Programmed backups

Can anybody help me please?

I run a small business and would like to program automatic daily data backups. My computer runs Windows 2000 and Office 2000 plus a few other programs and I have two separate hard drives (not partitions)with programs on one and my data on the other.

My objective is to backup all data on the disk to a single backup file, to which the day's work is added each evening.

I have tried to get to grips with MS backup but I'm a bit of a novice in these matters and find the interface confusing. Will the 'daily' option do what I want i.e. incrementally backup all new or changed files to a main backup file? If MS Backup can't do this, where do I find a comprehensive and flexible alternative?

By the way, I plan to create a backup folder on my C: drive as it has heaps of free space. I assume that backup programs compress the data.

Thanks in advance

Alex

Hi Alex
I look after a network that needs about 9Gb backup on a daily basis and about another 12Gb every month.
The operating system is NT4 so you may have the copying utility I use. I dont bother compressing files or combing files, but this can be achieved I guess. I just have a couple of large (30GB) HDDs
and use the utility robocopy from the NT4 resource pack. This only adds new or altered files to the backup set, and you can also purge files that are no longer in the main set.
Its a lot quicker than xcopy.
All the backups are done with batch files and are run via the scheduled tasks folder to run in the middle of the night. The advantage I have found doing it this way is that individual data files are immediately accessable. If you would like to contact me for further discussion email me at postmaster@otakicollege.school.nz

Hello Alex

I too have a similiar situation to yourself, 3 PC, the master sends backup files away to the other every other hour, throughout the day. I dont bother with Zip files ( I may need to instruct non PC staff, how to rescue the data over the phone) so I use Xcopy, a batch file that deletes the last transfered copy, then write in the new backup. I use a 3rd party scheduler, (very flexible) to run the batch files every hour, then to a Zip100 at noon and 4pm.

Send me an Email if you wish, Ill zap you the Scheduler and a copy of the Batch file I use.

Cheers.....John