Backing Up Laptops In a Small Business?

Bithmus writes "I have been tasked with finding a way for our company to handle our laptop backups. We currently have nightly backups of our servers, but no backups of laptops. In our business we develop, implement, and sell another company's software; I guess that makes us a Valued Added Reseller. During development our consultants will create copies of a customer's database on MSDE on their laptops. If a hard drive crashes, all of the work done on that laptop is lost. There are other files that need to be saved, but the databases are really the important items. Ideally these databases would be stored on the SQL servers and the other files stored on the file server, but this is not happening. What do Slashdot readers do to protect data on laptops or computers outside of a local network?"

Write a login script

[Marxist Hacker 42]

I don't have time to look up the exact syntax for your- but your consultants do log onto the domain back at home from time to time, right? Here's what you need the script to do:

1. Stop the MSDE service, put up a msgbox asking that all other applications be closed.

2. Run a VB Script or some other program of your choosing that copies the files to a location on your network (you can always reconnect old access databases as long as you save the MSDATA directory).

3. When done, restart the MSDE service.

Sure, your consultants will hate it (it'll take a few minutes every time they log on) but it's the only real option.

Use CVS etc.

[EmbeddedJanitor]

Don't keep critical data in laptops.

Surely if you are doing any development etc work then you should be storing code/data in CVS or equivalent running on a server.

Remember that source control is not limited to just software. You can use it to store all kinds of stuff (documentation, artwork, video...).

Any business model that depends on critical data in laptops is broken.

Re:Clone 'em

[texas neuron]

OS X has encryption built into the OS. This is a must for any laptop, IMHO, that contains any data of value. If you have a hard disk crash (as I did when my laptop and hard disk crashed from about 4 feet to the floor), then nothing is recoverable. Hence a good backup and recovery plan is needed.

Probably overkill but I burn data files on a regular basis to DVD in case you want to go back to a prior saved file that has been deleted from the computer. Then clone the hard drive and use backup software to save changes until you are ready to repeat the cycle. It will take a little while to restore your computer if you do crash but given the odds of crash are low, the faster daily backups are much faster which win out over the long run.

It may be that the next OS for Mac will handle the backup, finding files that were previously deleted, and syncing in an automated way. Still waiting to see how they put it all together in practice.

Re:File synchronization... If you must...

[ManUMan]

Here is a quick attempt to address the questions above.

First, File synchronization is the easy way to go. I would avoid using the off-line files feature of Windows xp. I've had lots of problems with it. First of all, if the network connection drops for any reason then the user ends up off-line and can't print. Depending on how savvy your users are this can be a problem. I suggest SyncToy from Microsoft or another third party solution.

On the security side, we have Lenovo Thinkpads. With the embedded security chip we can setup encrypted drives that allow users to store files that cannot be opened without the users password (or fingerprint). This software and hardware comes standard on most of the Thinkpads.

dd?

[saleenS281]

so it's dd with a GUI and you're paying for it...?