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Data Storage Technology

Simple Windows Backup to CD/DVD? 123

Posted by Cliff from the replacing-tapes dept.
Meri051846 asks: "I am looking for a simple backup for my own use. Ideally, this backup would be able to span from one CD to the next for 'overflow'. Right now I am just using 'Easy CD Creator' and choosing what I want backed up and saving it so that I can backup most every day or so. One problem I am having is that my backup material is growing and won't fit on one CD. Also, when I add new items to 'My Documents', for example, I have to go into my program and make sure that new document will be included in the backup. (Even when I ask 'Easy CD Creator' to update the backup, the new items are not included. It just updates the old ones.) It usually isn't, so I have to manually add it to my 'backup program'. I hope I am making myself clear. Is there any backup program that will fullfil my wishes or am I dreaming of 'things to come'?"
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Simple Windows Backup to CD/DVD? More

Simple Windows Backup to CD/DVD?

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  • How much data (Score:3, Informative)

    by maxume ( 22995 ) on Tuesday August 19, 2003 @08:54PM (#6739751)
    Are you changing 700MB of data every day? If you aren't, just try to split stuff up more, and only back up what you happen to work on that day. Unless you are working with large chunks of a pretty big data set, across the entire data set, you should be able to keep going for quite a while just by splitting things up a bit.

  • Windows Backup? (Score:3, Informative)

    by vapspwi ( 634069 ) on Tuesday August 19, 2003 @09:00PM (#6739781)
    Are you using Win2K or WinXP? The backup program included in those versions of the OS, while somewhat clunky, is fairly full featured. You can do incremental backups and stuff like that, which should cut down on the amount of stuff you're burning every day.

    The file that is generated by Windows Backup apparently isn't compressed, so you can zip it up and save a good bit of space. If that still won't fit on a CD, I'm not entirely sure what to do. Will something like WinZip span CDs the way you used to be able to span floppies with PKZip? I've honestly never had to deal with that particular problem before...

    JRjr

    • Re:Windows Backup? (Score:4, Informative)

      by rekkanoryo ( 676146 ) * <rekkanoryo AT rekkanoryo DOT org> on Wednesday August 20, 2003 @01:35AM (#6741368) Homepage
      Are you using Win2K or WinXP? The backup program included in those versions of the OS, while somewhat clunky, is fairly full featured. You can do incremental backups and stuff like that, which should cut down on the amount of stuff you're burning every day.

      The file that is generated by Windows Backup apparently isn't compressed, so you can zip it up and save a good bit of space. If that still won't fit on a CD, I'm not entirely sure what to do. Will something like WinZip span CDs the way you used to be able to span floppies with PKZip? I've honestly never had to deal with that particular problem before...

      Yes, and the Win2k/XP backup program (winkey+r, type ntbackup, hit enter--quickest access) can be scheduled to run at given times as well. Just specify when using the backup wizard that you want to run it later and specify the schedule.

      For splitting the archives, WinRAR works extremely well. You can compare compression with RAR and ZIP yourself if you want, but I usually use RAR with maximum compression as I find this option usually gives me rather good compression, second only to bzip2 compression. There is a specific option for WinRAR to split directly to 700MB CD size, which you can then burn with CD Creator. The "700MB" size leaves a little under a meg free space on the CD (700MB CD-Rs are really 703MB and some change), so it works quite nicely. It can also split to 650MB CD size, or to a custom size (ideal for you DVD recorder users for the time being). But you do need the temporary disk space to do this.

      Note also that Win2k/XP's Backup performs somewhat better (from my observations) if the output file is located on an NTFS partition rather than a FAT32 partition. No clue why, though. The output file MUST be on a separate partition if the entire partition will be backed up, or in a different directory if only selected directories will be backed up.

      Happy archiving!

      • I can't wait until 7-zip gets multivolume spanning, then the only choices for Windows for such a solution wouldn't be Zip and RAR (both commercial and patented software).
        • I want to see a free program come out that uses bzip2 and gzip (choice between best and normal compression) as well as having volume spanning and the ability to read zip files. Then maybe I could get my brother-in-law off a stupidass program called ZipIt that was made by a company called Quarterdeck (came on Norton SystemWorks 2000 CD).
    • I use two bat files to do this for me with winrar,
      rarbackup.bat and rarbackupfull.bat
      rarbackup.bat backs up eveything changed sence the last backup and rarbackupfull backs up everything so you can do nightly runs of rarbackup and weekly or monthly runs of rarbackupfull. These files backup everything from D: and put the file in E:\backup\ and called the file backup+datastamp .rar and are set at volume sizes of 4400 MB for DVD backup (I left alot of space yes, but thats just the way I wanted it) obviously ch

  • Norton Ghost? (Score:4, Informative)

    by strangel ( 110237 ) <strangel@ a n t i t i m e.net> on Tuesday August 19, 2003 @09:05PM (#6739818) Homepage
    As far as I know, doesn't Norton Ghost offer this functionality? I don't have it installed at the moment, but I think it has an option to backup to a CD/DVD.

