Back up

Drobo, in my opinion, is an annoying solution because everything is proprietary (the data format, for instance); this could be a problem, especially if stuff doesn't work (which presumably since this is a backup solution, we don't want).

Probably the best way to backup the server is with an NAS (of which Drobo is a variety).

It's essentially a bunch of harddrives in an enclosure that connects via ethernet to the network/server.

You can then set the server to backup to the NAS.

There is multitudinous software that does backup, including of course, Operating System based software. Since you're using XP, you might want to consider 3rd party backup software, since I don't recall XP having very friendly backup options (but there are people on these forums that know XP line by line, so they'll correct that misperception for me)

You could look into Acronis Backup/Image software, which is quite popular.

Alternatively, there are tons of free programs that will backup for you as well.

At the end of the day, it doesn't really matter how sophisticated the backup software is, so long as it actually copies the data to your backup location when you tell it to.

hi commissarmo,. tks for the reply. i changed my mind about the Drobo, because the only way you can get info of the drobo is with another Drobo,not like in a raid, you can get a data recover cd and some times you can get the data you need of. What caused the trouble was the MB. i think so im getting a MSI 890GXM-G65.socket 3 for a 955 black edition chip. 3 hd, and set that to Raid 1 and for the external back up a Fantom GD2000EU GreenDrive External Hard Drive - eSATA, USB 2.0, 2TB, 32MB Cache,
I'll be using Acronis 8.0 [which i have already] for the backup soft ware.
Dose that sound good, if you have a better way let me know.sure would app. it.Im going nuts here tring to figure out the easiest and best way to not loose the data.
tks
John