5/18 Is there any Windows backup program which (1) Let's you do a full
backup, (2) Monitors all filesystem changes as they occur, then (3)
Does an incremental backup on only changed files? I don't want it to
have to scan my entire notebook data-partition for changes; changed
files should already be flagged for backup by the monitoring daemon.
I don't want some hacky program that only runs file listings on
specific directories every couple minutes and checks file sizes/dates;
I want something which hooks into the Windows filesystem and is aware
of all writes as they happen. Basically, this strategy minimizes hard
drive wear, and should be faster. Thanks.
\_ Um, RAID + tape?
\_ Notebook hard drive. Sorry, should have been clearer.
\_ You've got to be kidding. You want all this and on a laptop
too? How about a 24" screen that can fit in your pocket while
you're at it.
\_ The "hard" step is hooking into the Windows filesystem.
Apparently Sysinternals Filemon does this, but it doesn't
do backup.
\_ If you buy an external Maxtor drive with "One Touch", it comes with
a license for Dantz Retrospective Backup. The drive+sw is <$200.
\_ Does Restrospect hook into the Windows filesystem like I
described?
\_ Eh, screw it. I lookd up Restrospect Professional, and it lets
you make a "Disaster Recovery CD", which you can boot on a hosed
system and restore all the files (rather than a complete re-install
of the OS and all the apps). This to me is worth more than the
low-level file monitoring. FYI, the one that comes with the
external hard drives is "Retrospect Express". I'll let motd know
how it is in several weeks. -op
\_ hell, you could just use ghost images then
\_ I didn't fully explain how the feature is neat. Okay, with
Ghost, you gotta do the whole freakin partition every time.
Wih Retrospect, you can do incremental backups to your
heart's content. Each incremental backup is fast. If
your disk gets hosed, then *after* it got hosed, you can
create the CD. The disk gets restored to when you last
incremented. Get it?
\_ You want a program that hooks deeply into windows and keeps a db of
files *as they change* and then copies them to something else? I
wouldn't want anything hooked that deeply into windows. Note how
intrusive the anti-virus programs are. That's what you're talking
about but worse.
\_ That sounds like a slightly modified log-based fs. Not that
evil a thing, really. I think there's a freebsd implementation
floating around, yes? -- ilyas
\_ Not evil per se as a concept but look at how the perform in
the real world. I really wouldn't want anything hooking that
deeply into a windows system if it wasn't absolutely required.
\_ If it came out, I'd buy it ... if Windows were still fast.
Assuming you always back up the registry, all the monitoring
process is doing is collecting a list of all
new/changed/deleted/moved files since the last incremental
backup. The copy step occurs daily. -op
\_ Put your data on a linux box and mount the samba share from windows.
THen, use rsync and snapshot backups. |
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