    • Re:Norton Ghost? (Score:3, Informative)

      by rekkanoryo ( 676146 ) *
      Yes, Ghost *does* offer this functionality, but it often wastes as much as 100 MB per CD. That and it requires a reboot *every* time you run a backup with it. Windows' built-in backup program on 2k/XP coupled with WinRAR archive splitting as I discussed here [slashdot.org] is a better option in this case, as it never requires a reboot.

  • Ghost or RAID? (Score:2, Insightful)

    by BladeMelbourne ( 518866 )
    Have you considered putting another hard disk in the computer and using RAID?

    Have you considered putting another hard disk in the computer and putting daily GHOST images of your main data drive on it?

    Have you considered sending daily GHOST images over the network to another computer?

    The reason I ask is that backing up to optical media is a pain on such a large scale.

    Mike

    • Re:Ghost or RAID? (Score:4, Informative)

      by m0rph3us0 ( 549631 ) on Tuesday August 19, 2003 @09:28PM (#6740014)
      Ghost is a pain in the ass. Personally I a knoppix cd customized with a private key, a little menu system that automates these two commands:

      dd if=/dev/ | ssh backups@backup.server | gzip > ~/--

      and

      ssh backups@backup.server cat ~/-- | dd of=/dev/

      Note ssh already compresses so putting the gzip on the side of the client is a double whammy for the CPU, however if you have multiple boxes it may be more effective to do it that way.

      • Just turn off ssh compression for this operation. By default, it IS off, but your ssh_config may turn it on. Then, run the gzip wherever it'll finish the whole process faster. A slow network will bias the choice towards the sending side.
    • >Have you considered putting another hard disk in the computer and using RAID?

      RAID doesn't help if you delete or overwrite a file. RAID is not a substitute for backups.
    • Have you considered putting another hard disk in the computer and using RAID?

      No! RAID is not a substitute for backups! The only thing RAID protects against is disk failure. Even assuming that RAID works perfectly, which it doesn't, how many other ways are there to lose data?

      - Accidental deletion. Ever needed to get a file off backup because of your mistake?
      - Accidental overwrite. "Crap, I lost my original!"
      - Malicious attack. Better hope your antivirus is up to date.
      - Catastrophe. Fire, flood, pow
  • I'm surprised, seeing as how this is Slashdot, that nobody's mentioned a Linux solution...

    It's possible to boot from a Linux CD and back up that way. You can make a disk image of your partition and back it up to multiple CD's. I think that it can even be done direct-to-CD. Mkcdrec might help you out, though I think it's targeted at Linux installations with additional partitions from other OSes, and might need a Linux distribution installed on the hard drive. Do a Google or Linux.org search for a data r
  • With most backup software you have to specify the files you want to back up, so adding new files means needing to tell your backup software they're important... Well, a trick that also works with most backup software is to keep all your files as subdirectories of one or more directories ('folders' in Windows lingo), and then specify those folders as what you want backed up. Then, when you start a new project, put it inside one of those directories, and you'll be covered.
    • Wrong. With most backup software, you can just tell it to look for files with the archive bit set or cleared. That's normally the way you address a system-wide automated backup. Otherwise you normally go after specific directories, as you noted.

  • Hint (Score:4, Informative)

    by m0rph3us0 ( 549631 ) on Tuesday August 19, 2003 @09:21PM (#6739943)
    DOS and I think NT, has an archive bit, when ever a file is modified the archive bit is set.

    Backup programs should clear the archive bit.

    Just select files with the archive bit set. Setup WinZIP to make 700 meg zip files of all the files on your HD with the archive bit set except the dir where you store your zip files and then burn the zip files.

    Also what you may want to do to start your backups is burn a knoppix CD and use it to make an image of your hd with dd. Then when you loose your hd you restore the image, boot windows and restore your zip files.

