Just wanted to point out a very cool product that some of you with small businesses might want to think about.
My father recently sold most of his tractor dealership, including all of his IT assets to another dealer. This left him running his other businesses entirely from his laptop – a disaster waiting to happen. He takes his laptop everywhere and will only plug in the power cord, everything else has to be wireless.
I considered external USB hard drives, backup software that would run to a network share on another computer, and external network drives, when I came across the Seagate¯ Mirra™ Personal Server. Basicly this is another small computer that has one primary job and one secondary job:
Primary job: It will make a copy onto itself of every data file you have, every time you make a change, instantly. After you install the client side software and tell it what directories you want protected… you never have to touch it again. I keeps itself up to date with your info. Take the laptop on the road for a week, change some files, delete others, copy whole new ones, whatever. When you get back onto the network all those changes are copied to the server automaticly.
It will do this for multiple computers too, so you can have a small business protected. I don’t know what the limit is on clients, if there is any. No license restrictions though.
Secondary job: It works as a file shareing server to the internet. If you loose your laptop on the road you can still get to your files remotely. You can send an email to clients to give them access to a specified directory for them to read files. A great way to share photos too, though they cannot be linked to directly from a web site (not a live online picture host).
This is a solution for those shops that may not need a real network file server yet but do have important files stored on multiple computers. It works with Mac too!
Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!
Replies
If it does all that...I am impressed.
We are retooling our offices and network. It may be a nice item to add.
How much? Easy to install?
Can you link up with it via internet while you are on the road to "sync" the files/databases?
If you put it on a regulated UPS (battery backup) it will be safer from power glitches.
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
Did a quick check on Amazon.com and they list various models from a 250Gig for $342.13 to a 500GB model for $511.88. Some good reviews, a few complaints about a poorly executed upgrade and lack of expandability.
Yep, I read those reviews too. While there may be something to the slow access from Seagate's end, that is something that can be easily corrected - besides, that's more of a secondary function anyway. I think alot of people were dinging it because they expected this product to be something it's not - a simple file mirror. They wanted more of a network file server, or an internet enabled file server.
One review (not sure if it was on Amazon or not) summed it up correctly: It was an IT power user who set it up and was dissapointed at all the things they couldn't do with it, and all the fine tuning it didn't offer, etc... until that person actually needed it because of a drive failure on a spouses computer - turned out that because it just did its primary job perfectly well, it saved their bacon.
This is a save-yer-bacon box! Seemed pricey too, but since it does its job so well it's more like buying a brand name tool... you really are getting what you pay for, and not just a pretty brand name.Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!
Seemed pricey too
Always does. Anyone in "management" who gets all "squirmy" on price, I just tell them to take the average bill rate for their department and multiply by 16 hours and then 1.5, and add in at least 6 hours of management time--then come back with how 'spensive this "doesn't do anything computer stuff" is . . . Occupational hazard of my occupation not being around (sorry Bubba)
The other post had the prices - CompUSA has the 500Gig model for $599. The files are compressed when they are copied over to, so you get alot into that 500 gig.
It was very easy to install. Plug the box in, connect the ethernet cable into your network, install the software client on your computer, tell it what directories you want backed up (My Documents, IE Favorites, and Outlook/Outlook Express are the defaults on a PC installation, you can add more if you have a program that has its own file directory). Done. The first time it will take awhile for the computer to get mirrored, after that it's pretty instant. Do one computer at a time. The software finds the Mirra server by itself, you don't need to help it along at all.
Yes, it is UPS compatible. Nice thing about it is if someone came up and put a bullet into the box, you would be out nothing since the files still exist on your own computer.Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!
I received for Christmas a 250Gig Western Digital "LanDisk" that connects to a network/router. I have to see what kind of backup software it came with. It was about $125. Hopefully it will be automated like what you describe.
Quantum materiae materietur marmota monax si marmota monax materiam possit materiari?
Take a look at this:
http://www.smsync.com/Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!
I heard there are some web based systems and services now too.
There are, but they are a monthly subscription too. Plus they are dependent on having a good internet connection. There is also software out there that will do pretty much everything this will do. I like this so much because it is just braindead simple and easy to use, and doesn't depend on the user to do any maintanence - heck, I even let my dad use it!Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!
Earlier in the week David Pouge wrote an article Fewer Excuses for Not Doing a PC Backup comparing several of the online backup services. I think I'll probably end up subscribing to Mozy but there are several options for backing up a gig or two for free.
Instant changes are not the best of backups.
We backup our data with XCopy commands.
The daily backup happens at night. If we mess up during the day, we can recover from the previous day.
The monthly backups happen the last day of the month - we have monthly backups going back years. We have always been able to find files that have not been used for years.
Never use a compression method for storing data. Space is cheap.
Note - local backup's won't protect against fire and theft.Although probably most thevies would not steal a box hidden away with the router. But take the more reconizable equipment.Thinks like this are great for crashes and screwups.But for a hard business data off site storage is needed. Or as a minimum data kept in a fireproof MEDIA box.Note the ordinary fire proof safes and storage boxes are rated for paper and media needs lot more protection. The fire proof boxes are much more expensive and have less space than the ones for paper..
.
A-holes. Hey every group has to have one. And I have been elected to be the one. I should make that my tagline.
No question you and GHR are correct. Daily backup, with monthly full archieves to a removable media stored offsite is the right way to run IT for a business. However for small business, new business, people, and organizations in transition, the backup ball gets dropped all the time. So do software patches, virus updates, and license tracking.
The point is this is an easy, set and forget method for people who don't already have an infrastructure to begin with - or who had one and lost it in my Dad's case. It's also great for people who are more concerned with running their business and would likely never change a tape cassette every night.
BTW, it also keeps 8 previous versions of a file. If you delete the file on your computer, that becomes the 8th version... you still have up to seven more before that.Rebuilding my home in Cypress, CA
Also a CRX fanatic!