Backup software for a home network?

[Ken K]

I have a home network and would like to have recommendations for a
program that will 1, allow backup over our home network so that I can
backup my daughter and wife's computers, and 2, allow for automatic
scheduling.

I presently have Acronis True Image 7.0, which provides complete images
and incremental images but does not, I believe, allow for automatically
scheduled incremental backups (only manually scheduled).

Thanks
Ken K

 

[Will Dormann]

I presently have Acronis True Image 7.0, which provides complete images
and incremental images but does not, I believe, allow for automatically
scheduled incremental backups (only manually scheduled).

It surely does support scheduled incremental backups. I have my
parents' PC set up to automatically image itself to a backup drive in an
incremental manner. I also have a scheduled VBS file to clean up the
backup drive once it reaches a certain capacity. This way it's totally
hands-off.

For example, schedule an incremental backup job to backup to image to
D:\backup.tbs

The first time it runs it will create a full backup. Every time from
that point on it will create an incremental backup. If at any point
that first backup is inaccessible or deleted, it will run as a full
backup. It works quite well, really.



-WD

 

[Ken K]

Well thank you, I stand corrected I actually had only read the
manual but had not looked fully through the program, as I had only used
it recently to copy the image of one laptop onto the newly replaced hard
drive of another identical laptop. The program worked flawlessly.

That being the case, here is what I would like to be able to do: do a
full image once a week with nightly incremental backups. Can that be
automated within the program?

Thanks
Ken

 

[Ken K]

Well thank you, I stand corrected I actually had only read the
manual but had not looked fully through the program, as I had only used
it recently to copy the image of one laptop onto the newly replaced hard
drive of another identical laptop. The program worked flawlessly.

That being the case, here is what I would like to be able to do: do a
full image once a week with nightly incremental backups. Can that be
automated within the program?

Thanks
Ken

 

[Ken K]

Well thank you, I stand corrected I actually had only read the
manual but had not looked fully through the program, as I had only used
it recently to copy the image of one laptop onto the newly replaced hard
drive of another identical laptop. The program worked flawlessly.

That being the case, here is what I would like to be able to do: do a
full image once a week with nightly incremental backups. Can that be
automated within the program?

Thanks
Ken

 

[Ken K]

Sorry about the repetition. I receive error messages that the email did
not go through when it clearly did....

KK

 

[Al Dykes]

I have a home network and would like to have recommendations for a
program that will 1, allow backup over our home network so that I can
backup my daughter and wife's computers, and 2, allow for automatic
scheduling.

I presently have Acronis True Image 7.0, which provides complete images
and incremental images but does not, I believe, allow for automatically
scheduled incremental backups (only manually scheduled).

Thanks
Ken K

Assuming you've got w2k/XP machines ntbackup will work fine. You can
backup A to B and B to A, or A and B to C over your LAN.

The target machines need enough disk space, and it has to be NTFS (2
or 4 GB file size limit in FAT32.) Give the folder you're sharing
teh compress attribute and you'll get lots more data on the target disk.

ntbackup is installed by default in w2k and XP/pro. It has to be
added aterwords in XP/home.

If one of your clients is w/98 it can backup to the same file server
that the other machines use. xcopy is better than nothing.

Acronis is great, but ntbackup full backups work fine. IMHO if a disk
crashes recovery from an ntbackup full backup is a bit tedious. With
an acronis image recovery is really easy.

 

[Ken K]

Assuming you've got w2k/XP machines ntbackup will work fine. You can
backup A to B and B to A, or A and B to C over your LAN.

The target machines need enough disk space, and it has to be NTFS (2
or 4 GB file size limit in FAT32.) Give the folder you're sharing
teh compress attribute and you'll get lots more data on the target disk.

ntbackup is installed by default in w2k and XP/pro. It has to be
added aterwords in XP/home.

If one of your clients is w/98 it can backup to the same file server
that the other machines use. xcopy is better than nothing.

Acronis is great, but ntbackup full backups work fine. IMHO if a disk
crashes recovery from an ntbackup full backup is a bit tedious. With
an acronis image recovery is really easy.

Thanks for responding. I have Acronis on all of the machines now, so
that will work.

I did not understand "Give the folder you're sharing

teh compress attribute and you'll get lots more data on the target disk." Is that the compression box to check (in Win2K) under Properties, Advanced,

Allow Compression? Do I have to do that for all 96,725 files???? You
must be referring to a specific folder---which one? The one where the
image file is being kept?

Thanks
Ken

 

[Will Dormann]

That being the case, here is what I would like to be able to do: do a
full image once a week with nightly incremental backups. Can that be
automated within the program?

