A Short History of Backup Software: The Jim Clark Story

An article over at the Windows Home Server Team Blog caught my eye today.  It got me thinking about why I got a Windows Home Server and what it has done for me.  It was rather interesting that they were trying to compare Backup Software to Windows Home Server.  But it got me thinking.  So off I went and did a Google on “Backup Software”.

I found several hits: TopTenReviews, Acronis True Image (my personal favorite), Backup Software Reviews, and a whole lot more.  This got me thinking some more.  What I did not see was “Window Home Server” among those hits.  Isn’t Windows Home Server a Backup solution?  Well, it is an Operating System.  It is considered an appliance when paired with the appropriate OEM hardware.  It can do a whole lot more than simply backup your computer.  But if it is a Backup solution, why was it not on Google in this category, and how does it compare to other software-specific solutions out there?

To help answer that, this is my story:

Over the past several years, I have obtained a rather significant amount of digital data.  At first this data consisted mostly of emails and letters.  Some of this data went as far back as my XT clone days.  I try not to throw anything away.  Eventually, I became a big user of Napster.  I was looking mostly for the 60’s and 70’s songs that I felt nostalgic for.  I eventually learned the error of my way and I no longer make use of those kind of sites.  But it was fun while it lasted!  At some point, I did obtain a digital camera, so my electronic data began to include pictures and… more pictures.

During most of this time, my backup software was, well, me.  I would pick and choose, and copy off stuff I really wanted/needed to save onto, would you believe, floppies.  Eventually, these gave way to recordable CD’s.  I loved Roxio, my first backup software.  Next came DVD’s.  4.7 GB’s of real backup capacity!  It couldn’t get any better than that!

Fast forward a few years and I heard about this backup software, Acornis True Image.  I went out and bought it because by this time, I had reinstalled Windows XP so many times, that I could no longer auto-register it.  I had to call up Microsoft every time.  I decided to make an image of a clean install, so that the next time I needed to do this, I could simply restore that image.  I wouldn’t have to call Microsoft ever again!

My “real” backup solution was still the use of DVD’s and a manual backup of precious data.  Once in awhile, I actually updated my backup’s.

Then came Vista.  Acronis had a new version of their backup software, and they had nothing to say about compatibility of the version I owned and Vista.  So another $30 later, I felt quite secure in my ability to backup my computer.  I actually used it.  Once.  I needed to increase my HD capacity and I wanted to dump my RAID 0 80 gig drives for a HUGE 320 gig drive.  It worked, actually quite well.  A very funky Linux-type interface, but I was happy.

In the meantime, I did have a disaster occur on my computer.  One of results was that I screwed something up and I lost about 6 months of emails.  I was not a happy camper.  During this time, I also did an upgrade to one my kid’s computers.  I inadvertently lost a bunch of his stuff in the upgrade.  Needless to say, I was in the doghouse.  Once again, my manual backup software (me) failed.

I needed something better.  My manual backup plan did not work all day, every day.  Then I started hearing about this new product, Windows Home Server.  It sounded quite interesting, but it did require some investment.  Eventually, I was able to obtain the necessary hardware and a copy of Windows Home Server.  Once I got it set up and running, I now had 2 copies of everything in my home.  The original data on the individual computers and a complete backup of each machine on my WHS.  Turn on file duplication and add the appropriate add-ins, I was now able to have 3 backups of everything.  And all of this was updated daily.  To me, I had found the ultimate solution in an Operating System named Windows Home Server.  If I needed more space, I could simply buy another drive, which are becoming quite inexpensive these days.  My days of DVD backup’s were gone.

Have I ever needed these backups?  Well, I have not had to do a complete restore.  Not yet anyway.  There have been several occasions where I have opened a backup, however, to pull off a file that I had somehow killed.  The most recent one was when I “stupidly” opened a published WGS article to use as template for a new article.  Once I hit the save button, the published article was gone.  And no way to get it back.  Sometimes that light bulb over my head does light up, and it was Windows Home Server to the rescue.  I opened up an older backup.  It came up just like a networked hard drive on my workstation.  Using Windows Explorer, I was able to go right to the appropriate folder, copy off my blog article and have it republished from there.

Thank God!

So what does all this mean?  To me, Windows Home Server is the ultimate backup product.  Install it, add your computers to the Windows Home Server network, and let it do it’s thing.  Totally transparent, automated time capsules of all the computers in my home on a daily basis.  You may never know, or care, that it is there.  Until disaster strikes.