    Just remember to create new images after you increase your hard drive size. as the image is only good for the size of your current drive.
    • Just remember to create new images after you increase your hard drive size. as the image is only good for the size of your current drive.

      You can dd (or cat (easier imo)) the image to your larger hard drive and resize with GNU parted.

  • NTI (Score:4, Informative)

    by mechugena ( 311767 ) on Tuesday August 19, 2003 @09:21PM (#6739945) Homepage
    I have been using NTI Backup Now [ntius.com] for the past few months with great succes. It pretty much does exactly what you're looking for.

  • Another option: network-based backup (Score:4, Informative)

    by uradu ( 10768 ) on Tuesday August 19, 2003 @09:25PM (#6739976)
    Set up a Linux machine as a backup master with a large hard drive, they're cheaper than most tape drives or DVD drives nowadays. A script mounts Samba shares to each of the machines on the network in turn and zips up specific folders recursively in update mode (-ru) to a file on the backup server. Set up a cron job to execute this script at midnight or whatever.

    For example, you would set up this "spider" script to crawl all your Windows machines, mount //WindowsHost/c$ to /mnt/backup (or set up custom shares on all machines), and zip up the "/My Documents" folder plus any other ones you keep stuff in.

    While very low-tech, this approach has the advantage that the backup archive is a plain zip file that you can browse and extract individual files from with tons of tools on just about any platform. Plus, after the initial archive creation (which takes a while for large directory structures), updates are very quick.

    Mirror the backup to two different drives if you're paranoid. Two 120GB drives run less than $200 and provide quite a bit of home-level data safety. Get a couple of hard drive sleds so you can swap the drives out at any moment, and you're set.

  • Go to your local computer superstore... (Score:5, Informative)

    by stienman ( 51024 ) <adavis.ubasics@com> on Tuesday August 19, 2003 @09:58PM (#6740208) Homepage Journal
    I needed the exact same thing for my office server backups (~2-3GB) onto a DVD drive. I couldn't find anything online that fit the bill, but I recently browsed the computer store (CompUsa in this case) and got a $70 package which does exactly what you want, including compression and all the usual backup/restore facilities you want to be used to. I have it set up with 5 DVD-RWs, one for each weekday, and I do a full backup to each since there's no need for speed or the hassle of incremental or differential backups.

    Unfortunately for you, I don't recall the name of the package I'm using. Probably something like "BackupMyPC" or something like that. It had the two features I needed: Backup of network drives (some backup programs limit you so they can charge more for the 'professional' version) and backup directly to DVD - in this case a DVD+/-R/RW Firewire/USB2.0 (firewire worked, USB 2.0 didn't)

    There were two different packages (same cost) that did what I needed. This one is an adaptation of, IIRC, Veritas backup software, so I chose it based on that.

    Anyway, they exist. If you need to know the particular package I'm using, post a reply here to remind me, and I'll post it as a reply to this message in a day or two.

    Nevermind, here it is [stompinc.com].

    -Adam
  • First of all, don't use EZ CD Creator, it's crap. Get a copy of Nero Burning ROM. It is by far the best CD-burning application ever.

    Next. Buy a hard drive. Create a FAT32 partition spanning the entire disk. I reccomend getting a high capacity low speed Seagate drive. SCSI if possible. Copy all of your files you want backed up, but don't change often onto this disk. Then take the disk out of your computer, put it in a Sea-Shield and lock it in a fire safe (which you should have anyway).

    All of your chan

    • Re:What I do (Score:3, Informative)

      by itzdandy ( 183397 )

      first
      NERO=GOOD

      second.
      FAT32 will only do -40GB(i can't remember exactly),

      third
      seagate sucks for IDE get WD.

      fourth, how about daily backups, should i get a new harddrive for every day?

      fifth, how about "backup" data and not "archive" data. You need to back data up so that it may be restored with permissions and directoryies correctly.

      sixth.
      hey, if the drive CRASHES you can't really get the data off of it to use the windows "re-import all your settings

      seventh
      Who wants to reinstall windows and all the set
  • This one works great Second Copy [secondcopy.com] We use it for the windows users here at work. We backup their data however they configure it to our netapps...its only $30/per.

