Building a backup server.

[aimeeandbeatles]

Long story made short: I massively screwed up a batch file (dont ask how I did that) and erased a good chunk of files. By sheer coincidence I happened to have my external drive plugged in and it erased the files off that too (as I said, don't ask). I rushed to find my redundant backups only to find they were a month out of date which is a lot for what Im doing. Anyways I was able to get most of it back but I lost quite a few files.

So to prevent this happening again i turned my laptop into a temporary backup server using a network folder share & Microsoft SyncToy.... Thats not ideal though as the drive's kind of small. But I have several yard-sale computers that I haven't gotten around to selling or whatever.

So, I was thinking about getting a hard drive for one of them (at least a couple terabytes) and makiing a sort of backup server. I wasnt very good at hardware but I think I can plug in a hard drive.

Heres the part Im asking:
Im sort of on a tight budget so I'm thinking about using some flavor of Linux for it.
Here are some things to take into account:
The home network (including my mom's computer as she wants to backup her bookmarks) is primarily Vista & 7 although that might change.
I'm very bad with Linux. So an easier to use one would be preferable.
I'd like to do it automatically, maybe once a day. On-demand would also be needed.
I don't like backing up stuff as zip files as its a hassle to unzip everything.
On my main computer I'll be backing up the data partition. On the others it'll probbaly be selected folders.
Except for setting up, most of the time it wont have a monitor or anything attached so I'll have to do maintenance remotely e.g. VNC.
Also I wouldnt like to have it connected to the internet just the local LAN.

OK thoughts.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

However, Id consider using an online service provided that it's big enough. The main thing Im worried about is the Archives, which is a little less than 5 GB and liable to grow. (Also, please don't ask how I managed to get 5 GB of articles. It's one of those things better left unexplained, like how a batch file managed to erase files from two seperate drives.)

EDIT: And free. As I said, tight budget.

 

[Cutlass]

You can get an external drive and set permissions on it so that you don't erase it by accident. Might be cheaper and easier. Or, you know, when not actively using it, unplug the thing.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Well I was doing something else on the external

 

[Souron]

So if the problem you're trying to solve is accidental deletion. This is supposed to be adressed by the recycle bin, but obviously this didn't do it for you.

The ideal solution seems to be a server that will mirror your own drive identically, except when you delete something, you want it to be recyled on the server, even if it is not recycled on your drive. I don't no a service that does exactly that.

Something that comes close is source control. Source control programs will back up your data, keeping track of the current version, as well as all previous changes. Nothing is deleted durring normal operation, even if you delete a file from the current state. However source control program generally require you to manually submit changes for backup, instead of automatic mirroring.

The OS of the server is unimportant. The software you choose to use is.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Accidental deletion & trying to keep backups up to date. I'm lazy and I can't count the times I "forgot" to do my weekly backup.

 

[Till]

Mount the drives with the data over network on the backup server, then configure cron and rsnapshot to automatically do incremental updates.

 

[GoodGame]

So, I was thinking about getting a hard drive for one of them (at least a couple terabytes) and makiing a sort of backup server. I wasnt very good at hardware but I think I can plug in a hard drive.

I know you're not asking about the hard drive, but be sure you get the interface right. If it's an old computer, its motherboard will probably only support IDE, so be sure to buy a IDE drive. Or if you're force to buy a SATA drive, then buy an SATA-to-IDE converter to the drive.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Yes I'll be careful of that.

What would be a good Linux distribution? I'm very bad with command-line so one with a GUI would be almost necessary and I could VNC it. Also I don't need a lot of user-features as this is just for backups so something light would be preferable.

 

[Souron]

Most of the work will be done by your Windows machine. The server just needs to be on, and have ssh enabled (or whatever your chosen protocol is). Even if you get a distro with a gui, I'd leave the gui off, since there'd rarely be a need to plug a monitor in anyway. Ubuntu's a popular distro.

A simple backup program can be made using a scheduled task bash script. You'll also need pscp.exe, or similar.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Can you browse a Linux filesystem with Windows? The main thing I'd need the GUI for is browsing the backups and on occasion copying files.

 

[Zelig]

Can you browse a Linux filesystem with Windows? The main thing I'd need the GUI for is browsing the backups and on occasion copying files.

You want to set up some sort of shared storage, like NFS, Samba or WebDAV.

 

[Souron]

That's a good idea. But you can also just ssh in and use the native file browser over the network.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Maybe.

 

[Mise]

You could probably just undelete the files using a free file recovery software.

 

[aimeeandbeatles]

Thats what saved them. But I couldnt catch them all.