Sure. But how you implement it depends on how many old backups you want
to retain on the drive.

One example of this would be to create an incremental backup that runs
daily. Create another weekly scheduled script that renames or moves
your weeks worth of backups elsewhere. The next time your scheduled
backup runs, it will create a full backup because there is no existing
backup to create an incremental backup from.


-WD

 

[Al Dykes]

Thanks for responding. I have Acronis on all of the machines now, so
that will work.

I did not understand "Give the folder you're sharing

teh compress attribute and you'll get lots more data on the target disk.

" Is that the compression box to check (in Win2K) under
Properties, Advanced,

Allow Compression? Do I have to do that for all 96,725 files???? You
must be referring to a specific folder---which one? The one where the
image file is being kept?

For reasons nobody understands, Microsoft changed the GIU in w2k/XP to
set compression and made it even more obtuse. If you check the right
box it will compress all files and folders underneath the shared
folder.

Setting compression never hurts, but since Acronis already compresses
it dooesn't get you anything. ntbackup doesn't compress so it's great
to use the file system to accomplish the same thing.

Once you set compression property on a folder all the files your save
there get compressed as they are written.

If you look in Explorer options you'll see a checkbox that makes
explorer show all files/folders that are compressed in a different
color. If you right-mouse-click on a compressed file or folder
it will show you the compressed and as-if-uncompressed sizes.

 

[Bob]

Sorry about the repetition. I receive error messages that the email did
not go through when it clearly did....

Usenet is not email.


--

Map Of The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy:
http://www.freewebs.com/vrwc/

Government's view of the economy can be summed up in a few short phrases:
* If it moves, tax it.
* If it keeps moving, regulate it.
* If it stops moving, subsidize it.
--Ronald Reagan

 

[Ken K]

So where do I find the book How to Write Scripts for Dummies? I see
where I can make a script to backup the image completely and/or
incrementally but I do not see that there is a script to erase and
replace a complete backup, so I assume that you are talking about
writing a script that I would then enable through Scheduled Tasks...?

Thanks
Ken K

 

[Will Dormann]

So where do I find the book How to Write Scripts for Dummies ? I see
where I can make a script to backup the image completely and/or
incrementally but I do not see that there is a script to erase and
replace a complete backup, so I assume that you are talking about
writing a script that I would then enable through Scheduled Tasks...?

The scriping I'm talking about has nothing to do with Acronis. It's a
complete separete process that is scheduled through Windows' built-in
task scheduler. For my parents' machine here is the script I use. (VBS)

***** Cut here *****
set oFs = WScript.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
set oDrives = oFs.Drives

for each oDrive in oDrives
Select case oDrive.DriveLetter
Case "D"
'msgbox oDrive.FreeSpace & vbcrlf
if oDrive.FreeSpace < 1000000000 then ' Less than 1 GB free...
'msgbox "Cleanup Time!"
oFs.DeleteFile("D:\*.tib"),DeleteReadOnly
else
'msgbox "You've got enough space"
end if
End Select
next
***** Cut here *****


It's probably not the most elegant code, but that's because I just
bastardized an existing VBS that I Googled. The Acronis job is
scheduled (internally) to run at noon. I have the above script
scheduled (via Windows scheduled tasks) to run at a couple of minutes
before noon.

Depending on what you want to do with your backup files, a simple batch
file may suffice. Or even not-so-simple.
http://www.fpschultze.de/batstuff.html

I have recommended adding some sort of internal "housekeeping" routines
like the above to TrueImage, and Acronis said that they are considering
it for a future release of TrueImage.


-WD

 

[Ken K]

Well, if Acronis is smart, they will hire you!

Thanks
Ken K

 

[Pastor Randy Starkey]

Will,

Could you email me your VBS code? I've been looking for something to do
that! I could probably figure how to modify it for my needs, but am not good
enough to write it from scratch.

Thanks!

--Randy Starkey

 

[Will Dormann]

Will,

Could you email me your VBS code? I've been looking for something to do
that! I could probably figure how to modify it for my needs, but am not good
enough to write it from scratch.

Sure thing. I actually posted it in a different message in this thread.
Here it is:


***** Cut here *****
set oFs = WScript.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
set oDrives = oFs.Drives

for each oDrive in oDrives
Select case oDrive.DriveLetter
Case "D"
'msgbox oDrive.FreeSpace & vbcrlf
if oDrive.FreeSpace < 1000000000 then ' Less than 1 GB free...
'msgbox "Cleanup Time!"
oFs.DeleteFile("D:\*.tib"),DeleteReadOnly
else
'msgbox "You've got enough space"
end if
End Select
next
***** Cut here *****


It's probably not the most elegant code, but that's because I just
bastardized an existing VBS that I Googled. The Acronis job is
scheduled (internally) to run at noon. I have the above script
scheduled (via Windows scheduled tasks) to run at a couple of minutes
before noon.