  • Dantz Retrospect is what you want (Score:4, Insightful)

    by sobiloff ( 29859 ) on Tuesday August 19, 2003 @10:12PM (#6740288)

    Dantz Retrospect Professional [dantz.com] is less than $90 and will do everything you're looking for. Namely, it will allow you to backup to CD-R and will span your backups across multiple media if necessary. It keeps a catalog on your local hard drive of what files it has backed-up to which media, relieving you of having to manually specify which files have changed. (You can re-create this catalog if your HD dies by just feeding Retrospect all the media from the backup set, BTW.)

    Retrospect does a full backup once, and then incremental backups from then on. This means that your incrementals happen very quickly, and your backup set will only grow as quickly as you create/change files on your computer. Retrospect also will backup the registry, so you can restore the entire system if necessary.

    Lastly, Retrospect has a built-in scheduler that makes it easy to schedule nightly, unattended backups. Once you're getting a snapshot of your HD every night, you can go back to any point in time and recover a file as it existed on that particular date. Truly powerful stuff, and far, far beyond what NT Backup is capable of.

    Oh, and there's a free 30-day trial version you can download from Dantz' website. Its fully-functional, and when you buy a full license you can just enter the new license key into the trial install to make it permenant. That way you don't have to re-install or copy your scripts and configurations from the trial install to the full install.


    • Comments about Dantz Retrospect:

      Retrospect has encryption built in. This is valuable, since you can take the CDs and put them anywhere for safe-keeping, like at work if they are a home backup. However, the encryption was the CPU intensive DES. Is this still true?

      Retrospect had a weird, annoying interface that was a combination of a bad design and an incomplete port from the original Mac platform. Is this still true?

      Retrospect also leaves 30 megabyte files on your hard drive that are necessary i
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion
      • Retrospect Express, which has apparently been discontinued, supported SimpleCrypt, which is designed to be fast. Retrospect Professional adds support for DES, which may slowdown backups. It depends on your CPU speed and the speed of your backup device.
        • I think that anything but government certified encryption is suspect. Often "simple" encryption schemes have been found to be very, very weak. Only serious professionals can design good encryption schemes.
          • It all depends on what type of threat that you are worried about. SimpleCrypt will protect against low-level threats. DES will protect against mid-level threats. For high-level threats, you are screwed unless you deal with serious physical security and compromising emanations. If someone really wants your data, they can steal/seize your computer, install a key logger, bug the keyboard, etc.
    • I second the recommendation of Retrospect. I use it to backup my Windows and Mac systems to CD/DVD.

      It can be picky about backup hardware. Make sure your backup hardware is on their supported hardware list.

  • Low tech: scheduled batch, zip and CD-RW (Score:5, Informative)

    by digitect ( 217483 ) <digitect&dancingpaper,com> on Tuesday August 19, 2003 @11:25PM (#6740721)

    I used a relatively simple MS-DOS batch file for just this purpose for years. All you need are 24 CD-RW (for one year's worth of backups), Zip (WinZIP's command line is what I used), a CD drive that can be accessed as a drive letter (Drive Letter Access (DLA) or some other proprietary name), and basic command line ability.

    Have the batch compress each folder into a temp file by the same name (in \windows\temp or something) and then copy each to CD-RW. Use Window's scheduler (all have it, I use Win95a) to run the batch every night and rotate CD-RWs for each day of the week ("child"). Each Friday, rotate one of four separate CD-RW's ("father", a child grows up), and the first Friday of every month, retire one permenantly ("grandfather", a father stops working).

    I actually clean off the temp zip files each night and re-write them in entirety. There are more complex, only-changed-since-last-backup, archive bit methods, but I like this simple-minded organization and being able to have immediate access to any previous day within 7, any previous week within 4, and any previous month indefinitely. Plus the Zip files in temp are redundant with the CD, meaning every file exists three places at any time. Also, media is not re-used too often in this scheme (it retires when "old"), and there aren't multi-media dependencies which can botch the entire system if a single tape goes bad.

    Of course, this was up to a few months ago when my drive crashed, I completely bailed to Linux, and re-wrote the whole thing as a Bash script. I also now have more content than will fit on a disk bzipped, but it's essentially the same process except that I have odd/even day staggering and only half the redundancy. But at least I always know what's on any given disk and know how to go back to any given time to find backups if needed. (The BackupExec our NT servers use at work, OTOH, is abysmal in reliability, setup and actually trying to restore a file in less than an hour. Probably theoretically more sound, but darned if I can see that it has more *practical* application.)


    • MOD PARENT UP!!!

      The parent post describes a serious backup scheme, and shows how complicated it is to do it right.

