simple net backups

I've got two ancillary systems that aren't on any particular backups schedule.
After losing two drives to thunderstorms last week ;-(, I'm trying to gin up a system to back them up to the larger system.
Ideally, the two small machines would have an image or folder on the host machine that contains all the volatile info on them. The basic OS (win/xp and win/2k-p) and installed apps are backed up seperately, so the amount of data isn't that great.
My idea would be a simple scheduled task that refreshes the folders on the host every day (or more frequently).
I've looked at Winxp simple file transfer:
http://www.practicallynetworked.com/sharing/xp/filesharing.htm
but it doesn't seem to do exactly what I want.
This idea certainly isn't new, but I haven't been able to find exactly what I want.
I'm prolly chasing a rainbow, though ;-).
Any ideas appreciated.

 

what you would need to do is set up a network .... with simple file sharing if you like... and then make a batch file that will run an imaging program, then copy the image it creates onto the network drive, and delete it off the local machine.

First you'll need to choose an imaging software... which can be found in HERE ... and then find out how to operate it from the command line. for example, you might have an imaging program, backupX.exe, or somthing.. and you would put this line into the batch file:

backupX.exe D: C:\backupimage.img

which would start the program, make an image of D and put it on C:/backupimage.img. You'd then have a line to copy it to the network share, for example..

copy C:\backupimage.img //server/backups/backup.img

and then delete the old file...

del C:/backupimage.img

But you need to choose a backup program first, and set up your network to allow you to write files to your other machine.

 

>First you'll need to choose an imaging software... which can be found in HERE ...

What does WinBack get me over simply using PCZIP and making an zip file of everything, starting in the root directory?
Granted, it's not an disk image, but if the goal is catastrophic backup, creating a zip file of the drive, then copying it over the network to the archival machine is a simple way to do it.

I thought that there might be a more sophisticated way of doing it, but perhaps not.

Thanks for the input. Quick and dirty might be the way to go.