Re: Backups - how do you do them?

["Tim Fletcher" <timfletcher@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

I will prefix my response by saying that I don't really have any
"mission
critical" data that needs real time backup.

That said, as you can buy a 1Tb LaCie drive USB2/1394 drive for c.£500 from
Ebay - or just put some IDE disks in a chassis and FileSyncForce costs
about
$35.  The important thing isn't HOW you do it but THAT YOU DO IT!  The most
likely source of grief is drive failure, Virus & theft - followed by
rarer
occurrences like fire & pestilence.  Look at the potential areas of
data
loss (and their consequences) and design a strategy to take account of
them.
I know a couple of guys who operate a reciprocal psuedo-real-time mirror
backup of each other's data via virtual FTP - it is an elegant solution,
but
I don't know if I could be bothered.

Personally I have a 1394/USB drive installed in a fire safe and permanantly
connected to the network.  FileSyncForce handles the backups.   It works
for
me.  I compromised the performance of the fire safe by drilling the holes
for the drive cable, but if the conflagration was so great as to take out
the server and the fire safe I guess I will have more on my mind than that
data - I periodically burn a set of backup DVDs and stick them in my Mums
bureau when I visit - each time I do it I know that it's my absolute
fallabck situation. God help me if she ever got a DVD reader for her PC!!!

Sort out a backup strategy. Make it automatic. Move on to worrying about
something else.

My two cents

Tim.