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Backing up Your Data — Part II
By John N. Brewer
INTRODUCTION
The first part of this article appeared in the Nov. 1, 2003, issue of the Oklahoma Bar Journal. It was titled “Backing Up Your Data: There’s No More Important Technology Task.” The article was very broad in scope. Many options and different software applications were explored. The purpose of this article is more limited. The purpose illlustrates an approach for the solo or small office practitioner that is reasonable in cost and that facilitates the process of backing up entire hard drives. A crucial element in the process is the restoration of the backup.
Windows has a native backup utility. This article is limited to the native Windows utility and Backup MyPC, version 5, from Stomp Inc. There are valid reasons for limiting the scope of this article. The first reason is that every Windows user has the backup utility at no cost. The backup utility may not install by default, but it is included with the operating system disk. The utility included in Windows is consistent across the different versions of Windows and is a utility licensed from a third party with a solid history of reliability.
HARDWARE
The first step is the setup of the hardware for the backup system. The backup system for this article is the following: the primary hard drive (“C”) is a conventional IDE drive; the backup drive is a serial ATA drive and is installed in a mobile drive bay. The system board for the computer has two conventional IDE drive ports (with primary and secondary channels) and two serial ATA ports. The advantage in making the backup drive a serial ATA drive is ease of installation and speed of the drive. If a computer does not have a serial ATA drive port, an adapter card can be added in an empty PCI slot for less than $50. Serial ATA drives can be purchased for about $1 per gigabyte (less with rebates). One cautionary note is that the serial ATA drives have a different power connector. Some drives may require an inexpensive power adapter. The following Web site has information about serial ATA drives:
compreviews.about.com/library/weekly/aa-SataHDComp.htm.
Hard drives were selected as the backup media because they are inexpensive, fast and easy to use. There are excellent tape systems, but they are more expensive and the data on tape is more difficult to verify than hard drives.
The mobile drive bays and caddies were purchased from www.newegg.com and are manufactured by Kingwin. A mobile bay and caddy is about $25, and additional caddies can be purchased for $15 to $20 each. The aluminum mobile bays are preferable to the plastic ones. The mobile bays install easily into a 5.25-inch drive bay in the computer case.
Another desirable hardware item is a rewritable DVD drive because of the greater capacity as compared to rewritable CD drives. A high quality DVD drive can now be purchased in the $150 range or less (the faster drives are more expensive).
Summary of hardware costs for the system: Two Maxtor serial ATA drives (120 GB each), $200. One Kingwin mobile drive bay with one additional caddy: $50. Plextor combo CD/DVD burner with rewritable DVDs: $150. Total cost: $400.
SOFTWARE
Backup MyPC is the advanced version of the native Windows backup utility. The interface and basic functions are identical. However, there are more features and greater versatility in Backup MyPC. Backup MyPC is readily available from a number of vendors and can be ordered from Amazon for about $50 (including shipping).
Backup MyPC can be downloaded from the Stomp Web site, www.stompinc.com, for a free 30-day trial. The features of the application can be reviewed at the Web site. Reviews of Backup MyPC are universally favorable. However, some users complain of hiccups, so the free trial is prudent. It would be nice if all software applications made a free trial available.
This author does not intend to exclude all other backup applications. There are many excellent alternatives available. For more information, see the 2003 OBJ article. In addition, this system is installed on a four computer peer-to-peer network with one computer acting as a file and fax server (and reserve workstation). The computers on the network are a mix of operating systems: Windows XP Pro, Windows 2000 Pro and Windows 98SE. Backup MyPC works well with all of them.
Backups are performed across the network to the computer with the backup hardware. It is essential that the network be fast ethernet. Backups across a conventional ethernet network are possible, but the time to accomplish the backups will be longer.
Summary of software costs for the system: $50.
