[pmmail-list] Backup Strategy was Digest (01/20/2003 09:01) (#2003-430)

[Sorin Srbu]

On Tue, 21 Jan 2003 11:35:22 +1100 (EDT), John Angelico wrote:

>>Date: Mon, 20 Jan 2003 08:48:22 +0100
>>From: "Sorin Srbu" <sorin@orgfarm.uu.se>
>>Subject: Re: [pmmail-list] Please, I need advice.  2nd request (was Folders changed nests)
>
>
>>>And - unless someone just has to do so, it is not necessary to point
>>>out that I should have had a *current* backup which unfortunately I did
>>>not have.
>>
>>Does *anybody* have a good backup-discipline at home? I think
>>not... 8-)
>
>Good backup strategy is usually derived from experience with a bad backup
>strategy <g>

Say what...?? Bad experiences? 8-)

>I believe a good backup strategy could be built on a few key points:
>1. minimal backup time and effort 
>to help discourage the thought "ah, leave it for a day/week"
>
>2. selective recovery of critical data
>to cope with the need to recover single files as well as a whole system
>
>3. reliable long-term media
>Zip, Jazz, MO, CD-R. 
>Sorry, I am anti-tape (please don't argue - it's a religious problem<g>)
>
>4. backup cycle related to time-cycle of the data
>If your data changes daily, then backup daily! 
>Build a backup cycle of 
>a) changed data only on a daily basis (including INI/Register files,
>Desktop, Startup folder, Favourites/Bookmarks and similar)
>Keep a full week's set of backup media (Mon, Tues, etc) so you can recover
>from up to a week ago 
>b) do a full data backup say weekly and keep at least two sets (fortnight
>or more recovery ability)
>c) full op system backup less often eg quarterly
>Alternatively if you use CD-R, try to archive entire your system regularly.
>Then label it with the full date! 
>
>Have printed *on paper* your recovery strategy for your entire system. Keep
>it with licenses, registration keys/codes etc away from your machine, and
>with printed instructions for your Desktop recovery program, OS
>installation, special driver disks etc
>Have a simple restore strategy for single files.
>
>Archive important data (eg. accounting, WP, engineering drawings, whatever
>is your main line of business) WITH the program that uses it. No point
>successfully recovering the data only to discover you don't have the
>correct version of the program (and OS) to access it.

I had a hp colorado ide which I used while I ran warp4 at home,
after switching to win2k (don't ask why...) it never again worked
properly. I'm however looking into getting a new better one, or
start taking ghosting to it's limits. Pls note that I speak of
backup at home. I do not see the need for such a detailed
backup-strategy as mentioned above, since I use a client/server-lan
at home, with all user files on a server that are more or less
regularly copied to a different hd on the server. However client
ghosting once or twice a minth, and possibly the server too, might
turn out to be a good idea though. THat or taping it all on a
regular basis. Both methods have advantages and disadvantages...


BW,

Sorin

# Sorin Srbu, Systems Engineer		Web: http://www.farmaci.uu.se
# Dept of Medicinal Chemistry,		Phone: +46-18-4714482 >> 5 signals >> GSM
# Div of Org Pharm Chem,			Mobile Phone: +46-701-718023
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#
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