Cd Burning for Backups

[sirius]

A few ramblings which are puzzling me.

Is there a CD burning program which is able to back up over a network? Ie one machine on a network has a CDRW drive and the others dont.

All the important files are on the 'server' and a few scattered here and there across the other machines where moving documents is not permissable because the program iks linked to the files you make....anyway Im digressing.

Without voiding the 3 warranty's on the server and the machine with the CDR drive by getting someone to fit the CDR drive in the server, is there a program which lets you scour the files on other computers on a network and compile a CD of the said items for backup purposes?.

I know, I know we should prolly use a tape drive (which the server has) but we have constant trouble saving and retrieving data from tapes (hours are lost in the process thats sometimes a waste of time), hence the CD option would be nice.

We use Nero for CD's. but I think its crap. The Cd writers a bit duff aswell cos it goes through the motions of writing a CD without actually putting information on (not in trial mode) or if it does and you can see the color change on the disc, it doesnt acknowledge any content and says 'please insert cd' or whatever.
Im not sure if its nero or the drive itself.

Hope you follow my ramblings .

Cheerio

Sirius.

[Myk]

Without voiding the 3 warranty's on the server and the machine with the CDR drive by getting someone to fit the CDR drive in the server, is there a program which lets you scour the files on other computers on a network and compile a CD of the said items for backup purposes?.

Is there any reason you couldnt use an external burner via USB or SCSI or whatever port you have on the server ?

[johns_ar]

yer aint got roxio direct cd or easy cd creator installed on the machine have yer

hapenned to me loads when ive burnt discs and put on other computers and they blank

[Zoneraver]

What Network are you running?

Windows based (NT/2000/2003 server)?

Novell

Linux?

Id guess its Windows based

If you have a PC on the network with a cd writer then all you have to do is manually attach each network share on the server you want to backup

Ive done the same thing but set up a login script automatically assigning the drives i wanted to backup

allyou have to do then is select the files you want from the virtual drivers and hey presto


Nero always worked for me the couple of times ive had to do this

If its Novell Its a similar process

With A linux server you need to know abit about samba and windows network interfacing to access the shares

If you want give us a ring matey

Alan

[sirius]

Cheers for the response peeps .

I should have elaborated. Its a network comprised of two really old pentium1&2 100mhz type jobs running windows 95, 1 IBM 'e' sever machine running windows 2000 advanced and a new AMD machine running win98se which has the CDRW drive on......

We got NERO with the PC, and I currently hate it. Im used to the old Adaptec/Roxio packages, we are having hassle making CD's anyway for some reason - either the drive or the program or hardware setup.

Zoneraver, you mention "manually attach each network share on the server you want to backup". I dont follow you there m8.
We can see and access all the relevent places on any computer on 'network nieghborhood', however when you go into the CD writing program there is NO network option available, just 'my computer' on the local machine - you cant access the other computers to add them into the CD listing 'tree' ready to burn.

Can you elaborate on what you mean/how you managed to back up off other machines via the network cables.....I know it may take longer to burn (packets n all that?) but it has a buffer underrun thing so it should work in theory shouldnt it (??).


Its probably not going to be a major ocurrence of files, perhaps 300mb for every, say, two months. We do a tape backup at the minute and its a nightmare........we want to safely and easy retrieve if possible a weekly or monthly CD of the latest files worked on, then say every two months or so we use a tape as a double safeguard.



Cheers!

Sirius.

[Zoneraver]

the PC with the writer...does it have the relevant network drives mapped to it?

EG

H: drive on the cd writer pc is your home directory on the server eg

if not you probably have just the standard drives A,C, D etc


Nero doesnt allow network neighbourhood browsing

You have to manually attach the server drives to your pc so it looks like your pc has an extra drive (virtual drive)

I can tell you how to do this if you wanna ring me and ill talk you through it

Its quite easy to do with just a little info from yourself

Ive PM you my number matey

Alan

[sirius]

Thanks a lot m8. .

Is this that 'map network drive' option you can get in windows explorer (on win95/98 anyway)?. I know how to do that....well, ive done it before anyway once or twice when the OLD computer's CD drives werent up to installing off new high speed disks.. Im sure Ill suss it again if thats what it is.

Its actually for work, so I cant really sort it from here anyway...Ill give it a try this friday (Im on a day off tomorrow ).

Thanks for your help on this bud, its really appreciated .



Cheerio for now,

Paul.

[Zoneraver]

Just map the drives you want to back up by write clicking and choosing map drive

Give it a drive letter EG J:do it for all server drives you wanna backupso you have

J:
t:
P:

whatever lol

then load nero and you will be able to browse then through Nero

easy peasy

Alan )