Difference between Backup Exec and System Recovery

[legaleagle]

Can someone please refer me to an article which sets out the pros and cons of SR v BE and where one is more suitable than the other. My research so far suggests that they largely overlap and if you're using usb drives SR seems to have the edge.

I have a SBS 2003 and wish to create a 2 week backup cycle with rotating usb drives. It is important to be able to retrieve individual files as well as quickly restore the server if everything is deleted.

Many thanks

[criley]

It is important to be able to retrieve individual files as well as quickly restore the server if everything is deleted.

You can certainly do the first with both products. As for the second comment, I assume you mean the ability the recovery the entire server should it 'die' on you (i.e. hardware failure etc). If my assumption is correct, SSR would be the better option.

I'm not sure we have a public facing article explaining the differences.

However, we should be able to answer any further questions you have here.

[legaleagle]

Thank you for the respone.

In respect of the 2 week cycle, would it reserve a separate drive letter for each drive or will it detect that the drive has changed?

In my case I have 10 external usb drives, 5 with one type of wire and 5 with another. Rather than changing the wires round, each set of drives uses its own usb slot.

I would like to create a 2 week cycle (workdays only) and if possible name the disks week1-monday and so on to week2-friday. My input in all of this should be no more than plugging out the drive in the morning and plugging in the new one.

Is SR the right product to do this?

Thanks

[legaleagle]

Please can someone advise on the above point. I've got a purchase and IT installer all lined up but no one can give me clear guidance on how a 2 week cycle would work in practice.

Thanks

[NeerThadarai]

As you are going to change the drive everyday I would suggest to create share on all of them with the same name and than add that share in the destination for the backup (e.g., \\servername\share). When SSR would try to run the backup it would look for the share if that is present or not and if not it would throw an obvious error.

As it's going to be a SBS 2003 server, you would have the Exchange 2003, SQL and Sharepoint databases. It would be a good idea to backup all the drives in one job as that would be better to restore the data and also it is required to perform the restore of the exchange & sharepoint data.

[legaleagle]

Thanks. And must it be a separate drive letter for each drive?