ROBOCOPY

[nsanto17]

Does anyone have any experiences with ROBOCOPY.

I am going to use it backup my clients network to usb drives nightly.

I like it b/c they don't have to do a full backup every night. It compares the source and dest. file sizes and date/time stamps. If it detects any changes then it will only copy the changed files.

Any thoughts or concerns would be great.

 

[ShackDaddy]

Are you using it to backup the server, or just the clients?

I would stick with the SBS Backup wizard for the server, since Robocopy is going to be worthless for some aspects of the backup.

For client's it's probably a decent solution, but it's not that commonly used as a client backup tool. I assume you'd just be using it to back up user data and not trying to get full restorability. When used alongside restore points on an XP system, it would probably be effective. Note that some critical user data is stored pretty deep in a profile folder, as is a lot of crap like temporary internet files. Are you figuring out a way to get the good and drop the bad?

My own client backup solution is to either use the Iomega OneTouch software to backup to an external drive (it uses the same incremental strategy you described) or to use Acronis to create an image of each workstation every month or so.

ShackDaddy
Shackelford Consulting

 

[58sniper]

I use robocopy for server migrations every day. It mirrors drives fairly well. But, as ShackDaddy said, it's going to be worthless for some things, including disaster recovery.

SBS Backup is far superior in that aspect.

Pat Richard, MCSE MCSA:Messaging CNA
Microsoft Exchange MVP
Want to know how email works? Read for yourself -

http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2821.txt

 

[nsanto17]

ShackDaddy,

Here is the situation. Client has over 150 gig of data that he wants backed up everynight. We have gotten 5 USB Harddives and labeled them Monday thru Friday.

I can back up all the data on the server everynight it will just take to long.

In case of a server problem he wants to be able to plug the usb harddrive into a workstaion and share it out from there for his users to acess their files. He wants the raw data and not a backup file.

So ROBOCOPY would be used on the server.

I will be having the ntbackup backing up the SS as well as exchange.

Does this make a little more sense to you?

 

[ShackDaddy]

Yes, it does. Sounds like a good solution.

ShackDaddy
Shackelford Consulting

 

[markdmac]

I do this all the time too. If your USB drives are big enough you can store multiple copies of backups on the disk too.


For your needs you will want to use the following switches:

/E /ZB /COPYAT /XO"


I hope you find this post helpful.

Regards,

Mark

Check out my scripting solutions at

http://www.thespidersparlor.com/vbscript