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Hiya 'Heads, We almost lost a years worth of information yesterday when our NT server went into survival mode. Apparently, if the software doesn't have enough free memory on it's hard drives, NT will start deleting files randomly in order to keep operating at a comfortable level. Our problem is that we have too much info to archive easily. We save job files on CD when we're finished with a project but other information, such as our database and e-commerce files have become so large that backing them up via CD is just not practical. I realize that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure but there's gotta be a better way. On average we're looking at anywhere between 30-40 gigs of information we need to back up on at least a weekly basis. And, yes, we are getting more hard drives (at a hefty cost) to prevent this from happening again, but the main problem is still backing up the original files for safe keeping. What do you use? Havin' fun, Checkers
-------------------- a.k.a. Brian Born www.CheckersCustom.com Harrisburg, Pa Work Smart, Play Hard Posts: 3775 | From: Harrisburg, Pa. U.S.A. | Registered: Nov 1998
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That sounds like a really bad day! I'm sorry for your dilemna!
I've seen a lot of shops lose tons of information that way! I even lost a lot once, when I upgraded puters and the zip discs got lost.
I've been leary of puters for that very reason, so (not trying to be a smart butt or anything) I use work orders (hard copies), transparencies and patterns.
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I think removable hot swappable hard-drives used as backup devices might be the way to go. Transfering data from hard-drive to hard-drive is much faster. Plus, by putting them on hot swappable cases, you can backup onto additional drives at a reasonable price.
You should look into using the Drive Mirroring functions in WinNT if your backups are taking up so much room.
Drive mirroring is pretty trick. Instead of having to actively create backups of your data, you just add another harddrive to the system then have NT or a program like PowerQuest Drive Image create a mirror on that other drive. Both drives will be identical and you can setup the mirroring intervals in such a way that it wont automatically overwrite a good image with a bad one in case the first one fails overnight or something.
In a setup like this, if the first drive takes a dump, you just stick the mirror drive in its place and you are good to go. NO downtime!
Another option is to use Network Attached Storage. It's basically just a harddrive (typically 180 GIG and LARGER) that plugs directly into the network and gets its own IP address.
Stay away from tape drives, they work great when they work, but the tapes go bad quick and they are hell to retrieve backed-up data from.
-------------------- "If I share all my wisdom I won't have any left for myself."
Mike Pipes stickerpimp.com Lake Havasu, AZ mike@stickerpimp.com Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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