On Sat, 2002-10-19 at 15:06, Michael Holt wrote: > I've also found that cd/rw's can be a risk - they do on a occasion, > corrupt information. I have proof of that sitting on my desk. The > problem is that you don't know ahead of time when that's going to happen, > so I would make sure to use a more proven back up media on regular > occasions (maybe tape) if you have something you really don't want to > lose. > > mike
Opps forgot the verifying stage - very important in backups - always verify - never assume. I make an image then verify that against the burn. This checks for when the toc gets written and the information is not there. I had burner where the lubrication on the guide failed and before it crapped out gave me dozens of CDRs with subtle errors (a file or two). That is when I learned to always verify. Found a program on Windoze which would do sophisticated checksums tests and I did them against my burns. Another program, 'CDR Diagnostics' does low level checks. Yes, it can retrieve information from a CDR that normally cannot be read. Have not come across anything like that for *nix. As for durability, I am still surprised at the cheapo CDRW I have been using for over two (three?) years now and still working. I use better quality CDRW for my /home directory thou. As for method depends on the level of redundancy you want and how paranoid you are, no? This method is simple and works for me. I keep my /home under 800 Megs so I can simply burn a copy. This allows me to retrieve a given file by reading it off the backup CD. Something not that easy to do with tape. Not to mention it eliminates the additional expense of using tape. Now of course this is impractical once you get past a few CDs. Nor does it work for backing up the contents of a 20 Gig drive. As for archiving? I make two copies, both verified, just in case. Gabriel
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