Recover file server after a fire

[Rmuller]

I am using Retrospect to back up all the files on my NAS server to two 250gb USB hard drives, which I rotate every week so one of them is out of the office. If my office burns down, my immediate plan is to get a new Macintosh (or borrow one from someone) and put the files on it temporarily while I get a new server.

 

I am using an incremental backup operation rather than "copy", since it is very useful to me to have copies of previous versions of files. In the 5+ years that I have been using Retrospect, I have been fortunate in that replacing files that got accidentally trashed or corrupted has been my only reason to need to restore.

 

Now I am trying to imagine how I will use that USB drive to restore my files in the case where all my hardware and all my install CD's of software are gone. Getting a new computer to attach the USB drive is the easy part. Next, I will need a copy of Retrospect before I can restore anything.

 

Question: Should I put a copy of Retrospect on each USB drive so that I can use it to install Retrospect on a new computer if the disaster happens? If I wanted to put a copy of Retrospect on the backup drive to copy to a new computer in case of disaster, what files should I include? Would a disk image be best?

 

Or, would I contact EMC/ Dantz and have them e-mail me a new copy of my licensed Retrospect so I can use it on a new computer? I probably wouldn't have my license information, since I keep it in a file on the server, which I will not be able to access without Retrospect. However, I recently upgraded and they were able to retreive my license information based on my business name.

 

Is there anything else I should think of in order to be prepared?