      I agree about BackupExec. I've had enormous troubles with Veritas products (formerly Seagate). Two years of arguing with Veritas technical support brought no sufficient answers. (But, my information is now old, since I've had nothing to do with Veritas recently.)

      One necessity the parent post did not mention: Encryption. Backups need to be encrypted. They need to be stored in a physi
      • While I support encryption in a lot of applications, this is not one of them. When you need your data back, the last thing you need to worry about is where you wrote down the password. Because of course, the drive that contained that batch file that was doing the encryption is now destroyed.

        Go to the bike store and get a big lock. Make sure the spindle hole of a CD will fit over the locking bar. Then simply impale your backup set on the lock. Physically securing a key is something we're all trained at doin

    • I wrote a backup script in Cygwin's bash that avoids the problem of having a huge amount of redundanct backups. It is somewhat like one-way file synchronisation with versioning.

      Assume that your source and destination for the backup are both on normal RW filesystems (a standard CDRW won't do, but a UDF formatted on using In-CD / DirectCD will).

      The script uses standard *nix utilities to scan the source and destination, and determine which files (if any) have changes (using md5 hashes). The destination d

    • Very nice. I tend to avoid the "Drive letter access" packet-writing schemes because the resulting discs aren't 9660 compliant, which could make restoration awkward. I suppose that's not an issue now that most common OS's can read them, but a few years ago when packet-writing schemes were new, they were proprietary and risky.

      There's also a space penalty for formatting a CD in packet format, but intelligent drivers can minimize that. I guess using CD-RW's, that's really minimal, whereas with CD-R's it can be
      • I didn't know RAR has an output file size argument. Zip needs that.

        You mentioned "Drive letter access" packet-writing schemes. I've had problems with Roxio's DLA version crashing Windows XP, literally causing Windows XP to re-boot without warning.

  • Freeware solution... (Score:3, Interesting)

    by Bonewalker ( 631203 ) on Wednesday August 20, 2003 @12:05AM (#6740914)
    Mike Lin at http://www.mlin.net/ has created a product called RapidBackup. I have used it for the past 2 years, and it has never failed me.

    It does all you require...writes from network drives, writes to cd's via Roxio's DirectCD, and the price is right. :)

    But, investing in a DVD-RW is the way to go when your cd's get full. http://www.mlin.net/RapidBackup.shtml

  • Message about Nero to Ahead Software (Score:4, Funny)

    by Futurepower(R) ( 558542 ) on Wednesday August 20, 2003 @12:54AM (#6741188) Homepage

    On August 4, I sent this message to Nero technical support:

    To: Nero (Ahead Software) Technical Support (techsupport@nero.com)
    Subject: Does Nero have the Roxio flaw?

    Does Nero 6 Ultra Edition burn to DVD all the files in a directory that is included in a compilation, or just the files that were there when the compilation was made?

    Roxio Easy CD Creator saves only the files that were in the original compilation, even though more files may have been added to the folder. This is, in my opinion, a big problem, since it means that a new compilation must be made every time for folders in which files are frequently added.

    I got back a generic, useless answer:

    Dear valued Customer,

    Thank you for your email.

    Nero is a powerful program it will backup all files.

    If you have any further questions please do not hestitate to contact us.

    best regards

    Ismael

    US Ahead Support Team
    • Does Nero 6 Ultra Edition burn to DVD all the files in a directory that is included in a compilation, or just the files that were there when the compilation was made?
      --SNIP--
      Nero is a powerful program it will backup all files.

      Well, they seem to be answering your question, albeit in few words.
      • Yes, that is certainly one interpretation. However, another interpretation is that the support person did not understand the question. I need a useful answer to my question, which would be one not open to interpretation.

  • Encryption is necessary. (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Futurepower(R) ( 558542 ) on Wednesday August 20, 2003 @01:24AM (#6741316) Homepage
    There should have been one more requirement listed in the Slashdot story: Encryption. If your backups are encrypted, then you can leave them anywhere.
  • Install this [arcoide.com] from ArcoIde.com [arcoide.com]and install a second hard drive. This will mirror your system on two drives and will automatically switch over to the secondary drive.
  • I tried to recover files off CDR's I burned 5 years ago and realized that CDR's don't last forever. Turns out that they fade really quickly, and if you bought a bad batch - the entire set may be corrupted in a few years.

    There's lots of research on what happens to CDR's after several years, unfortunately they haven't been around that long (in mass use).