Depending on what you want to do with your backup files, a simple batch
file may suffice. Or even not-so-simple.
http://www.fpschultze.de/batstuff.html



-WD

 

[Will Dormann]

Will,

Could you email me your VBS code? I've been looking for something to do
that! I could probably figure how to modify it for my needs, but am not good
enough to write it from scratch.

Sure thing. I actually posted it in a different message in this thread.
Here it is:


***** Cut here *****
set oFs = WScript.CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
set oDrives = oFs.Drives

for each oDrive in oDrives
Select case oDrive.DriveLetter
Case "D"
'msgbox oDrive.FreeSpace & vbcrlf
if oDrive.FreeSpace < 1000000000 then ' Less than 1 GB free...
'msgbox "Cleanup Time!"
oFs.DeleteFile("D:\*.tib"),DeleteReadOnly
else
'msgbox "You've got enough space"
end if
End Select
next
***** Cut here *****


It's probably not the most elegant code, but that's because I just
bastardized an existing VBS that I Googled. The Acronis job is
scheduled (internally) to run at noon. I have the above script
scheduled (via Windows scheduled tasks) to run at a couple of minutes
before noon.

Depending on what you want to do with your backup files, a simple batch
file may suffice. Or even not-so-simple.
http://www.fpschultze.de/batstuff.html



-WD

 

[Neil Maxwell]

One example of this would be to create an incremental backup that runs
daily. Create another weekly scheduled script that renames or moves
your weeks worth of backups elsewhere. The next time your scheduled
backup runs, it will create a full backup because there is no existing
backup to create an incremental backup from.

Another option that doesn't need scripts or regular intervention is to
have 2 automated backups per drive. One is a full backup, run once a
week (say C-Full.tib). The other is an incremental backup run daily
(you could leave off the full backup day from this schedule), with the
full backup as a target. This will create C-Full1.tib through
C-Full6.tib. It will then start over again the next week and re-use
all the file names.

If something goes wrong in the schedule and the full doesn't get
updated (this happens sometimes, depending on how you've got it set
up), you'll end up with additional incrementals 7-12. They'll remain
there once the backups get synchronized again, but will get out of
date, and need to be deleted.

I also do an additional weekly full backup (C-alternative), just in
case something goes wrong with the main one.

I recommend checking the TI log regularly to make sure nothing's going
wrong. It's fairly robust, but it's not very good at notifying you
when there's a problem.


Neil Maxwell - I don't speak for my employer

 

[Bob]

Another option that doesn't need scripts or regular intervention is to
have 2 automated backups per drive. One is a full backup, run once a
week (say C-Full.tib). The other is an incremental backup run daily

I recommend considering a differential backup instead of an
incremental backup.

The differential backup does not clear the archive bit, and therefore
you backup the same files each day plus any new ones that need to be
backed up. The advantage is that you only have one backup file.

Incremental backups are great if only a few files require backup each
day. But I have discovered from experimentation that the same large
files show up for backup each day, so why carry each day's backup on
disk? Also a differential backup is much easier to restore.

I backup the disk with Drive Image Pro, which does nothing to the
archive bit. Then I run an incremental backup to clear the archive bit
on as many files as I can. From there I run a diffierential backup
each midnight using Backup Exec that comes with Win2K (called
"NTBackup"). I only have one backup file to deal with.


--

Map Of The Vast Right Wing Conspiracy:
http://www.freewebs.com/vrwc/

"When you see all that rhetorical smoke billowing up from the
Democrats, well ladies and gentleman, I'd follow the example
of their nominee; don't inhale."
--Ronald Reagan

 

[Will Dormann]

Another option that doesn't need scripts or regular intervention is to
have 2 automated backups per drive. One is a full backup, run once a
week (say C-Full.tib). The other is an incremental backup run daily
(you could leave off the full backup day from this schedule), with the
full backup as a target. This will create C-Full1.tib through
C-Full6.tib. It will then start over again the next week and re-use
all the file names.

So setting the backup type to "Full" will overwrite the target file if
it already exists?

And if the existing incremental backups are referencing a full backup
that doesn't exist, they will be overwritten when the scheduled
incremental backup runs? In my experience, a scheduled incremental
backup will never overwrite an existing file, but maybe the conditions
just weren't right?


-WD