Backup sofftware for small networks

[Guest]

I have a peer-to-peer network of five workstations and one serves as a server
for a database. All are on Windows XP Pro. The total amount of data on the
network is less than 20 GB.

I just bought a 320 GB Western Digital external hard drive to begin a backup
system of data. I am perplexed as to what software to buy. My experience
with backup software always leaves be numb due to the use of catalogs and
compressed files. Is there not a software package that is self-contained and
does not require a secondary file? I guess I've alsays like the concept of
PKZip at this point. I find restore procedures not user friendly.

But PKZip is not for network backups and I know this. I need a reliable
software package that will do the job and is user friendly. I am the only
tecnically oriented person in the office and othes may need to access the
backups to restore missing data without me there.

Can anyone reccommend a software package to meet these needs?

 

[Allan]

I have a peer-to-peer network of five workstations and one serves as a
server
for a database. All are on Windows XP Pro. The total amount of data on
the
network is less than 20 GB.

I just bought a 320 GB Western Digital external hard drive to begin a
backup
system of data. I am perplexed as to what software to buy. My experience
with backup software always leaves be numb due to the use of catalogs and
compressed files. Is there not a software package that is self-contained
and
does not require a secondary file? I guess I've alsays like the concept
of
PKZip at this point. I find restore procedures not user friendly.

But PKZip is not for network backups and I know this. I need a reliable
software package that will do the job and is user friendly. I am the only
tecnically oriented person in the office and othes may need to access the
backups to restore missing data without me there.

Can anyone reccommend a software package to meet these needs?

This is off-topic for a security NG. Can you partition the external drive
into five distinct partitions and use one partition for each workstation?
Then use software for standalone computers to back up to its respective
partition. Keep it simple and you will have fewer headaches.

 

[Guest]

I have a peer-to-peer network of five workstations and one serves as a server
for a database. All are on Windows XP Pro. The total amount of data on the
network is less than 20 GB.

I just bought a 320 GB Western Digital external hard drive to begin a backup
system of data. I am perplexed as to what software to buy. My experience
with backup software always leaves be numb due to the use of catalogs and
compressed files. Is there not a software package that is self-contained and
does not require a secondary file? I guess I've alsays like the concept of
PKZip at this point. I find restore procedures not user friendly.

Manual backups using PKZip, etc. are not effective. They won't happen when
you need them most.

Restore points are not backups at all. If your hard drive fails, your
restore points are gone with the original data.

But PKZip is not for network backups and I know this. I need a reliable
software package that will do the job and is user friendly. I am the only
tecnically oriented person in the office and othes may need to access the
backups to restore missing data without me there.

Can anyone reccommend a software package to meet these needs?

I use Cobian 7 for my network at home. Cobian 8 is out but I still prefer
7. The only driving factor that would force a Cobian user to 8 is that it
supports Unicode. Either one will do the job, including running on Vista.

The only drawback is that Cobian is moving to an open source model which
might spell the end of support. If it works for you, though, and it does for
me, you may never need support.

Cobian is available for free at http://www.cobian.se.

Dale

 

[Malke]

I have a peer-to-peer network of five workstations and one serves as a server
for a database. All are on Windows XP Pro. The total amount of data on the
network is less than 20 GB.

I just bought a 320 GB Western Digital external hard drive to begin a backup
system of data. I am perplexed as to what software to buy. My experience
with backup software always leaves be numb due to the use of catalogs and
compressed files. Is there not a software package that is self-contained and
does not require a secondary file? I guess I've alsays like the concept of
PKZip at this point. I find restore procedures not user friendly.

But PKZip is not for network backups and I know this. I need a reliable
software package that will do the job and is user friendly. I am the only
tecnically oriented person in the office and othes may need to access the
backups to restore missing data without me there.

Can anyone reccommend a software package to meet these needs?

Second Copy - www.centered.com


Malke