[NSRCA-discussion] Marty

[Jay Marshall]

As I'm sure Tom and Marty will agree, it's not if it will fail, but when.
RAID is always the first choice. An external backup the second. I toy with
fate somewhat in that I only backup once a week on my home system. Business
systems get backed up nightly to tape.

Jay Marshall

-----Original Message-----
From: nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org
[mailto:nsrca-discussion-bounces at lists.nsrca.org] On Behalf Of Tom Simes
Sent: Monday, February 16, 2009 4:50 PM
To: General pattern discussion
Subject: Re: [NSRCA-discussion] Marty

Martin X. Moleski, SJ wrote:
> J N Hiller wrote:
> 
>> I am backing up the 'C' drive regularly to a second hard drive. If the C
>> drive fails will my computer start from the second drive?
> 
> It depends on how you're doing the backup.

Drives fail, so plan on it.

On the systems I manage (including this list server), I run at least 
mirrored (RAID 1) internal drives to help ease recovery from a drive 
failure.  Drive space is cheap and this is a simple way to make 
recovery more convenient (just swap in a new drive and rebuild the 
mirror).  HOWEVER, RAID IS NOT A BACKUP SCHEME:

http://remote-backup.com/kb/the-autopsy-of-journalspacecom/

For Unix/Linux backups I rely on nightly rsync across the network to 
other servers.  For Windows I use Acronis True Image to image the 
drive periodically to external USB or Firewire drives.  I've used 
Ghost in the past and recently tried Clonezilla, but Acronis is the 
one I trust with pictures and videos of my daughters childhood. 
Backup often and in many places...

The procedure is simple and  intuitive, and unlike some other backup 
solutions, you can restore (or migrate from a smaller disk or 
different computer) straight from bare metal.  In other words, there's 
no need to install a base OS and then install the backup software 
before you restore.  All you need is the bootable Acronis CD and the 
media containing your backups.

http://www.acronis.com/

They have a free download if you want to give it a try.

-- 
Tom

======================================================================
    "Z-80 system stack overflow.  Shut 'er down Scotty, the system's
          sucking mud" - Error message on TRS 80 Model-16B

Tom Simes                                       simestd at netexpress.com
======================================================================
_______________________________________________
NSRCA-discussion mailing list
NSRCA-discussion at lists.nsrca.org
http://lists.nsrca.org/mailman/listinfo/nsrca-discussion