>I have a client I'd like to recommend an automated backup system for. It's been long enough that I'm sure my last experience (state-of-the art was tape) is *probably* superceded.
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>I'd like to run it from a VFP app running in the background. I think this will become a shell for running backups, and running QC checks on data.
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>Scheduled backup to CD would be great. The data easily fits on CD. Any thoughts, war stories, would be appreciated. CDs, last I heard, have a dependable shelf life of about 10 years, which is good enough, IMO, but I'm willing to be reeducated.
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>Thanks. BTW, it's a P.O.S. so will be backed up daily and dependability is critical.
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Nancy, to make a recommendation really would require knowing more about the platform. If the CD-RW he has comes with the Adaptec DirectCD software, which allows the CD to be treated as a big floppy (there are tons of alternatives, but the most widely circulated one is Adaptec's (now Roxio's) product), then it'd be trivial to check the amount of disk space needed, check if there's that much space on the CD, and invoke a file copy operation (maybe using the SHFileOperation() API call, or perhaps simply starting a pre-defined MS Backup job to a file name on the CD drive, provided on the command line if the platform shipped with it; basically anything except original Win95) to the target CD. The problem doesn't become more complex as long as you want to back up all files completely as a snapshot every time.

You may want to use a product like WinZip or DynaZip to compress the backup, allowing the CD to safely back up more data - data in native DBF files is tremendously compressible in most cases. You need a mechanism to ensure that no other users (or even the current user) have any of the files of interest open for the duration of the snapshot process.

There are dozens of backup products, many of which work with CD-RW or other disk-style removable storage, as well as to tape. There are a couple of ActiveX control based products that can be incorporated into the VFP app to interact with a third-party backup product to handle the backup as well. More information about the environment, data volume, and controllability of file access during the backup process would be necessary to address this more adequately.