    After my latest catastrophe, I've switched to backing to a portable HD, AND making 2 annual backups to CDR (using DIFFERENT brands of CDR). Hopefully Koda

  • WinZip 9 beta now supports encyption. (Score:3, Informative)

    by Futurepower(R) ( 558542 ) on Wednesday August 20, 2003 @02:59AM (#6741709) Homepage

    The new WinZip 9.0 beta [winzip.com] has AES encryption, that is being added in the best possible way:

    AES Encryption Information [winzip.com]

    AES Coding Tips for Developers [winzip.com]

    There are many new features to this upgrade [winzip.com]. Upgrades are free to registered users.

    WinZip has a spanning option: "-&[w] Span to multiple removable disks. Use the optional w suffix to wipe out all files on the removable disk." However, I've never used it, and I don't think it writes directly to DVDs or CDs. There is no way to have WinZip span to multiple zip files of specified length, apparently.
  • In addition to the recommendations already made, I've been very pleased with Stomp's BackUp MyPC. Unlike products like True Image and Ghost, you can do selective file/folder backups. Unlike the Windows Backup utility, writeable optical storage is supported. And unlike some of its competitors, it writes this optical storage at fastest-possible speed. Doesn't agressively compress WAV files though. See yesterday's entry at:

    http://www.reed-electronics.com/ednmag/media/au d io compression.htm
  • I use XCOPY to backup my favorite folders every couple of hours. I put one backup on each of the three drives in the system, and I keep reminding myself to also make copies to a remote drive. There's an option to only copy files with the archive bit, so the copy goes very very fast, and you can schedule it to run every hour or so as you'll receive no perceptable performance impact. Then I ZIP up a snapshot of the backup directory once a month.

    Zipping up the entire directory every day (or every couple of
  • since my DAT drive died & was reincarnated as a DVD burner is NovaBackup [no-panic.com]. Reasonable price for this kind of utility, backs to CD/DVD/tape/file, has all the incremental & scheduled backup options a workstation power user needs. And it works, quickly and well. Only real glitch I've found is that it won't browse network drives directly, you have to map them to local drive letters.

    No biz / financial ties to NovaStor, just a satisfied customer.

    DDB

  • I'm pretty sure that shortly you will be able to download a superb and secure backup program from the GNU source servers.

  • Handy Backup (Score:3, Insightful)

    by delus10n0 ( 524126 ) on Wednesday August 20, 2003 @11:22AM (#6744444)
    I use a program I found called "Handy Backup [handybackup.com]" It's only $30, and can backup to a local directory, an FTP, or to a CD-R(W), either copying straight data/folders, or ZIPping the files/folders to take up less space -- Backup events can be scheduled for certain times, or even when you log on/log off your workstation.

    It's a pretty slick program, and I recommend it, having used it for the past year and a half on my own server.
  • .. at http://www.discsafe.com/discsafe.html [discsafe.com] . I have used it a few times and works fine.
  • if you can get a command line version of cdrecord or equiv for windows, and cygwin tar, say: it's quite simple to do a full backup to multiple cd's.

    Run tar outputting to a fifo and set it to start a new "tape" (man tar) at around 700Mb, and cdrecord the fifo.

    Dunno how this works for incremental backups, and I've only done this under linux, so YMMV.
  • OK, first off really do consider an over-the-wire strategy. I use Unison [upenn.edu] between my desktop and my server, also between my server and another. In my case that's between servers at my two residences so in case of disaster at one I'm good at the other. Of course it's also convenient as I've always got my files synced between both places too. I've buddies who pair up and sync with each other for their own off-site backups.

    With 160GB HD's available for US$100 the space isn't much of an issue. Also Unison is p

  • And while we're on the topic of compression, by far the best compression ratio crown under Windows belongs not to RAR, not to bzip2, but to a tiny simple archiver called 7-zip. Compression is slow, but it's worth it.
  • I know it's not answering the original question, which appears to be asking for a windows solution, but I've been pondering a backup script for a while.
    Something that will make a big tarball, split it into CD sized chunks (700Mb?) and write each chunk to a cd with cdrecord.
    It doesn't have to be an iso, any chunk of data which is a multiple of 2048 bytes can be burned to a CD.
    You can restore it by "dd if=/dev/scd0 of=chunk01 bs=2048"
    then the second cd with "dd if=/dev/scd0 of=chunk02 bs=2048" etc..
    then cat c

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