So far, so very good. I’ve always wanted to setup an automated system of backups but it was just one of those things that seemed to be something I’d always want to do, but wouldn’t get to. Well, I have it now. Here is what I have going on:
I have CuteFTP Home ($49.99) that is set to backup all of my MySQL databases across all of my domain names every 2 days. I don’t know how this might affect my bandwidth, so I might have to adjust it later to download the non essential stuff less often or something of that nature. But, these files are backed up onto my hard drive. Then, every single day all of my files inside of My Documents (which is where I keep everything – from documents to all of my network files to all of my databases, etc.) are backed up to my external hard drive (which is a Seagate Barracuda 250GB SATA hard drive ($123.99) inside of an external hard drive enclosure from CoolGear ($97.80) that was bought specifically for backing up files and is used for nothing else.
The backups from my PC to the external hard drive are processed by VersionBackup (free). The program only backs up files that have changed since the last backup, which saves time, and saves the files for as many backups prior as I determine.
So, for $271.78, I’m all up and running smoothly. Well, except for the noise from the external hard drive, but I’m finding work arounds for that. I’m sure it could be done quite a bit cheaper (especially if you aren’t set on getting a 250 GB SATA). So, if you manage websites with MySQL databases that are ever changing and have a high speed connection (a must for downloading these big databases), I recommend that you do something like this.