# Inexpensive backup?



## Cornhusker (Mar 20, 2003)

One of my part time jobs is helping a nursing home out with their IT needs.
One thing they are sorely lacking is a good backup for all their data, and while they seem to think it's not a big thing, it scares the bejeebers out of me.
Their budget is pretty tight, and IT needs are only considered when things go bad.
Does anybody know of a backup solution that's simple, inexpensive and reliable?
Does anyone do the online stuff like Carbonite?


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

Get a free cloud drive account to keep user files on, such as Dropbox or Google Drive. User files kept in a cloud drive folder are automatically duplicated on their server. If you lose a hard drive then just reinstalling the cloud service account will automatically restore the files, similar to the way Carbonite works.

I keep all of my user files at a Google Drive account. I even modified MS Word to store documents in a folder on Google Drive by default. Google Drive offers 15 GB of cloud storage for free.

If there is a security concern for some of your sensitive data it can be encrypted using a free encryption application, such as Axcrypt or Truecrypt. That will assure that some Google technician with too much time on his hands isn't browsing your data.

Really, there's no excuse for not keeping all of your user files (documents, images, spreadsheets, etc.) on a cloud drive in this day & age.


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## Harry Chickpea (Dec 19, 2008)

"Really, there's no excuse for not keeping all of your user files (documents, images, spreadsheets, etc.) on a cloud drive in this day & age."

Yes there is. Satellite data caps at 10 gig per month. I use a local terabyte drive that visits once or twice a month and then is disconnected and moved.

Computers are reverting to a second childhood, attached to the mother teat nearly as much as workstations and dumb terminals were to a server back in the infancy of computer systems.


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## painterswife (Jun 7, 2004)

I use cloud drives as well. I do have in building backups but one fire and that system is toast.

The subscription service for Microsoft office gives you a terrabyte of backup in the cloud. Well worth the money if you have a lot to backup. Otherwise google drive is free.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

Harry Chickpea said:


> Satellite data caps at 10 gig per month.


That's a terrible way to live! LOL

Seriously, I had satellite at one time. It's ok if that's all there is available, but not really satisfactory compared to DSL or cable.


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## Cornhusker (Mar 20, 2003)

Thanks for the info and ideas
I'll talk to her about a Google drive


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## Harry Chickpea (Dec 19, 2008)

Nevada said:


> That's a terrible way to live! LOL
> 
> Seriously, I had satellite at one time. It's ok if that's all there is available, but not really satisfactory compared to DSL or cable.


I agree. However, chances of my getting anything better are slim to none, especially since I reported AT&T to the public service board and FCC when I dropped our landline and they screwed up MULTIPLE times and continued to bill me.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

Harry Chickpea said:


> Computers are reverting to a second childhood, attached to the mother teat nearly as much as workstations and dumb terminals were to a server back in the infancy of computer systems.


It's not really catching on as well as business hoped it would. The idea is to offer an "Internet appliance," which would be an inexpensive workstation that didn't even require a hard drive. Applications and disk storage would be provided online by subscription.

Microsoft is trying it with Office, but it's marketed along side of installable versions. It's called Office 365. You pay a monthly or annual fee instead of buying it. I think most people are still buying it.

Most businesses see application packages being offered by ISPs as part of the Internet service package. The idea doesn't seem to be going anywhere.


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## painterswife (Jun 7, 2004)

Our companies have started buying office 365. It accomplishes a few things. Everyone is on the same version. It ends up cheaper than buying a new version every three or four years. Add in huge cloud backups and you save in the long run.

It was hard to make the jump to not "owning" your software but it actually saves in the long run. It saves for people that update to the newest version often.


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## dademoss (May 2, 2015)

I like a pair of portable usb drives for backup. Last drive I bought was around 70 bucks for a TB. Backup onto one, and rotate them every other backup, your oldest backup is 2 "periods" old. Pick a frequency that matches the need, daily, weekly, monthly, and stick to it.

I leave the newest onsite, and the oldest with me, then rotate them so the oldest gets overwritten with the new backup, and carry the now "old" backup away from the site.


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## Cornhusker (Mar 20, 2003)

Tell me if this will work
I created a Google drive, and later today I plan on heading over to the nursing home and setting it up on 2 of their PCs, the administrator's PC and the business office.
I've written a script that will copy their data files and backups to a folder on the Google Drive every evening.
The Google Drive will also sync up with a PC offsite, where another script will copy the data to a USB hard drive that I already take home every day with some other backup stuff on it.
I have 5 drives that get rotated daily so their data should be safe, and in a worse case scenario, they would lose current day only if something happened.
I will have to have the OK of the administrator to kick this off, nursing homes are pretty heavily regulated when it comes to information.
Any reason you guys can see this won't work?


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## Cornhusker (Mar 20, 2003)

dademoss said:


> I like a pair of portable usb drives for backup. Last drive I bought was around 70 bucks for a TB. Backup onto one, and rotate them every other backup, your oldest backup is 2 "periods" old. Pick a frequency that matches the need, daily, weekly, monthly, and stick to it.
> 
> I leave the newest onsite, and the oldest with me, then rotate them so the oldest gets overwritten with the new backup, and carry the now "old" backup away from the site.


That would work if I was there every day
As it is, I'm there once a week, sometimes 2 weeks


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## painterswife (Jun 7, 2004)

Cornhusker said:


> Tell me if this will work
> I created a Google drive, and later today I plan on heading over to the nursing home and setting it up on 2 of their PCs, the administrator's PC and the business office.
> I've written a script that will copy their data files and backups to a folder on the Google Drive every evening.
> The Google Drive will also sync up with a PC offsite, where another script will copy the data to a USB hard drive that I already take home every day with some other backup stuff on it.
> ...


Looks good to me. I have been doing close to the same for over a year. Works great.


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## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

Cornhusker said:


> Any reason you guys can see this won't work?


Sure, that will work. I'm not sure what applications they're using, but most applications allow you to modify the default path for saving information. If you modify the "Save" path of the applications to a folder on Google drive then the data will be saved on Google Drive as they work. Saving data in real time to Google Drive could make the script unnecessary. But I'll let you be the judge of that, since I don't know the details of what they're doing.


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