never put all of your eggs in one basket

[unlovedwarrior]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/07/technology/07basics.html?ei=5088&en=4a44ab6f1f3cfe05&ex=1315281600&adxnnl=1&partner=rssnyt&emc=rss&adxnnlx=1157641396-3vQzVEaK6V4L8v8JOTvQzQ

[honvetops]

good info for all,

thats why i bought the  WD-my book 160 gig ,  its kuel looking and easy.

[Sidewinder]

This idea has great possibilities. I generated each of my clients (and mine) disks the same way, c: for the OS, d: for their local data, and e: for software.

They already have a script that backs up the full system on Thursdays and does an incremental backup on the other weekdays. The script also sends me a email detailing the success or failure of the backup. It should be easy enough to create a standalone backup of the local data disk on Thursdays and send the file off to Gmail. The backups run unattended at night using the task scheduler, so the extra time factor should not be a problem as everyone has a cable connection.

Famous last words: this shouldn't be too hard to implement

Thanks, honvetops

Edit: my mistake, unlovedwarrior was the OP

[Zylstra]

I still use Ye-Old MS-DOS 6.22 MSBACKUP command on my laptop!

And a program that copies my files in time intervals on my 98' desktop.

[homer]

whats wrong with buying 2 SATA drives and making a RAID array? does the same thing and you dont have to buy any software .

[Zylstra]

whats wrong with buying 2 SATA drives and making a RAID array? does the same thing and you dont have to buy any software .

Well, that would work until one disk was damaged. Data damage will spread, but disk damage will be limited. It would work fine as long as you ran Scandisk and Defragmenter frequently.

[homer]

if one disk was damaged you would still have the other disk. that is the sole purpose of a RAID 1 array.

[Zylstra]

if one disk was damaged you would still have the other disk. that is the sole purpose of a RAID 1 array.

You mean it copies each individual disk write to both drives?

[homer]

that is correct. one hard drive mirrors the other. the RAID array you were thinking of is a RAID 0 array. the RAID 0 array "splits" the information among the 2 drives, thereby increasing the performance of the harddrives reading/writing speeds.

[Zylstra]

that is correct. one hard drive mirrors the other. the RAID array you were thinking of is a RAID 0 array. the RAID 0 array "splits" the information among the 2 drives, thereby increasing the performance of the harddrives reading/writing speeds.

Interesting. What does the drive do when it gets an error? Does it self correct as well?

[Sidewinder]

I was under the impression the article concerned itself with offsite backup copies. Having duplicate data (RAID array) or a backup inches from the PC would not make you very safe from a fire or a broken water pipe.

Mailing the data to a remote server or storing your backup with a friend would increase your odds of a complete recovery.

Just an opinion.  8-)