I currently do IT support for a non-profit in the US. It is a very small operation - maybe 8 workers total. I am 1500 miles away and am their primary IT tech - nobody else will work with these people - they have quit because of working conditions, owner attitude, etc. They have an old, arcane software program that manages their practice. It uses "per seat" licensing and has a single system to act as a server. The per seat costs are so high that it is very hard to justify buying another license for my idea but I want to discuss the scenario. I hope you can give me some ideas on how to do what I am thinking or better ideas on what I might try. Their main "server" just died. They want a new system to replace it. No biggie there - they will get it and continue with the licensing that they currently have BUT I have plans for the old computer if I can pull it off. I think the hard drive has failed and not the MB, etc. What I was thinking was this: Grab the old computer and resurrect it. Basically turn it into a backup server under a desk in another part of the office. I would have it backup all data from the per seat systems and the server on a weekly basis. I will want to limit the amount of full backups - have it delete the oldest backups once the hard drive drops to 40% of disk availability. The data files are 3 to 4 gigs in size so that is a lot of backups it can hold. Basically, I am thinking of putting Windows 10 on it, have something like FBackup (or similar free backup app) save their backups to a mapped share on the system. Internal to the system I have it mirror itself to a 2nd hard drive in the system - RAID 1 - but don't have a RAID controller to do that. I think I can use something like Acronis True Image for this purpose. Your thoughts? Any suggestions that might work? I have to be able to access the system remotely with AnyDesk (instead of TeamViewer - Damn that commercial use detected error!) and not have anything hooked up to it other than a wireless USB dongle. The place is a dump, has feral cats running all over the place and peeing onto hardware (that causes all sorts of failures) and the owner won't do anything about it. I feel like I need a hazmat suit to do any on-site work so I avoid it like it is the plague when I am anywhere near it. Thanks again for at least reading this post and considering options such as having me institutionalized for even being willing to walk into an office that has an owner that is a hoarder, with 30+ feral cats getting the run of the place, peeing into and onto everything in sight. *shudder*
That sounds like a good idea. What are the old server's system specifications? If the HDD has actually failed, then it would be able to at least POST and throw up a boot failure error.
Most backup software allows you to compress the data, you'll need command line able tools to automate the process, I use FreeFileSync 7.9 as it is the last version to be "free" unlike the limited newer versions. It is VERY easy to set up a conditional sync (as in not deleting extra files from the destination if they are removed from the source (this is handy if you have people deleting files by accident all the time): https://freefilesync.org/manual.php?topic=command-line Anyway, True image could be used to backup a partition to a drive on either your PC or make each persons PC backup to the server without copying the files by having their PC's map the network drive prior to running the backup: https://kb.acronis.com/content/47143 Do NOT put the computer under a desk, if there are cats about you'll want the PC kept as high as possible, not only for airflow, but for the toileting issue. There is no need to use windows 10, but no reason not to, just keep in mind Windows 10 is more likely to do a automatic update and reboot then fail and require you to go in to fix it, so sticking to using Windows 7 may be safer for you. Another option would be to share each users PC's documents (or wherever the data is), map each PC to a drive using command line and true image the shared drive to a folder named off the shared PC's Name: Run_Backup_Scheduled.cmd <-Add this to your Daily Windows schedule Code: @echo off REM Store systems current time into BEFOREDATE var as mm-dd-yy SET BEFOREDATE=%date:~4,2%-%date:~7,2%-%date:~10,4% "net use X: \\User1\Documents" rem Terabyte capture X: to D:\Backup\User1_%BEFOREDATE%.tbi rem I haven't looked in to how to do this, but you can if going this way. "net use X: \\User2\Documents" rem Terabyte capture X: to D:\Backup\User2_%BEFOREDATE%.tbi rem I haven't looked in to how to do this, but you can if going this way. -------------------- I've also not made a auto delete feature to remove the previous months backups (ONLY if detected current months backup PER user!!!!)... I am sure with a bit of messing about and manipulation of your own PC's date, you could make a batch script to automate the entire process as you want. Break it down to the smallest and simplest requirements and then find a way to automate it using batch files or small command line able tools. That is how I made the Last20 Builder script, I hadn't done many of the things I did in it's scripts before, knowing what to search for helps find answers on Stack Overflow etc. Good luck with it.
