feb 2006 17:04:15 GMT

Hi

I use a 2x USB HD and Norton ghost, I take a drive image every night &
an incremental every hour, then rotate the drives off site

steve

by **Zander** » Sun, 12 Feb 2006 02:50:22 GMT

An article I read recently says that magnetic tape is the most reliable
'long term' data storage media. Optical discs are proving to be only
for short term backup. But I like many others prefer to use hard drive
arrays so everyday backup. In my case I use a mirrored array for my
vault and primary data storage as well as backing up nightly to an
alternate computers raid array. Not ideal because I don't have an
offsite backup but...

Zander

by Bo » Sun, 12 Feb 2006 04:49:18 GMT

Zander, I tend to agree with your method of using hard disks, but would
prefer a RAID with hot swappable HDs so they can go off site.

My experience with the low end tape systems was that the tape was OK,
but the mechanical drives kept eating the ends of the tapes.
Admittedly my experience was limited, but I got tired of expensive tape
drives and tapes, and then hard drive costs plummeted, so using a hard
drive for archiving now seems inexpensive.

Bo

by **John H** » Mon, 13 Feb 2006 21:55:10 GMT

Backing up to a HD is certainly the quickest, and probably cheapest method
(in some instances), but has certain major drawbacks:-

1. HD's die frequently. If it's fitted in the same box as your server, then
you may have to shut down the server to replace it.

2. If the backup HD is in the same box as your server HD, then a spike from
a faulty power supply could fry both of them.

3. An office fire or theft could result in you losing both your main and
backup HD's in one go - if you're in this scenario, then you might find your
company insurance invalid.

4. Tapes are cheap and allow rotation schemes i.e. one tape for each day of
the week + another (for example) for alternate Fridays.
Why do this? - beacuse if someone accidentally deletes a file or a whole
folder, you might not realise it for several days. If you only have a
single HD backup, it will already have been overwritten.

5. You can archive tapes at regular intervals in a safe, as an additional
guard against accidental file deletion going undetected for long periods.

6. Tapes are small, light and robust for carrying offsite.

Regards,
John Harland

by **TOP** » Mon, 13 Feb 2006 22:29:27 GMT

Nowadays there are small lightweight and very large external hard
drives available. The one we use is 300GB, a bit larger than a VHS tape
and plugs into the USB port. It is relatively inexpensive and we have
two. One is always off site.

I am not sure how much you can get on a tape these days. Does it
approach 300GB and if so how much does it cost?

by Bo » Tue, 14 Feb 2006 04:27:26 GMT

John, you made good points, but I'ld like to bring up the issue of HD
failures.

Other than early failure in the first few hundreds of hours of use for
some very small % of all Hard Drives, the use they would get for
occassional backup would not likely ever get close to wearing them out
or having a failure.

Also, just because a HD "goes bad" does not mean the disk is bad. It
can still be read, even thought the electronics go kaput, if the data
is valuable enough.

My next purchase will likely be a hot swappable RAID box, maybe from
Wiebe Tech < http://www.wiebetech.com/home.php> ;. 5 ea 250 gig drives in
a box = $2500 (incl tax).

The basic advantage of hard drives I saw was that they are cheaper per
Gig than the Exabyte tapes I was buying a year or two back. I haven't
checked pricing recently.

Bo

by **TOP** » Tue, 14 Feb 2006 05:36:21 GMT

And whether tape or HD (which both can go bad) the system is just as
important so that if there is a media failure it is detectable and does
not result in a loss more than one step back.

by Bo » Tue, 14 Feb 2006 05:46:55 GMT

I agree, and that is why even for an individual designer, that a proper
Backup & Archiving to multiple devices, with offsite storage is so
important.

Someone is going to jump up and complain about a $2500 RAID box price,
but how much is it worth to not loose 2, 5 or 10 days work at some
future time? I paid $1400 for an Exabyte tape drive and it turned out
to be crap, as were the next 2 replacements they shipped to me. No
doubt that model was "retired".

I'm far happier moving a hard drive back and forth than I am moving
tapes (which are FAR more susceptable to electromagnetic corruption
than HDs.).

Bo

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