We've a windows computer at work (8 I think if that's pertinent), there's a program on it and a database we could do with backing up regularly.
There used to be a button in the program which you simply clicked and backed up to a pendrive or such, but that's gone and been replaced by an expensive backup service.
I'm wondering what the best way to deal with this is? Export the database and if so what's the best way? Phpma? Or backup the whole PC once a week or so? System restore points?
In message <scuao6$elu$ snipped-for-privacy@dont-email.me, R D S snipped-for-privacy@yahoo.com writes
W7 Has a *back up and restore* function under *control panel*.
I do a once a month save to a separate Seagate hard drive. Not much help if the house burns down but this is just a second location for mail and a recovery source if I fall for a ransom demand.
And that's a literal 'restore' is it? I can't see why it wouldn't be but, I read that the built in Windows solutions are a bit lacking, but that was from those trying to sell an alternative.
I wouldn't trust Windows backup with anything remotely precious to me.
Various decent whole machine and incremental backup programs are available (some of them free). Worth picking one you like the look and feel of. Reviews in the usual mags or online will tell you the features.
One where you can set automatic backups at a quiet time of day is nice.
Whatever you do you should have a grandfather, father, son cycle of three separate physical media not kept permanently attached. That way if ransomware should strike you don't end up with everything screwed.
You can now get USB sticks upto 256GB at competitive prices. Smaller ones marginally cheaper so depending on how big your dataset is...
They are also much smaller and could be kept off site.
Having backed up to an external drive you can then peruse the backups using one of the options, and drill down to the individual zip files holding a collection of files backed up last time or whenever and see the actual files. I haven't had the need to attempt a restore but the files are there if I need to, hopefully.
I only do backups once a month, so I'll look at the options to see if that can be done more frequently.
The problem with backing up databases is that there may be a group of files that must be backed up and restored as a set. You need to find out how your database package handles its 'files'.
There are so many fake USB sticks out there now that I'm not sure I'd ever want to trust a backup to one. The chances of a 1Tb USB stick for less than £20 actually being 1Tb are quite small I suspect.
I backup my systems to a Raspberry Pi in our separate garage which has an external Western Digital, spinning, 8Tb drive. Previously I had a
3Tb WD drive out there which was getting quite full (and I have restored stuff from that drive).
We're lucky that our garage is twenty or thirty yards from the house so a wired etherenet connection is possible but it's unlikely that both house and garage would be burnt in a fire.
You can but at that price I wouldn't want to rely on my data staying intact for any length of time (or the claimed capacity being genuine).
It is quite easy to make an infinite capacity write only memory or to hack a memory stick so that it lies about its capacity.
Sandisk is a reputable memory company as are Integral, Toshiba and Crucial. You really do get what you pay for in this game.
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The thing with backup systems is that you do have to test them from time to time to be sure that the restore really does work correctly. I got burnt once in the 1990's when our backup went above the 2GB signed boundary and the restore software couldn't read the last chunk back.
The best way to keep yourself safe from this sort of thing, is consult a legit manufacturer site for representative materials.
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(4) 256GB Usb flash <=== biggest shipping (larger ones promised at one time)
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(4) 512GB SD
There are no 1TB that I can see.
Sample pricing:
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Kingston 512GB Canvas Go Plus Micro SD £124.99 (inc. VAT) £104.16 (ex. VAT)
The Sandisk web page does offer a 1TB USB...
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but it is not for sale on Newegg. The largest version of that product is 512GB.
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SanDisk 512GB Extreme Pro USB 3.2 Gen 1 Solid State Flash Drive, Speed up to 420MB/s (SDCZ880-512G-G46)
Est. Shipping Fee £19.74 Estimated VAT inclusive £93.59
Reads at maybe 420, writes at >=160MB/sec (no proper benchmarks done, which is why I have to hedge...)
A 1TB device would be significantly more expensive. Reasonable to assume on the order of £200. I picked the slower speed [SD Canvas Go] grade there, too. Usually when a person buys devices of this type, they buy the highest speed, because otherwise it takes forever to fill them. The Sandisk Extreme generally manage at least 100MB/sec on writes, and sometimes, significantly better, from model to model. Sandisk Ultra (sold more places), some are as low as 3MB/sec on writes. This is why you don't buy Ultra sticks at Walmart. The Extreme are harder to find. The reviews for the above item, notes it dies after a year or so, and "it gets hot". That's to be expected to some extent.
For example, for fun once, I bought a 128GB USB flash, and the writes on the device were like 10MB/sec or so. The very definition of useless. It would do reads at 100MB/sec but writes at 10MB/sec, which means if used for backups, it would take several eternities to finish. You want a symmetric performance if you can get it.
