Small business backups solutions?

[Dan Coutu]

Alex Hewitt wrote:
> On Tue, 2008-02-05 at 13:00 -0500, Lloyd Kvam wrote:
>   
>> On Tue, 2008-02-05 at 12:16 -0500, Kenny Lussier wrote:
>>     
>>> Well, the problem with disk to disk in general is that the space is
>>> finite.
>>>       
>> I think a second problem with backing up to disk is that it's generally
>> on-site and vulnerable to fires and other threats to the original data.
>> If you have the bandwidth to backup to remote disks, then you might
>> choose to live with the finite disk space.  Otherwise I think you need
>> backup media that can be stored off-site.
>>
>>     
>
> When it's appropriate (the customer hasn't got terabytes of storage) I
> have them purchase a 2.5 inch USB hard drive. They typically weigh 5 - 8
> ozs. Today, Overstock.com has a Western Digital Passport 250 GB external
> hard drive for $139.95. The customer has a regular backup running
> overnight and when they come to work they run a small script which
> transfers the backup to the removable hard drive. They take it with them
> when they leave at the end of the day. These drives although reasonably
> rugged can't take a drop while they're spinning. Furthermore I've had
> one customer kick the USB connector (it was plugged into the front of
> the system) and smoke the drive. On the other hand I've got a customer
> who has been using the same small hard drive for about 3 years without
> problems. Given how inexpensive these drives are they are certainly
> cheap enough to replace should they be lost or damaged. One other caveat
> is that the backup should be encrypted if there is really sensitive data
> stored.
>
> -Alex
>   
The annoyance with USB drives is their tendency to have variable device 
names. If you're able to label a drive and retain the label that helps a 
lot. But if you rewrite the entire drive with each backup, including the 
label, then that doesn't work so well.

Dan