RE: Re: Will I ever learn !! - doing backups...

["Mick Furlong" <hiltoneltd@xxxxxxx>]

Lee

your back up methodology won't account for timed virus attacks...e.g. you
do
a back up of a system that has a time delayed virus which then kicks in.

To be honest none of the methods are 100% effective. The only truly secure
system is one which is never switched on ;)

My view is you do a basic system build and then back up the system to your
choice of back up device.

You then either have the install discs or separate back ups of every
application you ever add. Hell if they are downloaded you can either
download again or burn to CD...cds are cheap.

For data you do incremental back ups of your data files. Even if these are
infected you can check/disinfect them when you reload them.

The back up method you use really depends on your pocket, CDRs are nice and
cheap and are fairly good for archival purposes.

You are right about offsiting your backups! If they sit next to the PC and
the house burns to the ground you don't have much of a backup!

A while back I suggested that those of us with high speed links could
provide reciprocal offsite back up...didn't get much interest...maybe now
that more people have broadband this would be of more interest.

BTW My backup regime is as bad as anyone's except for work for my clients
which is heavily backed up as I like to get paid ;)


Regards
Mick



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Lee Varga [mailto:lee@xxxxxxx]
> Sent: 09 March 2002 01:16
> To: ukha_d@xxxxxxx
> Subject: RE: [ukha_d] Re: Will I ever learn !! - doing backups...
>
>
>
> >Spend a little more and go for a RAID (mirror) system (or upgrade
to one)
> >since at least this provides a decent level of fault protection
and gets
> you
> >up and running after system failure in a small amount of time with
very
> >little effort towards the backup on your part.
>
> Raid isn't any use if you get hit by a virus!
>
> >If you have the cash, invest in a multi tape system then you can
have an
> >"automated" tape changer for streamed tape backup. You
then just have the
> >system constantly dumping itself to tape so the potential loss is
down to
> >hours or even minutes at the expense of restore time. But unless
you are
> >really unlucky and lose both (or more depending on your chosen
> >configuration) hard drives in hardware raid, chances are you
> wouldn't need
> >the restore from tape anyway.
>
> Hmmm, nice. But a bit expensive.
>
> >For a budget system, only use hard drives that are reasonably
small. This
> >will force you to dump files to CDR or similar in order to
maintain a
> >reasonable amount of free space. By ignoring the OS and
> applications since
> >the chances are you would have reinstall abilities, smaller disks
would
> then
> >mean that most of your long term (rarely used but you do not wish
to
> delete)
> >data is backed up to conserve disk space, leaving only the smaller
amount
> of
> >current files requiring supervised backup.
>
> Not enough space :), and fiddling with the server in the cupboard is a
> pain...
>
> My solution, a spare 40Gb harddrive (£68) and a drive caddy
(£12). Once a
> week, stick the backup drive in the server, and do a full backup,
> then yank
> it out again. Then occasionally (but admittedly not yet : ) stick the
> backup drive in the main machine and do a load of CDRs that will be
stored
> offsite. Just in case.
>
> >To bring this completely on topic... have your HA system
> announce loudly at
> >4am that you have not backed up for a month and if HA can't
> persuade you to
> >do it, SWMBO will on threat of the PC being used for target
practice. :)
>
> Now there's a thought, but maybe not 4am...
>
> Lee
>
>
>
>
> For more information: http://www.automatedhome.co.uk
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