Offset AND incremental backup

Question

I already do backups from my main computer to my server computer using synctoy.

But now I also want to do off-site backup.

My idea so far:

• have source hard drive (we'll call S) at home
• have backup hard drive at work called B
• have transport hard drive called T
• connect T at work and record index of files on B
• take T home and check index of S and note new/changed/deleted files and copy changed files to T
• take T to work and update S
• repeat

Its basically a sneakernet and using all of the advantages of it. High bandwidth, low latency.

Is there some software to do this, or do I have to write it myself?

Answer 1

I've seen business offsite backup that used sneakernet, in one form or another, so it's certainly reasonable. In those cases, the backup (tapes) were simply removed from the premises after a backup, and taken to a different secure area.

If you have two transportable backup media, T, and T2, simply backup to one and take it to work, and bring back the other. So one is at work, safely offsite, and the other is at home, ready for the next backup.

Think about the process for restoring in the case of a house fire or some other disaster. That should help drive how you do the offsite backup.

Answer 2

How many copies of your data do you really need? What are the odds that both main PC and server PC suffer from HD failures?

If you'd really like to be safe I'd suggest doing a backup of important data to good archive-quality DVD or Bluray media.

If you're hellbent on having another copy on HD I'd suggest rsync, though it's better suited to a *nix OS.