[jamiemac]

Hi everyone. I just suffered a head crash on my laptop hard drive and have lost 3 months of email and digital photos of the kids. So I guess I have finally learnt my lesson and am now prepared to implemenet a proper backup procedure.

So I am looking for advice. I have a Sony external DVD writer and a laptop running XP home which I use wirelessly. Idealy I think I would like the following features:

• Daily incremental backup of any files or subfolders in My Documents area (i.e. jpeg's, mpeg's, *.pst, *.mny, *.office 2003..)
• Weekly image of my operating system and installed software so I can just wipe and recopy and be back in buisness in a matter of hours rather than days in the event of a hard disk failure
• A second backup option to my DVD writer, I guess a 'one touch' external hardrive?
• Is it worth having a wireless external hard drive so it is in a different room to my laptop (in case of flood/fire etc..)
• Maybe I should be considering online storage, anyone had any joy with this?
• My budget is US$1,000 (I was prepared to pay more than that to get my hard drive recovered) or maybe I should buy a cheap wireless laptop as a backup unit!?

All adivce gratefully received

Cheers



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well you are wanting enterprise level backup solutions. however, you are in luck. as the size of today's hdd's have increased the availablilty of good backup solutions has as well.

there are two options: NAS (network attached storage) and the external hdd with one touch backup solutions.

check out the review for western digital's netcenter drive: http://www.xbitlabs....-netcenter.html

check out the review for maxtor's one touch backup: http://www.xbitlabs....uch2-fw800.html

do date I don't know of any solution that would make the external hdd wireless. much easier to make your laptop wireless. However, from performance issues caused by high latency and possible disconnects I would highly suggest backing up over a wired connection.

I have an overadundance of firewire ports. I would probably go with something that could do both usb/firewire, and if it happen to do networking as well.... then fantastick.

[starjax]

well you are wanting enterprise level backup solutions. however, you are in luck. as the size of today's hdd's have increased the availablilty of good backup solutions has as well.

there are two options: NAS (network attached storage) and the external hdd with one touch backup solutions.

check out the review for western digital's netcenter drive: http://www.xbitlabs....-netcenter.html

check out the review for maxtor's one touch backup: http://www.xbitlabs....uch2-fw800.html

do date I don't know of any solution that would make the external hdd wireless. much easier to make your laptop wireless. However, from performance issues caused by high latency and possible disconnects I would highly suggest backing up over a wired connection.

I have an overadundance of firewire ports. I would probably go with something that could do both usb/firewire, and if it happen to do networking as well.... then fantastick.

[jamiemac]

Ok duh, I get what you are saying and yes I suppose there is no reason why I can't simply place my wireless router in a different room with LAN cable networked HDD. Many thanks for pointing that out.

Makes me a little worried about securtiy, I mean I know how to limit access to my laptop using firewalls but how do you do that with a networked HDD?

So looks like you have put me on the right track harware wise, any ideas on great simple to use backup software? For all my interest in IT I know that deep down I need an automated backup solution..

Many thanks for your help.

Jamie Mac

[starjax]

the hdd comes with its own software. unlike an os, it can't be modified unless you upload an update to it. it has its own access controls. besides it sits behind your router.

[jamiemac]

Ok well here's the solution I came up with:

I have bought True Image ver. 9.0

I have bought a Maxtor 200Gb networked harddrive (would have preferred Western Digitals Essential Net Centre 250Gb but can't get it here in Australia).

Anyway combined with DVD writer I reckon I have now have a great backup solution and i can't wait to start using it.


Thanks to all for your help!

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