Proposal for "backup your data day"

[spindr]

Do you know where your data is?
Are you sure it'll be there tomorrow?
Is it time to make a backup?

Yes, I thought I knew all the answers to the questions above -- and then discovered how much difference a working hard drive makes.

Luckily, I've got about 98% of all my data back (and 100% of the good stuff) -- managed to coax the ailing drive to let me copy the data. Anyway, now I have a sparkling new pair of hard drives with disk mirroring, so hopefully should be less of a problem in the future.

So, if you're being complacent about backups -- and can't remember the last time you saved everything, then maybe today might be a good day to do it -- and it might save you some grief tomorrow

This was a public service anouncement.
SpinDr.

[Divissima]

Originally Posted by spindr

This was a public service anouncement.
SpinDr.

Ooooh, I just love it when you come over all official-sounding
Sound advice.

[TheTramp]

I lost a hard drive once. With no backup of it at all

I now have my laptop and desktop networked, and have copies of all the important stuff on both.

The really important stuff, I also email as attachments to my hotmail account, where it just sits on the off chance that both my hard drives will simultaneously crash one day.

[Clive Long]

Originally Posted by TheTramp

<< cut >>

I now have my laptop and desktop networked, and have copies of all the important stuff on both.

The really important stuff, I also email as attachments to my hotmail account, where it just sits on the off chance that both my hard drives will simultaneously crash one day.

Yep I do the same - so if Trampy does it I must be doing something right. However, can be a nightmare to know which is "current" if you aren't organised. I have started using an old donkey of a mchine as a Linux / Samba server and it presents itself as an offline folder to Windows. Seems to be stable and I don't have to remember to copy the data - synchronize does it whenever both machines are on.

I have lost loads of data in the past as a result of my stuff-ups on PCs (and my ambition was to repair TVs ????)

[philsmove]

Do just back up make sure you can restore it

Imagine going home and PC is completely missing

Will another computer read your back
can you rember your hotmail pass word

[Dreadful Scathe]

Originally Posted by froggyphil

make sure you can restore it

this is a good point. reminds me of a company i came across once - they backed up masses of data every week without trying the backups. 6 months later everything blows up and its discovered the backups are mostly rubbish because the backup shell script had a missing character.

oh how l laughed, out of earshot

[Bangers & Mash]

Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe

this is a good point. reminds me of a company i came across once - they backed up masses of data every week without trying the backups. 6 months later everything blows up and its discovered the backups are mostly rubbish because the backup shell script had a missing character.

oh how l laughed, out of earshot

hmm. sounds familiar, I came across one that photocopied 8.25" floppies, thinking that was a backup, and another that posted its 3.5" floppy backup to us stapled to a letter.

As for me, I have been backing up on cd, dvd, and now external hard drives for over 10 years.

ultimately, if it's sensitive or important I prefer cd or dvd because if the data is infected with viruses, once it is written I cannot be any further modified.

A couple of us got together 3 years ago and developed a product that provided off-site backups to a series of external servers using encryption and compression before storing it.

[bigdjiver]

Never mind the HD, how do I back-up me?

[Bangers & Mash]

Originally Posted by bigdjiver

Never mind the HD, how do I back-up me?

Simple matter of genetics dear boy! It all starts with a floppy...

[philsmove]

an interesting site with Mr J cleese

http://backuptrauma.com/

[bigdjiver]

Originally Posted by Bangers & Mash

Simple matter of genetics dear boy! It all starts with a floppy...

My generation had 8* floppies ...

[Bangers & Mash]

Originally Posted by bigdjiver

My generation had 8* floppies ...

Hence the handle huh? bigdjiver

Methinks you need to think out of the box on this one tho'

Think

1. capacity
2. reliability
3. endurability
4. re-usability (8" is no good to you if you can only use it a couple of times)
5. portability

Perhaps this is a separate thread for the girls

[baldrick]

Originally Posted by Clive Long

I have started using an old donkey of a mchine as a Linux / Samba server

Any advice for a linux virgin on where/how to start to do this? I'm prepared to buy books, but I believe software may well be free. I have the old PC to do it with, but don't know which bits to add together to get the end result. Advice will be appeciated.

[Bangers & Mash]

Originally Posted by baldrick

Any advice for a linux virgin on where/how to start to do this? I'm prepared to buy books, but I believe software may well be free. I have the old PC to do it with, but don't know which bits to add together to get the end result. Advice will be appeciated.

Before buying any books, try downloading emule and searching for linux books using that.

All your software should be free.

[Dreadful Scathe]

Originally Posted by Bangers & Mash

hmm. sounds familiar, I came across one that photocopied 8.25" floppies, thinking that was a backup, and another that posted its 3.5" floppy backup to us stapled to a letter.

As for me, I have been backing up on cd, dvd, and now external hard drives for over 10 years.

Ive never seen an 8.25" disk.
Ive never seen a 3.5" that you could staple through.

and if you've been backing up to DVD for 10 years the conspiracies are all true - they ARE holding technology back from us...the bastards !


baldrick: start with an easy intall linux like Mandrake

[Bangers & Mash]

Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe

Ive never seen an 8.25" disk.
Ive never seen a 3.5" that you could staple through.

and if you've been backing up to DVD for 10 years the conspiracies are all true - they ARE holding technology back from us...the bastards !


baldrick: start with an easy intall linux like Mandrake

my first cd burner was scsi I, bought about 10 years ago and cost me £850.00 and it had a success rate of about 1 in 8 cds.

my latest acquistion was a dual layer usb2 external dvd writer and cost me 120 euros (£85.00).

Having said that, nowadays I back up onto external hard drives in general and only to dvd for really important stuff.

Just seen my first 1terrabyte usb drive in the shops over here for general public. told one of the lads at IBM about it. His question - usb1 or usb2?
My answer: what do you think!

[Bangers & Mash]

Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe

Ive never seen an 8.25" disk.
Ive never seen a 3.5" that you could staple through.

and if you've been backing up to DVD for 10 years the conspiracies are all true - they ARE holding technology back from us...the bastards !


baldrick: start with an easy intall linux like Mandrake

good point - it was 5.25" floppies that were stapled, but you knew what I meant...

[baldrick]

Originally Posted by Bangers & Mash

good point - it was 5.25" floppies that were stapled, but you knew what I meant...

Whats a floppy disk?

[David Bailey]

Originally Posted by Dreadful Scathe

and if you've been backing up to DVD for 10 years the conspiracies are all true - they ARE holding technology back from us...the bastards !

I was working in a Java-oriented company in '99, and we got a couple of CVs sent in by people who claimed to have 10 years of Java experience. In 1999...

Perhaps they too were part of The Conspiracy?

[Bangers & Mash]

Originally Posted by DavidJames

I was working in a Java-oriented company in '99, and we got a couple of CVs sent in by people who claimed to have 10 years of Java experience. In 1999...

Perhaps they too were part of The Conspiracy?

no, that'll be just the agency muppets asking for 10 years experience even tho it had only just come out.