Software for backing up disaster recovery image

JohnCleary

Folks,
Before I get to Googling, can anyone advise...

Server 2003 with data on single HDD. Can anyone recommend software that will write to a USB SATA HDD enclosure that will create a disaster recovery image? Hence if the HDD in the machine failed I could simply slot in this HDD and keep going.

ATM there's a tape disaster recovery in place, but I don't trust tapes. This comes with HP software for the tape, but doesn't recognise any external drive.


I know the above is not a total solution, this is just temporary until I can get other issues resolved (New hardware arrived faulty, I just need a temp plan to keep going for a week or two)

Cheers

JJJJNR

Do you want a daily backup? if not get yourself a copy of old school ghost (dos based) and do a usb boot to ghost and a disk to disk copy, acronis will do the job also, but i've never used it.

Ctrl Alt Del

Hi,

You mentioned that data needs redundancy and not the OS disk / partition !
Ao dos based programs are not the ideal solution here...

Why disaster image,why not going to a realtime backup / replication solution !??

Also,the "spare" mirrored hot stand-by hard drive may needs to match the live drive as per type and size !!!

Good luck...

CptSternn

Why not just backup online to the cloud? There are dozens of free online alternatives to which you can backup to that would offer real protection.

By that I mean a power surge could fry your server and the external USB backup device or a fire/theft/etc. would also mean you lose both the server and your backup.

broganire

Actually I was going to ask a similar question. I've an ubuntu desktop in the company which we run our database off. After loosing power for a few hours during the bad storm on Monday it wouldn't start despite being attached to a UPS/Surge protector. It took a few hours but I got it back up and running. Is there a low cost solution to have another cheap desktop mirroring the database one somewhere else on the network. So that if one dies, I just switch over the the backup machine. FYI online isn't an option as our broadband is not reliable

JohnCleary

I found a perfect solution to my situation: ShadowCopy

It's a windows based utility. Creates a complete clone of a hard drive, and the clone is bootable.

I just run it every evening with Windows Scheduler. And it's free too.

I also found a Win app 'Allway Sync' which seems like a good alternative, but I don't necessarily want live syncing incase someone in the office accidently deletes something

Ctrl Alt Del

Ctrl Alt Del wrote: »

Hi,

You mentioned that data needs redundancy and not the OS disk / partition !
Ao dos based programs are not the ideal solution here...

Why disaster image,why not going to a realtime backup / replication solution !??

Also,the "spare" mirrored hot stand-by hard drive may needs to match the live drive as per type and size !!!

Good luck...

JohnCleary wrote: »

I found a perfect solution to my situation: ShadowCopy

It's a windows based utility. Creates a complete clone of a hard drive, and the clone is bootable.

I just run it every evening with Windows Scheduler. And it's free too.

I also found a Win app 'Allway Sync' which seems like a good alternative, but I don't necessarily want live syncing incase someone in the office accidently deletes something

I've mentioned above about the Always Sync,looks like you read only segments from the post and not the full drive partition on my own time and bandwidth !!

Bad news for you...re Shadow Copy !!!
If is same version like they are "talking" here,then Microsoft Shadow Copy is not "cloning the hard drive", is just archiving/snapshots of the files at specified time interval !!!

TBH, my friendly advice,get a fcuking hard drive and do it properly !

JohnCleary

Ctrl Alt Del wrote: »

I've mentioned above about the Always Sync,looks like you read only segments from the post and not the full drive partition on my own time and bandwidth !!

Bad news for you...re Shadow Copy !!!
If is same version like they are "talking" here,then Microsoft Shadow Copy is not "cloning the hard drive", is just archiving/snapshots of the files at specified time interval !!!

TBH, my friendly advice,get a fcuking hard drive and do it properly !

I am talking about ShadowCopy, not Shadow Copy => http://www.runtime.org/shadow-copy.htm

What do you mean by 'take my advice, get a fcuking hard drive'? What do you think i'm copying to, jelly beans? I have a USB SATA Enclosure with 2 x 1TB drives running RAID1. Re. the main and stand-by drive matching - ShadowCopy seems to be making copies no problem (when I view from Windows Explorer) but you may have a point here - I will test the 'spare' HDD on the weekend and see if it boots. Even if it doesn't, I know that the important data is being backed up which is the important thing

BTW - It was from your post above that I infact came across AllwaySync - looks like a handy bit of kit, I may look further into it for other stuff/educational purposes, cheers

swampgas

I know I'm a bit late to this thread, but another approach might be to P2V the server to a VM - maybe using something like vmware converter (a free download). Then hot clone the physical server to a CIFS or NFS share. Advantage is you can verify the cloned image afterwards, or if the server fails import the VM image into a vmware or Hyper-V server.

Just an idea :-)