Backup tools

Published on: 4th May 2008

Backing up valuable data

The Apple solution

Part of Apple's latest operating system (OSX Leopard) is a new feature that gets shouted about with great gusto: time machine.  Time machine is offered as the ultimate answer to backing up; an operating system integrated backup solution that offers 'invisible' backup.  Does it work?  I put Time machine to the ultimate test!

Time machine keeps regular incremental backups of all files to either an external USB hard drive or Apple's new hard disk integrated router.  I use an ordinary Lacie 250Gb external drive, but pretty much anything can be used. 

For restoring the odd file, Time machine is nothing short of amazing, with a wizzy graphical interface that allows you to literally 'turn back the clock' on email or folders, and 'see' the contents changing to match the desired date!  This is all very well, but how does it fair for a true 'disaster'?

My 'disaster' was thankfully only a simulated one: installing a new hard disk.  Obviously the new disk is completely blank and therefore accurately simulates a loss of a computer completely.  You need a startup disk (the leopard install/upgrade disk).  From there, select the 'restore my computer' tool, and away you go. 

Important note:  Do not run the tool immediately.  Make sure that you run the disk utility to erase any partitions FIRST.  Failure to do so causes the machine to freeze on restore. 

Step by step guide to restoring a machine with leopard:

  1. restart the computer using the leopard startup disk
  2. Choose your language and select the 'disk manager' from the menu (ignoring the normal setup leopard options)
  3. Make sure that the partition you wish to 'revive' has been created (in my case a partition called Macdisk of 200gb).  I formatted using Mac non case sensitive, journalled.
  4. restart the machine using the leopard disk
  5. again ignore the install leopard options, and select 'restore machine/partition' from the menu
  6. Follow the on screen options to revive your computer!

So, Time machine is nearly perfect.  It takes a couple of hours to run, but your computer will come back to a predefined state without any fuss.  In my case, making a new hard disk a breeze to install.

Windows XP / Vista?

For my web server (running windows XP) I use a handy free utility called Synctoy. This can be downloaded from Microsoft's site.  Synctoy allows directories to be replicated on the machine.  In my case, multiple hard drives mirror certain folders which enables me to ensure daily backup and enhance my workflow.  Synctoy is the best utility I have found to do this.  It is simple, quick, and low in overheads.  It also has many options for mirroring, from echo (a one way synchronise), two way sync, incremental, etc.

It's important to note that synctoy will only backup your data.  The OS directory can be replicated, but complete recovery will require re-installation of your programs.

In order to use sync toy as a backup system use these steps:

Setting up synctoy as a backup system

  1.  Install synctoy and create all the folder pairings required
  2. Open scheduled tasks from your control panel
  3. Add a task for synctoy
  4. Open advanced options
  5. Add -R to the command line.  Make sure this is '-R' added AFTER the final quote, i.e. ...synctoy.exe" -R
  6. Save your settings and enjoy!

Note: You may need a user account with admin privilages and a password set for this to work.

What happened to Tape?

In any case, the above methods use disk space, and lots of it!  And why not?  Disk space is CHEAP!  My own machines have a mix of drives, but all are massive, totalling over 1.5TB of space.  It is hard to imagine ever running out of space.  If I got close, I would simply add more, as the power requiremements with proper power management are minimal and the cost is relatively small.  Compare this to the hassle of DVDs? or tape drives?  Tape is relatively expensive, and you never know if the backup has actually worked...  DVDs take forever and have a shelf life, with high speed DVDs being liable to fail.  Tape is not the most reliable format either.  I have been in a situation where a tape backup was required, and the effort involved in recovery was simply massive, taking days to rebuild the server.  The experience with Time Machine above in comparison is sickening!  In the future, this will all give way to solid state storage, making the process even faster and less likely to fail.

Internet backup

I am not certain why IP backup has not taken off.  It has all the ingredients for success except perhaps speed of access?  For a small and highly valuable dataset, it is recommended.  But in the real world, people have a lot of 'mess' on their disks, and people want to keep it all - disk is really the only sensible option.

Conclusion

Backup has come of age!  Backup has always been something of a 'token effort' for businesses, and those who needed to rely on them invariably found them to be less substantial than believed!  Nowadays, with low cost storage, and operating systems to take advantage of them, there really is NO EXCUSE for high speed and quality backups of all data on an at least daily backup.

If you would like help with a backup solution, contact Ginzola today!