Backup destinations
You should review the following information before you decide where to store recovery points and file and folder backup data.
The following table contains the information that you need to consider when selecting a backup destination.
Table: Selecting a backup destination
| Backup destination | Information to consider |
|---|---|
| Local hard drive, USB drive, or FireWire drive | The benefits of this option are as follows\: |
| (recommended) | - Provides for fast backup and recovery. |
| - Lets you schedule unattended backups. | |
| - Reduces cost because drive space can be overwritten repeatedly. | |
| - Allows for off-site storage. | |
| - Reserves hard drive space for other uses. | |
| Although you can save the recovery point to the same drive that is backed up, it is not recommended for the following reasons: | |
| - As the number or size of recovery points grows it consumes more disk space. As a result you have less disk space for regular use. | |
| - The recovery point is included in subsequent recovery points of the drive, which increases the size of those recovery points. | |
| - If the computer suffers a catastrophic failure, you may not be able to recover the recovery point. You may not be able to recover the recovery point even if you save it to a different drive on the same hard disk. | |
| Network folder | If your computer is connected to a network, you can save your recovery points and file and folder backup data to a network folder. |
| Backing up to a network folder typically requires that you authenticate to the computer that hosts the folder. If the computer is part of a network domain, you must provide the domain name, user name, and password. For example, domain\username. | |
| If you connect to a computer in a workgroup, you should provide the remote computer name and user name. For example: remote_computer_name\username. | |
| OpenStorage Destination | The benefits of this option are as follows |
| - Lets you select an OpenStorage destination as the primary destination when you define backups and during restore. | |
| - Provides flexibility of maintaining large amount of data. | |
| - Increases the accessibility of data from anywhere and at any time. | |
| - Helps during disaster recovery situation to restore data from the cloud. |
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