# Best way to back up an external share drive on a server



## ditoboisy (May 9, 2012)

I am looking at buying an external hard drive that I can share on the network. I was planning on using Robocopy to back it up every night, but then I found that Robocopy won't copy files that are in use. Users will often times remote on at night or in the evening and use files and so the server won't back it up with Robocopy. I would use NTBackup, but I think that one only works with the C:drive or partitions on it's local hard drive.

I'm not sure which OS we will use, but I think we'll end up having a 2003 server I'll put it on. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. I tried some googling, but I was just finding options for personal hard drives for home use.


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## Hitori (Mar 8, 2013)

I use Cobian for backups but open files are not an issue for me. 
However as I understand it, Cobain can utilize VSS, Volume Shadow Services, to accomplish that. Check out their FAQ (just search for 'open file')


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