Installing removable hard drive as backup media

[Nancy_Orben]

We have previously backed up our data to a tape drive installed on our main server.  We recently added a file server and are now storing our data on the file server instead of the main server.   We would like to purchase some portable hard drives to use as backup storage devices. We only need to back up the data on the file server no programs or other information.  The maximum amount of data to be backed up would be 450 GB.

My questions are:

Will I need to install some sort of agent on the file server or because I am just backing up files (Word, Excel, pdfs, QuickBooks files) or can I skip that step?

Can I buy any type of external hard drive or are there only certain ones that work well with Back up Exec?  I found this one for $85 and thought it would be a good option.

Toshiba
Canvio 750GB SuperSpeed USB 3.0 Portable Hard Drive - Black with White Accents 

http://www.microcenter.com/single_product_results.phtml?product_id=0352440 

Thanks for any suggestions!

Nancy

[EdT]

With external hard drives, you get what you pay for. My personal preference is to go for the mainstream suppliers like Western Digital. Their external drives come with their own backup software which you could try out to see if it does what you want.

Is your requirement for backup to run at pre-determined times, or for the backup software to make incremental backups on a continuous basis?

Also, external drives are available both in desktop and pocket formats - the former use 3.5" drives and the latter use 2.5" drives. Unless you have a compelling reason to use pocket drives, stick with the desktop variety as they tend to be somewhat faster, and in my opinion are more suited to continuous operation.

[Kiran_Bandi]

What is the version of BE?

Having the latest version installed will be better while using external hard disks as backup media.

On your file server you have to install Remote agent for windows servers to backup the data.

Regards....

[Ken_Putnam]

Will I need to install some sort of agent on the file server or because I am just backing up files (Word, Excel, pdfs, QuickBooks files) or can I skip that step?

Yes, to connect to a remote server OS machine, you need to install a RAWS serial on the media server adn the RAWS service on the File Server

Can I buy any type of external hard drive or are there only certain ones that work well with Back up Exec?  I found this one for $85 and thought it would be a good option.

You can use any external drive that you want.  As mentioned above, I'd go with a 3.5" drive.  I don't have any experience with USB 3.0, yet, but in the past would have gone with eSATA over USB 2.0.   I'd also go with a 7200 RPM device rather than 5400 RPM.  You want as much performance as possible from the target device

When you go to define your B2D devices, be sure to use standard B2D, not removable B2D, and I would HIGHLY recommend the upgrade to v2010 (R2 at a minimum, R3 is the latest)  2010 R2 greatly enhanced the handling of External Drives

If you stay on v10d, be sure to read PKH's article at

https://www-secure.symantec.com/connect/articles/how-rotate-external-harddisks