Dean Kukral
Dept. of Mathematics and Statistics
Wichita State University
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-----Original Message-----
From: Al Anger <[log in to unmask]>
Subject: Re: [PCBUILD] Wonderful backup


>In our last episode
>Arnie Robuck <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
>>I think you are going way to far right for what you want to do. The
>>quickest, easiest and cheapest way to a complete backup of your system is
to
>>use a tape.
>
>Sorry, I have to disagree with that entire statement.  Tape is slower
>than copying to another drive. The restore is -way- slower and much more
>work. First you need to reinstall the OS, then the backup. Plus I don't
>fully trust the tape medium.
>


<snip out many good points>

>Al Anger
>

I got in late in this discussion, but I know a little about backups
and would like to share it with the list.  (It may not be 100%
on-topic, but it may save someone's rear end some day.)


Everyone's backup needs are different and so different systems are
needed for different situations.  For a single user on a single
computer doing non-essential work, copying to a disk, especially
a removable disk, may work very well.

In a development environment where things are constanly changing,
it is often better to have incremental backups if the operating system
and/or backup software will support it.  Such a backup system may
have nightly incremental backups and weekly full backups, for
example.  Even monthly backups to be put in long-term storage.

Tape (which can run in the middle of the night) is the cheapest
and most convenient mechanism for such backups (although
the initial hardware investment may be high.)

If someone trashes a file, then that file can be retrieved through
the incremental backup.  It happens from time to time that
a file gets trashed, but it is not recognized until some time
later.  Then, one can go back to earlier tapes and retrieve
that file.  (If you have just one disk to back up to, you may
unwittingly over-write the good copy.)

When deciding what backup system you need, you need
to consider what may go wrong and how much it will hurt
you if it does.  Then make an intelligent decision based
on your thinking.

I back up almost nothing, since almost everything I
have is replaceable.  I make floppy copies of the few
things I need to back up.  But I am just a guy playing
silly games on his pc.  A while back an English prof.
lost a large amount of work when his hard drive
crashed (I guess that he thought that computers
never broke).  He would have gladly sprung for
a scsi  tape player if he had only known.....

HTH

Dean