What should be the size of HDD for WHS back up?

[Daniel90]

I have a small WHS 2009 Power Pack 3 set up in my office and it is basically running on an Intel based System. The storage capacity of system is a whopping 2 Terabytes. I recently realized the backup option on my system and I would love to use it. I would first like to know if I should be going ahead with it. I am not sure what size should I be dedicating to it? Also, what is the procedure for the same. What do you recommend on this regard? Genuine suggestions appreciated.

[Eeshwari3]

That was a very good decision to make. But I am wondering, what took you so long to realize how important back up is? This is for you and other users, that I am stating certain uses of backing up a file.

• It prevents heavy loss of data and loss of data for a company means really huge financial loss. Imagine not being able to access data like contacts and others and all. Even if it for a few couple of hours you might go mad about it and show claustrophobic symptoms. People are compulsively obsessed with their data.
• An efficient backup and restore system helps us maintain our credibility and goodwill in market which is today the basic asset in a competitive environment.
• It will completely eliminate the loss of crucial business elements like data and other useful things. Back up is undoubtedly a boon in this regard.
• It also acts as a cure for a virus infected system as a restoration to this would simply bring the PC to a safer state that it was in, before the attack
• If you implement automatic backup, trust me you will love the experience. Number 1 reason being, you forget or remember, the backup will keep backing up the data.

[Bahumathi]

Eeshwari3 have very efficiently stated the uses and pros of using a backup and restoring and it is cent percent right without any doubt. But I would rather put some lights on the other end of the coin. The problems people usually face because of back up and if there are any practical, possible solutions to them at all.

- It takes really long to back up and it also interferes with the user’s retrievation of data and this might land into deeper troubles. What if you get wrong data this might give you results worse than not having data only. So, back ups should preferable be done after the working hours
- The performance of the system drastically gets hampered, making you feel at some point, why did I think of backup at the first place? Back up is a very heavy thing to do and iot performs number of tasks at the same fraction of time killing the computer’s performance. It might leave you in a situation where you would want to stop and continue it at the same time.
- Backup is not everyone’s cup of tea. Organizations end up messing things big time by not realizing that backup actually comprises of a set of procedures and processes which is to be strictly followed. It should have clear definitions of: Who is responsible for doing it, when should it be done, where should it be kept and what after data corruption or loss
- The cost of back up is too high. Before some dumb moron assumes I am talking about the backup software, let me make I clear I am talking about the storage space. If you have, 2 TB of data, to keep a back up of it you need another 2TB and you need to keep atleast 4-5 restoration point which makes it a huge 8-10TB of space.
- It requires a lot of effort to do this. In today’s world, where a man’s hardwork is calculated as per the time he spends, the manpower cost of doing this might be very high.
- The saved data does not only take up space but it also has to be protected from unauthorized access from people. This is very important when the data is crucial and sensitive at the same time

Anyways, this is just an aspect of the fact; this never means you should not be going about with your backup creation thing. Everything has Goods and Bads it is about the individual to decide. An intelligent person would probably sit and analyze the confusion and weigh the pros and cons and take an apt decision

[Daniel90]

I have properly analyzed what both of you said. I anyways wish to give it a try once. I know many people who do OS back Up of their data and even they have complaints about it but still they do. The reason is quite simple I feel. It is better to take some pain than to sit and regret about losing on something so important. I am definitely going ahead with it. But for that I need an answer to my most basic question of size and all other tips regarding backup are welcome

[TABLITA]

That was indeed a fair decision. There’s no harm in trying it once. It is any day better than thinking I wish I had done something like that. So, I would say, go ahead my friend and give it a try. But in your issue, my opinion varies a bit. It varies in the regard that you cannot back up your server which is currently running with Windows Home Server V1 without the use of a backup tool in the console. There’s no other way that supports it. NTBackup does it but then it is not efficient enough and it probably restores Drive Extender drives. This is the problem with almost every other back up tool other than that in the console. Snother option is that you can shut your server and clone the entire disks. This is definitely effective but highly inconvenient.).

[Baijayanthi]

I would like to guide you properly through the entire procedure of backing up a windows home server. You need to have an external hard disk for this task and it should have a compatible connection:

1. You first need to connect your external drive and your server to be backed up with preferably and more usually with an USB connection, but evern FireWire or eSata will do
2. Go to the Windows Home Server Console and open it and select Server Storage tab
3. Select the add button which you will find on the toolbar. This should definitely open the Add a Hard Drive Wizard. You need to click Next after that.
4. Check the radio button which you will find next to ‘Use this hard drive to backup files that are stored on your home server’ click on the next button after that
5. Check the radio button which you will find next to ‘Yes, format this hard drive’ click on the next button after that
6. Click finish and your work is almost done. Your server will now appear a system which is available for back. You can click on the Backup Now button This should start your back up.

As far as the size of the back up is concerned. It depends on the size of the data you want to back up.

[Daniel90]

That was a very kind and generous gesture of you to do this. This discussion have actually cleared many doubts that always existed in the back of my head and the guide to back up is so awesome. It makes me feel glad and proud to open this thread as it is so surely going to be a guiding light to, I don’t know how many other tech-dumbs like me. Another doubt that I had is can this same procedure be followed for system disk in case of failure?

[Baijayanthi]

Unfortunately, no! it cannot be used for that. It exclusively works for data which exists in the shared folders. For system drive, you need to follow some cloning methods. But it is very difficult to do this and the steps are supposed to followed in a very meticulous and precise manner. The clone is supposed to be immediately restored and that too before DE runs again. This is effective in makeing any clone not of any use within an hour. In order to move to another system, it will work but the saving thing fails disastrously. I strongly feel we should not be taking all this trouble and risk the DE to execute the entire clone. As long aas I have my data I can ay day sit and do a long, clean install on my server and restore evverythong. I can add the very same kind of back up drives and all without formatting them.