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Testing new Backup/Syncronization Software


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Hi all,

 

The past few weeks I've been testing several new backup and file syncronization solutions for my systems. I'd been less than impressed with many I'd found by their complexity, inflexibility and instability, but I think I've found a winner:

 

http://www.2brightsparks.com/ SyncBackSE

 

While it is not a real-time sync solution, it is extremely flexible allowing both backups of networks and local drives (including over VPN and FTP connections in both directions from the client). Once set up it runs really fast and in my opinion every part of this application works as it should, and the interface looks good and is user friendly.

 

One of the main reasons I was looking for a new solution was to find the ability to backup open PST (Outlook) files and to be able to pull data from a network VPN drive and my Web server without having to install a client on the remote system.

 

Anyway, two thumbs up. If you are looking for an awesome file backup and syncronization app, look no further.

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Jeff,

 

We are currently looking for a new backup system and I'd be interested to hear what you are backing up to - tape, removable drives?

 

I purchased two of the Maxtor Drives (a one touch USB as as well as one of their NAS). This works for me. If I had more files to backup, I have around 106K files and 184GB of data, I'd probably build a seperate bare bones system with a RAID 5 array and backup to it. For offsite security, tapes might be the better solution or put hot-swapable drives in that system. I've never done the latter, so I'm not sure how much they like to be swapped every day.

 

As far as the backup software, so far, I think the one I mentioned earlier really works well. I personally do not like solutions that pack all the data into one file as the chance for the entire archive being lost is too high.

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Thanks for the link Jeff - Sorting out a decent backup system has been on the "to do" list for a while and it might get me started!

If you're interested in a low cost NAS setup - this bit of kit might be handy:

http://tinyurl.com/d889b

 

Dbarc - they do all sorts of backup/NAS type of things...

 

Hopefully mine will turn up in a couple of days and I can try it out with the two 250Gb HD's I currently have sitting in a firewire enclosure as backup drives - save having to crank up the main Pc when all I want to do is listen to some tunes!

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Jeff

I think (hope!) it screws in to the back side of a hard drive enclosure and allows you to use it as a USB enclosure for the local PC, but as a NAS for others - it looks similar to the Firewire bridge board that's currently in my HD enclosure. It allows you to connect two IDE HD's and have them as network drives, not sure about RAID or fancier stuff. At £30 I was willing to experiment - I'll report back once it arrives.....

I'm guessing you could mount two or three of them in the back of an old PC box, have 4 or 6 hard drive's running off them as a cheap0.5 - 1.5TB NAS setup.

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  • 3 weeks later...

Faster than a speeding bullet.....

I've still not had a chance to try this out, as the local computer junk shop seems to have had a clear out and didn't have an old SCSI external case that would have been perfect to fit this and an old 60Gb HD I have lying about to allow me to put my MP's on the LAN.

To be honest, if I was wanting to get a NAS now, I'd go straight for one of the off the shelf jobs you can get with gigabit ethernet etc, as they'd only work out a bit more than buying this card, an enclosure and Hard drive seperately.

PS Jeff - the backup software seems to do exactly what I wanted, coupled with C Cleaner ( http://www.ccleaner.com/) and diskeeper 7 lite (http://tinyurl.com/6we8e), keeps the system safe and humming along sweetly.

Cheers

Deri

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  • 4 weeks later...

I would currently recommend against off-site backup. I was IT manager for the firm I used to work for, and we lost a whole server. It was a week later before all the data was back where it should be. The systems are seriously flawed at the moment. Maybe in a couple of years, if they reduce the price tag, they might be worth considering.

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  • 1 year later...

Depending on the provider - Online Backup can be safer than having data in ur office or VERY dangerous..

if you go with a secure encrypted service - where the data is encrypted BEFORE it leaves your pc that is the safest bet.. you should ONLY use such a service.

One should also make sure that the company has redundant servers - so in case THEIR server fails all your data is safe!. You also want to make sure they are USA based with AMERICAN tech support- using third world support when your in a cruch is the pits... a good example of a financially stable company with redundant secure data servers is http://www.onlinebackupvault.com

please tell me what u think

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i use smart sync pro. i am not a specialist in administrator stuff, but for my opinion, it works well. it`s easy to learn which is an important fact for me, as i simply dont have the time (and nervs) to get into professional but ultracomplex backupsoftware.

only limitation is the german version, which for me (german spoken) is harder to understand than the english one, due to the unorthodox translation.

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