Backing Up Work.. Raid1? Network Storage?

[cjm]

Hey, new to the forum. I was wondering how you guys back up work. Did you set your computer up with a Raid1 type of disc array or do you have some sort of storage on a local area network. Getting some new equipment and was wondering what you thought the best route was.

[urstwile]

At home, I use DVD's. I've been thinking of getting an external hard drive to use as backup.

At work, we backup our work to an external hard drive using Retrospect scripts, which gets rotated with another one every two weeks. We also use DAT tapes to archive stuff that we want to be able to access but which doesn't need to be on the server at all times. There are two copies of the archive tapes, in case one of the tapes gets damaged, although it hasn't been necessary to resort to that.

[Ned]

DVDs here, too.

[hewligan]

Raid is not a backup solution.

Backups aren't just for when your hard drive dies on you. They're also for the day when you accidentally delete that important file.

External hard drives probably rank about the best solution for most people's purposes.

[Silence04]

no back up here... instead, we have 60gig server that we use for "Active" jobs... then when the job is complete we move it to a Read-Only "Archive" server with 1TB striped across 14 Drives using Raid5.

not 100% fool proof, but ensures we won't lose data other than user error in the Active server or by 7 hard drives failing all at once on the Archive Server...

but i'd say Raid5 is your best bet for secure data with minimal head aches...

[PrintDriver]

You don't want a Raid1 array. You at least want a 5 like Silence said. Sure it cuts down on capacity but it's more secure.

It won't stop you from deleting a file accidentally though, so you can set the 5 to backup when it restores itself. A few times the trash on the Raid has saved that one file...

Burn off completed jobs to DVD, CD or Tape. It's a wise idea to backup active jobs routinely and sometimes even store a copy offsite. Especially if you have an office in a building that contains a restaurant, a kitchen, a fireplace or furnace. You can get one-button drives that will do that at night.

[urstwile]

Yup, the Maxtor drives do that, using a light version of Retrospect. I'm sure there are other brands as well.