[BBLISA] Backup Windows systems to samba?

[Edward Ned Harvey (bblisa4)]

> From: Rich Braun [mailto:richb at pioneer.ci.net]
> 
> I don't back up windows systems, just the samba server containing their
> mount
> points, but I do back up a few Linux systems using CrashPlan.

Crashplan is cool for certain purposes, but Dan specifically said he requires the ability to do a bare metal restore.  I don't know why Dan needs whole system backups - but I perceive some people (not sure if you're one of them, Rich B) constantly promote crashplan as a fits-all solution for backups when it's really not, and specifically not good enough for this case.

AKA he doesn't want to waste time reinstalling windows, and all the windows updates, and every application that has ever been installed, re-adding all the wifi networks and office printers and all the configuration settings that the user has configured...  Not to mention license keys for Adobe and Autocad and Matlab and MS Office and everything else that requires license keys, etc....

I personally support a bunch of people where a simple directory-level backup such as crashplan would be ok...  And an equal number of people where that's completely insufficient.  Usually the sales & marketing & finance people can do fine with disposable laptops and the expectation that you just jump to a new laptop when something goes wrong with this one.  But engineers and developers often require several days of tooling setup before they can be effective at their jobs - it's totally *way* more expensive to rebuild their systems (even with lots of automation) instead of having a whole system backup solution.