--- TIC-TECH message:
The district uses a number of backup systems in the data center. Most are
enterprise-level systems that are priced too high to be considered for home
use. Over the years, we've used some small-system tape backups for
individual systems, and I've used a couple for my home PCs. Our experience
generally is that the tape systems intended for home or small-system use
aren't terribly reliable. If nothing else, the small tapes don't stand up to
repeated use.
For anyone with multiple machines and a lot of data, what seems to make most
sense right now is networking the computers and installing a CD-RW drive in
one of them. Then you can back up all the machines to CD, which is just
about the only thing with sufficient capacity to handle today's machines in
reasonable fashion.
With multiple machines networked, another possibility is backing each of
them up to one of your other machines. The only problem with that is disk
capacity, plus the possibility both the original machine and the one with
the backup might be taken out by an electrical event like a lightning
strike.
If you have only a small amount of data, you can look at an Iomega Zip
drive. There are versions that hold 100MB per disk and others that hold
250MB. The cost of the drive isn't extremely high. I've run a 100MB drive
for years now, and have only had one disk go bad.
No matter what you use for backup, make sure you test a restore before you
believe that your backup is successful! And make two backups and keep one
off site.
Thanks,
Judy
JMCNAMEE@seattleschools.org
-----Original Message-----
From: Sean Harvey [mailto:sharvey@cks.ssd.k12.wa.us]
Sent: Saturday, January 27, 2001 8:41 AM
To: TIC-TECH@tic.ssd.k12.wa.us
Subject: Tic-Tech: backup systems
--- TIC-TECH message:
Colleagues,
I am wondering if anyone out there has any info/advice on automatic backup
systems?
I have done a little investigation at a site called cmsproducts.com.
My particular situation is I have a Dell laptop (Latitude) running Win 98,
but also a home desktop PC running Win 95. If I bought an ABS, I would
like to use it to backup both systems.
Does the district own any of these, or do they plan to purchase?
It already takes me 4 diskettes to backup the stuff in 'My Documents' on
my laptop.
-Sean
Sean Harvey
Teacher-Librarian
Viewlands Elementary
Seattle, WA
(206) 706-4370
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