Re: [sheflug] Backups and Instant messaging

[Kim Wall <kim [at] xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Simon Brown wrote:

>  What do you all  
> actually use to backup your data and does it work well?

I have a script running daily on our fileserver (all data we actually 
care about is stored in /home on there) that uses rsync to maintain a 
set of rotating backups on a second disk  (have a look at 
http://www.mikerubel.org/computers/rsync_snapshots/ for some ideas).  I 
used to use RAID, but switched to this as for me human error is as 
likely a cause of data loss as disk failure.  It's also incredibly 
useful to be able to access a file as it was two weeks ago simply by 
changing to another directory.

I also do monthly copies of the latest snapshot (again using rsync) to a 
USB2 removable drive which lives on a shelf, and have a few optical 
disks containing the really important stuff stored at a friends house.

Hard disks do seem to be the least-effort backup medium for general 
purpose use these days.  I suppose if you're dealing with large numbers 
of photographs, digital audio files, astronomy data or whatever, then 
maintaining a library of DVDs would be relatively viable, as you would 
presumably be able to logically split the data across discs according to 
time, event etc.  I'd be wary of anything that backed up to a set of 
removable media where you need the whole set to restore one file.


Kim.

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