All our data (except email) is stored on a Drobo with a Drobo Share. Total 50 GB
The Drobo has two 0.5 TB drives
I back up using SyncToy on a adhoc basis to 2 portable hard drives that are rotated to give an off site backup.
We have 5 Win7 machines and 1 XP no server.
We don’t have any internal network security.
The problem I have is files disappearing (I believe users are either deleting or moving files accidentally) this is not a problem if they notice before I take another back up but if they don’t notice a missing folder for some weeks, then we have a problem.
How should I deal with this?
Options I have considered is network security (but this will just create stress). Keep more back ups for longer but still not fool proof.
Change from echo backups to one of the other options, but the back up is designed so that if I need to restore all the data it is easy.
Maybe I need to consider a purchased backup software, tried Acronis but it seemed over the top for us.
considering how cheap storage is and how small our data is, you could buy a 1000GB external USB disk and just copy your backup on to that once a month (on the 1st say) and you could do that for 20 months without ever having to delete a backup!
maybe there is a way to enable folder “auditing”? eg like some windows servers have it as an NTFS feature -
i dont know if its possible (and might need an extra tool) but that way you could see who is deleting what files.
another option could be to have a permanent area, where files can only be written once, and then older files become read only, and they have to physically save the file with a new version (filename).
following on from what Docchris said, the easiest option might be to simply create a folder on the drobo (or external location) which only a particular admin account can access… and to then use some synching software possibly synchback (which also has a free version) to copy any new files to that restricted location.
you’d have to test the theory behind the process a few times to make sure youre happy with how it works and if safe etc and how you will restore from it, but i think that way, you’ll be taking snapshots of all files (without deleting anything).
you’d probably not have the most efficient RPO and RTO, but that should stop any files from going “walkies”
