On Wed, Jan 14, 2009 at 05:22:47PM EST, Mike McCarty wrote: > Richard Hector wrote:
[...] > >That's obviously true in an ideal sense. But even the local external > >disk (or even internal disk) is vastly superior to having none at all > >... > > It's just true in all senses. > > I don't disagree that having a second copy is better than none. > However, using a second copy directly connected to the main machine on > the same site does not satisfy my definition of "backup". > > As in all things, everyone has his own criteria. Also, there is always > the trade off between security and cost. However, my minimal criteria > are > > (1) Off site storage; if my house burns down, then my data are still > safe (my backup is 13 miles from my house, so an atom bomb will > probably destroy all copies) .. and yourself as well .. should you survive .. you would probably have other worries. :-) > (2) Non volatile storage > > (3) At least three copies rotated > > (4) Verified (once) by rebuilding the system from scratch using wiped > hardware. A nice safe way to test your full backup is when you decide to upgrade your HDD. Much more likely to evidence any data loss problems than restoring blindly to a sacrificial machine .. and you only need to switch HDD's to be back where you were. Conversely, the necessity of having to test your backup is a rather good excuse--if youre on a budget & you need one.. to acquire that much bigger, faster, etc. piece of hardware that you fancy. > Any alternate storage scheme has to be evaluated based on one's > own criteria. I'm merely trying to get people to think about > what their criteria really are. If a lightning strike wiping > out all copies of your data is acceptable to you, then I'm not > going to argue or criticize. > > For me, monthly backup to DVDs with weekly incrementals to CDs > with off site storage works, and is cheap both in time and > money. I keep the most recent copy on my hard drive (in case > of accidental erasure) as well as off site. That's pretty much my setup .. an online version so I can restore a lost file on a Sunday morning without having to wait till my bank opens on Monday .. and a crate of DVD's in my safe so I still have something if I get frustrated to the point of taking a sledgehammer to my computer and peripherals. > Which reminds me, it's time for my monthly :-) Aaah .. now, _that's_ not good .. your backups should be automated and so you don't have to have to have something _remind_ you it's time for your monthly. What if you had not read Mr. Hector's post above? Thanks, CJ -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to debian-user-requ...@lists.debian.org with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact listmas...@lists.debian.org