www.hardware.earthweb.com/peripherals/article.php/3445491
By Gerry Blackwell December 8, 2004 A Data and Media Backup Box
Lost data equals lost business -- in extreme cases, the loss of the entire business. So it's impossible to overemphasize the importance of regularly backing up your PC's hard disk. Since small offices that don't have their own IT staff all too often don't have their own backup regimen, it's essential to find a simple, reliable, and most of all automatic way to get the job done. That's where Western Digital Corp.'s Media Center comes in. Not to be confused with a Media Center PC, the WDC peripheral is a compact, easy-to-use external hard drive that combines USB 2.0 and FireWire interfaces with handy extras like a USB hub and 8-in-1 flash-memory card reader. The latter makes it an especially good choice for home offices or companies that work with digital photos, since it can back up the contents of a memory card with a few mouse clicks. The one-port USB hub function means you can also plug in and back up a digital camera or USB flash drive without using the card slots. Ample Storage, Adequate SoftwareThe heart of the Media Center is its hefty hard drive -- 250GB in our $300 test unit, with 200GB ($250) and 160GB ($220) models also available. Each is a 7,200-rpm ATA drive with 8MB onboard buffer, for performance that more than keeps pace with FireWire's 400Mbps or USB 2.0's 480Mbps throughput (roughly 3GB or 3.6GB per minute, respectively). While not as fast as the fastest internal drives, the Media Center is plenty quick enough for unattended backup. Using an external hard drive for backup has pros and cons. Backup and recovery are both much faster than with tape drives, not to mention CD-RW or other optical media. The unit can also do double duty as overflow storage, and its external design makes it easy enough for even technophobes to install or to share among multiple computers. For the ultimate in security, on the other hand, backups should be stored off site, so your data is safe in case of an office fire or natural disaster. Unlike backup tapes or discs, the Media Center can't really be stored off site -- it's portable enough for you to unplug and take home at the end of each day, but what are the odds of your remembering to do so? Each Media Center comes with Dantz Development Corp.'s Retrospect Express 6.5, which Western Digital calls "dual-option backup" software -- meaning that it lets you back up your PC with the push of a button, or automatically according to a set schedule. The Retrospect software is not the most intuitive I've ever used: While it offers a great deal of flexibility in the way you back up, it also piles on features meant for fairly experienced computer users. For example, virtually every other backup utility I've tried lets you first select your vital folders and files, then tell the program to back them up. With Retrospect, you first establish a "backup set" of a particular type -- there are several -- then specify where you want the backup stored. Only when you tell it to go ahead and back up for the first time does Retrospect present you with a dialog that allows you to select which "source" folders to include. Even then, the software wants to work with "volumes," which can be folders or parts of folders; to select individual files for backup, you need to use the program's Windows Explorer-like browser features. Retrospect uses an archival method of backup, ensuring that backed-up files which you subsequently modify are not deleted or written over by the modified version when you next back up. Instead, Retrospect creates a new copy, thus preserving all earlier versions of a document. At first glance, setting up a schedule looks to be more complex than in other small-business backup solutions. Retrospect requires you to create a script or simple program to control the automated backup. The script determines source volumes, the destination backup set, which files from the source volumes to include, options such as whether to compress files during backup, and the schedule itself.  In fact, an EasyScript wizard makes things simple if you're starting from scratch -- rather too simple, in that you can't use it to set up a schedule to do actions on a backup set you've already created and executed once in immediate or on-demand mode. The wizard also lets you schedule backups only for every weekday or once a week. However, by selecting the Manage Scripts and New options from the main menu, you get full control of all aspects of scriptwriting -- which is almost as easy as using the EasyScript wizard. Indeed, Retrospect lets you do much more than most small offices seeking simple backup will likely want to do, such as setting up backups to multiple media -- different hard drives or rewritable media -- or different backups for each day of the week (useful for retail businesses). Up and RunningThe first time you press one of the buttons on the front of the Media Center drive -- one for automatic, one for on-demand backups -- a Retrospect wizard launches to help set up the procedure. The next time you press the on-demand button, the hardware/software combo automatically repeats the backup you set up initially; the automatic button stays lit after you complete its wizard to let you know your backups will occur as scheduled. In my case, although the install program appeared to go through all its steps properly, the software reported an error after I clicked OK to shut down. When I clicked OK on the error message, the system shut down and restarted without incident, but then Windows' Found New Hardware wizard -- contradicting Western Digital's documentation -- and ran through its usual process, apparently installing or reinstalling drivers. After that, My Computer recognized the drive and Retrospect launched and worked perfectly. I phoned the company's tech-support line to ask about these departures from the process described in the documentation; after some consultation, the agent concluded that, despite appearances, everything had installed correctly. All subsequent evidence suggested she was correct. Even with somewhat unintuitive software and my minor installation glitch, the WDC Media Center is a solid bet for any small office looking for a simple, automatic backup solution. If you also need a flash-card reader, it jumps from being a good choice to being a no-brainer. Adapted from SmallBusinessComputing.com. |
|
|
