[LiamBeahan]

I have a small computer network in the office and it currently has 6 computers. Computer 1, 2, 3 and 6 are used by the people in the office. Computer 4 is an exchange server running MS Windows 2003 for small business SP2. Computer 5 is a File server running MS Windows 2003 standard edition SP2. My question is how can I get computer 5 to have access on all the computers drives? Do I go to each computer and share the drive? or do I set it all up from computer 5? How do I do that?

 

The reason for doing this is that we want to backup all of the drives from all computers using only 1 computer (Which is computer 5 the file server) and back it up to an external hard drive. I was able to backup all computers before but I had to connect the external hard drive on each computer and copy all of the files then move to the next computer when its finished. Having access to all the computers drives on one PC would be great since I would only need to initiate the copy once. (BTW, this has to be done every month.) Computer 5 is the best option to use since its the most powerful computer we have.

 

Any help you guys can give will be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance! 

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Others may have better advice, but here is how I would do it:

 

First off, I'm assuming that Computer 5 has enough hard disk space to back up the rest of the computers to it.

Secondly, you didn't specify the operating system on your workstations so I'm going to assume Windows 7.

 

I would go to each computer (with the exception of Computer #5) and then open the control panel and go to Backup and Restore.  Then I would schedule a full backup from the computer being worked on to Computer #5 to be performed the night before you are going to do your monthly back up to the external drive.  Do this for Computers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6. I would probably stagger the scheduled backup times so they aren't all backing up at the same time.  The result of this is that every computer will have a backup on Computer 5's harddrive.  Now all you have to do is back up Computer 5 to your external hard drive... and you will have a back up of everything on the external hard drive.  You will also have a secondary backup of all of your workstations on Computer 5 in case something should happen to your external drive.

 

There are several variations of the above scenario that would work just as well, but hopefully you will get the idea.

 

Good luck.

[Tomk]

Others may have better advice, but here is how I would do it:

 

First off, I'm assuming that Computer 5 has enough hard disk space to back up the rest of the computers to it.

Secondly, you didn't specify the operating system on your workstations so I'm going to assume Windows 7.

 

I would go to each computer (with the exception of Computer #5) and then open the control panel and go to Backup and Restore.  Then I would schedule a full backup from the computer being worked on to Computer #5 to be performed the night before you are going to do your monthly back up to the external drive.  Do this for Computers 1, 2, 3, 4, and 6. I would probably stagger the scheduled backup times so they aren't all backing up at the same time.  The result of this is that every computer will have a backup on Computer 5's harddrive.  Now all you have to do is back up Computer 5 to your external hard drive... and you will have a back up of everything on the external hard drive.  You will also have a secondary backup of all of your workstations on Computer 5 in case something should happen to your external drive.

 

There are several variations of the above scenario that would work just as well, but hopefully you will get the idea.

 

Good luck.

[LiamBeahan]

Hi TomK, This actually makes a lot of sense! This is great! I will definitely give it a shot. Thanks a million!

[Tomk]

You're welcome.

 

Good luck.