Hi
I am after some advice and guidance. I run a business which uses 4 PCs. These are all networked together and thay can share files and printers. I DO NOT use a dedicated server. What i would like to do is make daily backups of certain files and folder from each machine. I am not interested in doing complete system backups but only DATA backups. The amount of data required to be backed-up is not a vast amount - probably las thab 1GB but it is very important that it is backed-up daily. I would like some sort of automated process so all i would need to do is remove the previous days backups first thing in the morning and replace with fresh media. I have been looking at using a single tape drive(DAT)connected to a single machine as i beleive tape media can be reused.Is it straightforward to backup files from one machine thru a second . Also I would like advice on software. I know Nero can be used for backups but dont know if it can be used for tape backups or how easy it is. All advice gratefully received

Google for Backup solutions for small businesses.

Below is one product that looks interesting. What kind of data is being backed up? Do you need to work with the backup files?

There are external drive solutions that might serve your needs. They usually have TWO mirrored drives of maybe 500GB each for a mirrored array of 500GB.

How important is it that each of the computers be up and running? You may want a total backup solution with incremental daily backups. If you give more detail of the nature of your business perhaps others may have additional thoughts.

Tape is kind of cumpersome but can hold large amounts of data. Cartridges can get expensive. Optical media might be an option.

http://www.backupassist.com/news/ta...

Consider scheduled tasks, ntbackup.

You have to have a place to go. For a gig I wouldn't waste my time with a tape. Get a 1Tb raid nas for about the same amount. Guess you could map the drives to actually backup to each others computer and not buy anything.

No backup scheme is foolproof. It has to be tested once in a while. It used to be that we loaded the backup each day.

I read it wrong and answer it wrong too. So get off my case you peanut.

Consider using an external usb disk drive.

Here in the uk they are very cheap now.

Also consider keeping a number of generations (e.g. daily within a weeks trading, or grandfather, father, son) of backups, possibly on different drives.

These could be kept offsite if required.

One thing to test occasionally, is that restoration is possible from backups. Had one instance where a major company backed up daily, but found when a restore was needed they could not read form the media concerned - big problem.

Good Luck - Keep us posted.