Let's take Walmart as an example. There are no "Extreme grade" USB sticks there, so you can forget about finishing that "backup to USB stick" tonight. If I want a good quality USB stick, I have to go to the one good computer store in town. Then I can find a selection of Sandisk Extreme (not Ultra!) sticks.
Good products, even write the read/write speed on the back of the card. Nobody selling the 100/10 dreck writes the "10 for writes" on the cardboard retail card, because they'd be laughed out of the place. That 128GB one I bought, did not mention speed, and it was a Lexar product.
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A few years back, in N.A. they were selling this:
1TB USB Flash $10 2TB USB Flash $15
Now, considering this is "highest capacity" or so claimed, how can you offer such a large discount on the 2TB one ? Wouldn't you charge $20 for 2TB, if the product were legit ?
Well, no, being designed for punters, the advert uses this technique to sell the "2TB" ones. The products are actually 16GB and 32GB, and the controller is flash programmed to lie about the stick capacity.
When I ask people nicely, to write a decent sized file to these "wunder" sticks, then compare the file to the original file on the hard drive, I get... silence from them. I presume each of these individuals has died of heart failure, when asked to do this for me. I've had people be absolutely insistent they hadn't been screwed, and these "fraud-sticks" were real. But they won't do any testing for me.
I even had one guy tell me "it got a little slow at 894GB". Really ? You would think since it was "writing into outer space" it would go like the clappers.
*******
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"With free lanyard"
Then they show us this. Picture looks suspiciously similar.
Database files have the general issue, that they cannot be quiesced for backup purposes while the database software is running.
If the database is shut down (using some provided control for the purpose), then the file is "closed" and would be safe for backup.
Windows uses VSS (volume shadow copy service) for backups. It's a typical part of a backup solution. The vssadmin command gives details about various things.
VSS allows "hot backups of C: ". You could back up C: and continue working on the computer, like editing that XLS spreadsheet you were working on.
A good backup software, when you try and back up the C: that has the database on it, will tell you "we could not quiesce that database" or some similar message, and that the database backup image would be damaged if they did.
Before VSS was invented, we had the "Ghost approach", where the computer would reboot into DOS, and then all the files were safe to back up. VSS was invented so this rebooting stuff would no longer be required.
You could use Macrium Reflect Free, as an example of a product which gives a "full backup" for free, but you have to pay to schedule "Incrementals", which could be smaller backups.
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Backup at Home <=== select this link Reflect 7 Free
Perfect for limited backups and cloning. Capable of basic backup scheduling. Create images of running Windows OS
There are a ton of products out there, and several offer a free version (that does "full" backup images). Doing differentials doesn't save a lot of space. And "Incrementals", you'd have to buy a license. The latest type is "Incrementals Forever", where the Incrementals are squashed together at regular intervals. This gives smaller storage requirements, and more frequent backups/versions.
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If you'd provided the name of the database software, that would have made it easier to provide colour commentary on how it works.
Unless you absolutely need the largest size the sweet spot for price performance is typically around reputable maker maximum_size/4.
Sometimes you can get lucky and find maximum_size/2 at a competitive price particularly when they are about to launch the next size up. You may have to live with silly or unpopular colours to get the best price.
The only bit of that deal of any value will be the lanyard! The stick itself will have significantly less actual storage than claimed. (you will note the reviews are for a 16GB device not a 1TB one).
The gotcha is that there will be *some* working storage on them, so they will plug in, be recognised as a drive, and *report* the 1TB capacity. They will even write and let you read back some data.
It's only when it runs out of physical storage and starts to "wrap around" overwriting bits you have already written, that it will collapse in a pile of corruption and data loss. Needless to say this is usually some time after the glowing Amazon review was submitted!
(currently 256GB is the largest drive of that type available - and 35 to
I have one plugged into this PC right now. Windows Explorer reports 964 Gb free (of 966 Gb).
I'm shifting those two gigs of image files onto a different drive and I'm going to see what happens if I try to add a Tb (from elsewhere) to the USB stick.
If you needed to restore the whole machine, how much of a pain would that be?
Complete image backups are fine, but you will need to make sure that the database is in a state where it can safely be copied. You may opt for a two step disaster recovery - say restoring the whole machine from an image, then importing the database data separately.
You then need multiple backups, so that there is no danger of overwriting your last good backup with new corrupted data. Ideally you want to be able to restore to a number of points in the past to give you a decent chance of finding the best trade off between data integrity and freshness. (Many data corruption issues are not spotted until sometime later, when you may have done several backups before noticing).
Some backups also need to also be "offline" so that they can't be accessed by the system being backed up at times other than during backup (or better still not at all). That way ransomware software can't delete or corrupt your backup before locking you out of your system.
Most of all the backups need to be automated and frequent. Also tested from time to time.
You won't be the first/only person/company with this problem. As a first step I'd Google to see what other users of the same program have done to resolve it.
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