Fastest Way for Multiple Backups?

[rahul_agarwal1]

What is the fastest way to backup to a server through my wireless network. It

currently takes hours just to do an incremental backup b/c of all the PSD files.

It doesn't take nearly as long ot back up to my external USB drive.

[bgelfand]

That is because wireless connections are relatively slow. 802.11n, the fastest connection now available, is about 60 megabits/sec. USB connections have a theoretical limit of 480 megabits per second, about 8 times faster. In practice, transfer speeds are somewhat lower.

 

 

The speed of a wireless connection depends upon signal strength which varies as you move farther from your access point/router or as there are obstructions, such as walls between the computer and the access point/router. Unless the server is hardwired to the router, it, too will be speed limited by signal strength.

 

You might be interested in this chart: http://www.smallnetbuilder.com/component/option,com_wireless/Itemid,200/

[leicaglow]

There's also some newer routers coming out that are much faster than those of just a year ago. PC World recently had a good article on the newest technology and how much better it is.

[rahul_agarwal1]

Thanks that helps! Would it be faster if I plug into the router?

[mendel_leisk]

My experience with (home) routers is that wired is much faster.

[JAPster]

You could buy another switch (not wireless), that uses hi-speed LAN ports, like 1 Gigabit. Plug your workstation and your server both into that switch, forming a 2nd LAN. Keep all the photo projects that you have already finalized on the Server. So you dont have to worry about moving them. Only keep your open and active photo projects on the workstation. On the server, share out the main folder as a share drive, so you can easily upload daily copies of the active photo projects.

 

A hi-speed switch is typically a fast network connection because its designed to instantaneously make the network between any two systems that need to communicate. When it makes that connection (on the fly, in the background, invisible to you), the connection is fully dedicated between the two systems. That means the two systems dont have to worry about packet collisions that used to really slow down LANs in the old days, when they used hubs.

 

With this type setup, you would work on the active photo project on your main digital darkroom PC, save all your work, and at the end of an afternoon, just copy the whole folder straight up to server. That might take 15 minutes or so, depending on the speed of your system, the # of files in the project, and the speed of the server.

 

Then, you can cfg your server to run its daily backups, say around 8pm. M-Th, you can cfg it to do Incremental Backups, where it just backs up the files you have uploaded that very day. Then on Friday or Saturday you run the FULL backup, and thats the one that backs up EVERYTHING. All the photo projects on the server.

 

Some name brands for switches are NetGear, 3Com, Cisco, Cabletron, Belkin, and Motorola. A nice fast hi-speed (per port) switch made by any of these companies would likely do the job.

[bgelfand]

"Thanks that helps! Would it be faster if I plug into the router?"

 

Assuming the Ethernet ports on the router are 100 Mbps (and almost all ore) then Yes, it would help - considerably.

 

Which router are you using?

[rahul_agarwal1]

I am using a DIR-615 Dlink N Router. The computer I am using is a dell xps 420 (in fact i just had a new hard drive shipped to me b/c this one is SLOW!)

[rhenriksen]

Yes, wired is always faster; as another poster mentioned, 1 gigabit is even better. The faster the hard drive spins, the better as well; but noise can start to become a problem if you have a tower stuffed with 15,000 rpm drives.

 

When it comes to spec'ing new laptop purchases, it's good to get the faster video card option & fastest hard drive offered (7200 rpm versus 5400 rpm versus 4200 rpm)