First as always make sure your software is up to date. All upgrades for this unit up to 2.5.9 are free on americandynamics.net. versions previous to this are buggy. Also remember you are running on win98 that is working 24/7 with no reboots. The intelex database is very fragile (as are most video databases of this size) loss of power without a UPS is almost sure to corrupt the database and when the unit returns to that point it can and sometimes does STOP which forces a reset. They also have a poor power supply, a good upgrade would not cost much but will help. The hardrives they use are also somewhat of a problem (they tend to fail, alot). This of course will corrupt the database as well. even if you replace just that drive intellex does not like it. That gets us to the service dept. Depends on where you live but you could get great service or a part swapper. Most techs do not know how to actually work on these units and so they replace them. You can service this unit yourself with very little knowledge but techs are rarely trained and asked to get the job done in an hour or less. If you choose to service it yourself you will be happier and wealthier. Intellex is only a PC with a video capture card made by AD. If you want more info on this option just ask.
Now to answer your question. No there is not a good way to back up the database. And the bigger the database the more likely it is to be corrupted.
So you have a choice. Stay with Intellex and try to solve the corruption problems or choose a system that allows you to remove and add drives at will. Then you can save video by storing drives. rather than a large database.
The ESM is also a part of the problem. Way too hot. This causes problems with the drives.
I am curious - why 1 year?