Are automatic health-checks of the backup-harddisk possible?
Hello,
Is Acronis True Image Home 2012 capable of performing really trustworthy health-checks on hard-disk that are holding backups on an automated basis? I dont speak of simply reading out SMART data from the HD, but continuosly reading and checking (checksum?) ALL backups and testing for data-failure on a regular (daily?) basis over a very long period of time on the same HD complete automatically.
I am searching for a backup-tool that can do just that.
The data to backup are extreme highly important documents, around 10GB, for a small home office.
Sincerely,
addiks
Addiks,
The best way to achieve the peace of mind you want is to use redundant backups and rotate/diversify the backup location (local disk on site, off site) and technology (Acronis, simple file sync, online backup).
If you rotate disks with Acronis, assign them a fixed drive letter towards the end of the alphabet, and create separate tasks for each disk.
The problem is that the backup system has to run over a long period of time (probably years) without anyone to maintain it. Thats why i am searching for a way where the system could tell you _reliable_ when the hard disks (2 backup hard-disks) are failing.
I am switching town, there is no-one who i would trust maintaining it and a professional would be just way to expensive. On the other hand, these are very sensible legal-documents (therefore absolutely NO for online backup) and they have to be absolutely secure from data-loss.
The last option i would see is that i have to travel all the way every few month to manually check the HD, that is what i am trying to avoid. mhh... when i am thinking about this, maybe i can remote-check the HD/files, but that would also be a non-perfect solution.
addiks,
If the documents are really sensitive, you can put them in an encrypted Zip file (using ATI file backup or WinZip, for example choose a 256bit encryption AES) and segment the ZIP file for easy upload, then backup the vault to an online backup system or to your favorite FTP server. At least you will have one copy safe. You can do all these operations on a regular basis from a remote computer (using WIndows Mesh, for example). With the latest version of WinZip, you can automate these tasks. You can also use Syncback to sync up and encrypt your documents up to online FTP server. Note that if you use ATI to backup, you will need ATI to restore, wherease WinZIP and Syncback use the standard ZIP format.
You could also store your sensitive files in a TrueCrypt container and then backup the container online (that would be a big file to backup though)
The validation process of ATI is a pretty good way to ensure that you know whether the backups are restorable or not, but what do you do when you know they are corrupt? That is why you need a redundant backup.