PROCEDURE FOR FULL BACKUPS
A full backup is made of the hard drive (including system state, etc.) on the first Sunday of each month. Each computer on the network performs a full backup to the serial ATA drive. This is a simple matter to schedule in the software and runs unattended. On Monday morning, the backup drive is removed from the mobile drive bay, and the second serial ATA drive is inserted in the bay. The first drive is then placed in a durable carrying case and taken home at the end of the day. A full backup of each hard drive is now stored off-site from the office. Depending on the size of the drives, multiple workstation drives can be backed up to the same serial ATA drive. Each backup is a separate file.
PROCEDURE FOR DIFFERENTIAL BACKUPS
The ideal solution is to make a full backup daily, but this is impractical for most offices. A compromise is to make a differential backup daily subsequent to the full backup.
A differential backup copies files that have changed or been added since the last full backup. The file size of the differential backup will become larger as the month advances.
The differential backups are made to the second serial ATA drive. Sometime during the next day, the differentials on the serial ATA drive are copied to a rewritable DVD disk and the DVD disk is taken home at the end of the day. A full restore of the hard drive can be accomplished with the full backup and the most recent differential backup. It is preferable to use some sort of rotation system for the rewritable DVDs. Do not use the same DVD disk over and over. The minimum acceptable procedure is to use two disks (one for odd days and one for even days).
An alternative to the DVD method would be to upload the differentials to an online storage facility. A broadband connection is needed for this procedure.
RESTORATION PROCEDURE
Restoration is more complicated than simply bringing the full backup hard drive and the latest differential DVD to the office. The following CDs are necessary to accomplish the restoration process:
- the CD for the operating system;
- the CD for the latest service pack for the operating system;
- the backup application software (in this case, Backup MyPC); and
- the application software necessary to make the CD or DVD hardware functional in order to restore the differential backup. CD support is included in Windows, but DVDs are not supported without specific application software. Generally, the software that enables the DVD drive will be included when the full backup is installed, and the DVD can then be used. However, in the event that Murphy’s Law is operating, it is prudent to have the software CD for the DVD drive available.
These CDs should be placed into a “backup and restore kit.” One kit can be stored at the office, and a second kit can be stored away from the office. This kit is used to perform a restore of a hard drive. The preferable method is to copy the original CDs and store the originals and the copies in different locations.
A partial restore is less complicated. Data files can be restored from the full backup hard drive and the latest differential without a reinstallation of the operating systems and any applications.
MISCELLANEOUS ADDITIONAL READINGS
Backup applications can verify the data written during the backup. This is an important safeguard, but it will increase the time necessary for the backup. Prudent practice dictates use of the verification option during the backup.
Some other tips:
- Print out the “readme file” associated with the backup application and store the printout with the kit.
- Read the “help” file in Windows. Backup (if installed) is found in accessories – system tools.
- Read the “help” file of the third party backup application and the Web site for that application. Read the tech support files and FAQs (in advance of purchase).
- Go to Internet site: www.pcsupport.about.com/od/backupyourdata.
CONCLUSION
This article describes one approach for a hard drive backup system. The hard drives are mounted in a removable drive bay. Backup MyPC was selected as the backup application because of its familiarity due to its common heritage with the backup utility included with Microsoft Windows. Readers are cautioned that this system is suitable for standalone workstations and peer-to-peer networks and is not suitable for offices running a network server application.
This article does not address other disaster recovery methods such “system restore” in Windows XP, GoBack or imaging software. Those applications are different in concept.
A thread will be started on OBA-Net in the Law Office Management and Technology forum for follow-up discussions regarding this topic.
About the Author
John Brewer is an OU graduate and practices law in Oklahoma City. He is a former chair of the OBA LOMT section, an instructor for the OU Legal Assistant Program, a member of the Governor’s-Legislative Task Force for Electronic Commerce, and is a frequent lecturer regarding technology. He attended the Internet Law Conference at Harvard Law School in 2001, the ABA Tech Show in multiple years, and has published articles in Law Office Computing.
Originally published in the Oklahoma
Bar Journal November 6 , 2004 - Vol. 75; No.31 |
