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Auto Backup to CD

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by joe.fusco

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I posted a thread last week asking about tape backups and which would be best. I think the concensus was that, for the amount of data we need to preserve, CD backups are probably most cost effective.

So that brings me to scenario and question number two.

We have nine offices in seven cities. Each office is staffed by non-technical people. I need to make the backup process as simple for them as possible. My goal is to have the staff deal with only one step in the process - changing media. I would like to, for now, create a compressed copy of the single folder we need to backup and automatically burn it daily to CD or CD-RW. AT LEAST once a week, the backup will be sent off-site for long-term storage. In the future, I would like to upgrade to DVD burners and create a backup/image of the entire server once a month for long-term storage.

I know Nero has a backup component that can be automated but is this the best solution? Is anyone else out there doing automated backups to CD or DVD? What software are you using? What do you like about it? What do you dislike about it? What features should I look for as must-have?

Feel free to email me directly with your answer (jfusco at coxinet dot net)if you feel like you're posting an advertisement and think that would be inappropriate.

Thank you,
Joe Fusco

5 replies

by jafii

We also use BackupMyPC here at work for around 40 peer-to-peer PCs. It's a relatively inexpensive solution that allows you to back up network shares along with local drives. It's interface is easy to use and seems rock solid.

Another solution I'm considering for clients is the Maxtor USB one-touch 200GB drive. It comes with software that backs everything up, then does incrementals on schedule. When you want to restore to a certain point in time, you choose the restore point (like in Win XP) and it takes care of everything.

In this case, redundancy is still important, so I'm thinking you'd need to somehow back up the USB drive itself periodically (maybe to another one.)

The thing I like about the USB solution is the restore points and the ability to basically have a full backup at any given point. Using a CD or DVD solution, you really can only back up 8 - 12G of data, depending on compression. That's not enough to get a full restore situation going; however, for disaster recovery it certainly will work. The main benefit to DVD backups is that you can have a good rotation going, store things off-site, and you are best protected from any possible viral damage.

Good luck and let us know what you did!!
John Flynn

by oisleach9

I use Winbackup and have used it on Win2003 server as well as using it to send files from a particular directory to the FileServer to be backed up on Romavable HArd Drives.
It is all scheduled etc

by torture

I know that my company uses Handy Backup which does backup to сd quite well. Some time ago we had hardware troubles applying to central servers in three cities at the same time, and it just saved our a$$es :)

by torture

I know that my company uses Handy Backup which does backup to cd quite well. Some time ago we had hardware troubles applying to central servers in three cities at the same time, and it just saved our a$$es :)

Sorry, my link in the previous post doesn't seem to work, dunno why (?) - feel free to delete it. :)

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