Wanting to create a small linux back up server
 

Hello,

have started a small computer repair business. Basically doing side projects as my time allows.. Many times I find I am working on older windows 95, 98 systems. A lot of times it is difficult to find the right configurations to back up the valuable data on the customers hard drive so I can reformat and do a fresh install if the machine doesn't have a CD-R and their files are too large to back up to floppy disk.
Here is my idea... I want to create a small server/backup type machine using linux and I am wondering what would you recommend as the minimum hardware requirements if I want to run a distro of linux server with the Gnome GUI.. Is this possible? What ideas do you have about the best way to approach something like this?

If you are looking at a recent distro, you'll need a "good" system to run GNOME... I'd look for something at least 500MHz and 128MB. Of course, more is always better, but that would be a good start. Get a hard-drive large enough to hold the OS (less than 10GB) plus all the customer files (?). If you are working mostly in the Win 9x realm, then 50GB should be good enough.

You can put a NIC in it, but I would plan on just pulling the hard-drive from the customer computer, installing it in the backup computer, and copying everything straight over. It will be a lot faster than networking. While the backup is running, and you have the customer computer open, take a couple minutes to vacuum it out. I've seen dust bunnies you could just about saddle and ride in some computers.

Good ideas for sure.. I guess I was looking for something smaller, perhaps with only a 10GB HD. Sort of like using an older compaq presario or something similar with a pentiumII and also networking... or your idea of swaping the drive makes sense.. Most customers I am running into have files that are less than 2 GB.. Maybe I might have to give up the idea of using a GUI but they are pretty nice IMHO. I guess I am not sure exactly how to do it.. I just kind of want to play around a bit with it too.... more suggestions or debate would be very helpful here.

f you're just using the box mainly for backing things up you don't really need a gui -- it would definitely speed things up for you not to have one. but having a gui is sometimes convenient, of course, so if you are going to use one, choose something light like IceWM or fluxbox, etc. that's what i would do. gnome is about the most resource hungry hog there is, so that should be your last choice. in fact, make sure you don't even put gnome or kde on there. :p why waste the space?

also, you might look for a light distro that can fit in under a gig or so, or even less. again, why waste the space installing something like a mandrake or FC for a bunch of stuff you won't even use? check distrowatch or the LQ reviews to help you find something appropriate. gl, sounds like a cool project. :cool:

Geeky project for sure... but yeah I want something light and stable to preform a vital task in the repair process. How about something like slackware? Or would any distro do the job and install the the minimal text based components with a light GUI? Like ICE? I want to prove it can be done and done right. I have several options and access to several older machines just need to find the right combination........

Never use vacuums in computers. Vacuums creates a lot of static electricity. Use only compressed air. Yes, its messy but it does not hurt the computer.

Buy a bunch of hard drives and set them up in LVM. I think you do not need bandwidth.

The lighter the desktop top (fluxbox, icewm, etc), the lighter the computer can be. If you can do it without a GUI, you could go all the way down to a floppy distro... You would have to manually create the mountpoints and mount the two hard-drives, but it's not that hard. Of course, if you use hardware that's too old, you run into BIOS problems with larger drives.

You only need enough empty space to store the customers files... If they only use a couple gigs, you only need a couple. I just threw out a size that I knew would be enough. You prob'ly could get away with less.

That is not true. Linux bypasses the BIOS information about the hard drives, so you can use any capacity.

I would use one hard drive for the OS and a big hard drive to store your customer's data. When you do it this way, if something screws up you do not have to reinsall linux.

With customer's data, you are going to have to make images of the their hard drives so you can fix the data. Using the orginal hard drive to fix the data is very stupid because if that drive fails, you are going to get a lot of complaints from the customer and business will not go very well.

What data recovery services do is they take the hard drive apart and inspect the platters. Then they send you an e-mail or call you if the platters are ok and tell you the condition of the platters, so you can give an ok on the work that is going to be done. Next they use a laser to read each platter. The laser is used so that their equipment does not come in direct contact and does not make any more scratches. They do all of this in a clean room.

With Windows 95, 98, and ME people can use just use about any capacity. I have 120 gigabyte hard drive that I used for Windows 98, so a 60 or 80 gigabyte hard drive will not work very well. The FAT32 can handle up to 2 terabytes so you have to plan a little bit in the future.

You should get at least an AMD 2400+ or an Intel Pentium 4 2.6 GHz with 1 gigabyte of memory so you can work with the large images as quickly as you can. The quicker you can finish fixing the customer's data the more profit you will make.

After a few customers, you may want to write a program to help do some simple tasks from the experience that you had.