I used to rely on rotating external HDD units, until I ended up with 14 active units, and 14 off-site units, for all the Servers and PCs! It got to be a real grind weekly having to rotate all those units... That is when I brought back a tape back solution, but the old DLT-IV drives I had just were not going to hack it any longer due to the amount of bytes I had to back up over Ultra-Wide SCSI (40mps max, but the DLT-IV throughput is slower than that), and the number of tapes I would have to use to store all the data.
That is when I got the LTO3 unit, which can store 400Gb natively, up to 800 compressed (in theory, it is actually closer to 650Gb for me on average). LTO4 doubles the capacity yet again, but costs a lot more moolah. I could have used a 320mps SCSI card on a 64 bit PCI-X (not PCI-Express) slot, but I opted for the far less expensive 160mps Adaptec 64 bit PCI SCSI card, which is still 4 time faster than the 32 bit PCI Ultra-Wide SCSI, and it is more than fast enough for my needs (I can always upgrade the PCI-6d card and double my backup rate). I use 4 LTO3 tape media cartridges each week, for a total of 1.8Tb+ of file content, with room to spare for growth. It takes me 2.25 days to fill the 4 cartridges, only because I am not always awake at 04:00 to swap in another tape when one of the 4 separate jobs are done. With having 2 sets of media off site, one in the bank safe, I really rest easy now. I use both software and hardware compression during backups, and I am feeding the LTO3 with data from the external Seagate FreeAgent eSATA II (3gps) HDD units. The LTO3 is the choke point, even if I kicked it up to 320mps SCSI it would still be the choke point. Those eSATA II connections are wicked FAST! Did I mention the Seagate 5 year warranty? eSATA II cables are not the same as SATA cables, see www.satacables.com for a fair price. The cool thing about SyncBack is I am not using a proprietary catalog storage technique. The files are stored on their target in native format. So recovering a file is a snap. As for the LTO3 unit, I use BackupAssist, which is a graphical shell that wraps around native NTBackup. Thus to do a restore I do not need anything other than native Windows NTBackup on any machine I can put an LTO3 drive into. No fuss, no muss. The best $250 (or so) I ever spent on a tape backup solution. Why not use NTBackup natively for my LTO3 drive? PITA, BackupAssist makes it real easy to see what I am doing, and when. They did a great job on that app (Australian? New Zealand?). Ciao! Gil > -----Original Message----- > From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Jeff Johnson > Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2008 10:26 AM > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Subject: Re: [NF] Backup Exec 11d > > > I also use SyncBack - I think it may have been Gil that recommended it > to me. I schedule a backup of my development folders to my server every > day. I also schedule a complete backup of my server to a backup drive > daily. Once a week, I backup the server to an external and take it to a > safe deposit box. > > For the first time in my long career, I feel adequately backed up. I > had my main system fail and I was able to use the server until I got my > main computer back. > > SyncBack is simple to use and effective. > > Jeff > > Jeff Johnson > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > SanDC, Inc. > 623-582-0323 > Fax 623-869-0675 > > Gil Hale wrote: > > BTW, SyncBack is only $30.00USD per license. If you use it for > business, > > one license per PC. If you use it for home, one license for up > to 5 PCs. > > Thus far any time there is an update I have been getting it for > free. The > > best deal going. It has never, ever failed me. They also offer a free > > trial (30 days I think). > > > > Gil > > > >> -----Original Message----- > >> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >> [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Behalf Of Dave Crozier > >> Sent: Thursday, April 17, 2008 8:46 AM > >> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >> Subject: RE: [NF] Backup Exec 11d > >> > >> > >> Jim, > >> I used to use the software until I discovered SyncbackSE which is far > >> superior for USB devices. However, I digress. If you look, there is an > >> option in there somewhere to save the backup as a file as opposed to a > >> device. > >> > >> Dave Crozier > >> > >> -----Original Message----- > >> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf > >> Of Jim Harvey > >> Sent: 17 April 2008 13:22 > >> To: 'ProFox Email List' > >> Subject: [NF] Backup Exec 11d > >> > >> Has anyone had experience with this software. > >> > >> We seem to be having nothing but problems getting this to run properly. > >> > >> We're trying to back up to external usb harddrives, but it is very > >> problematic. > >> > >> Two major issues are, first, the software wants to treat a usb > harddrive > >> like tape so that you have to create a "space" reserved for each backup > >> session. We over estimate because we don't want to run out of > tape/space > >> for each backup session. To me this seems stupid. Why can't you > >> just create > >> a folder and direct the software to place the backup files in > that folder. > >> Second, the software consistently fails, with the error > message that the > >> backup media is not available. This is not true as you can see the usb > >> drive with all its folders, files, etc. > >> > >> We have to safely remove the usb hardrive, shut it down, and > >> restart before > >> the Backup Exec software will acknowledge it is there. > >> > >> I'm about fed up and thinking about asking the reseller to > take it back??? > >> > >> > >> > >> > >> James E Harvey > >> Hanover Shoe Farms, Inc. > >> M.I.S./Corresponding Officer > >> Off: 717-637-8931 > >> fax: 717-637-6766 > >> email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > >> > >> > >> [excessive quoting removed by server] _______________________________________________ Post Messages to: ProFox@leafe.com Subscription Maintenance: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profox OT-free version of this list: http://leafe.com/mailman/listinfo/profoxtech Searchable Archive: http://leafe.com/archives/search/profox This message: http://leafe.com/archives/byMID/profox/[EMAIL PROTECTED] ** All postings, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are the opinions of the author, and do not constitute legal or medical advice. 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