Don't Trust External Hard Drives!

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Rod said:
Get ****ed!!


Mindless pig ignorant hysterical hyperventilation.
Click to expand...
I might have put it more nicely...but I've got to agree. What a stupid
article.

I've never lost data from a hard drive except when it was my own fault,
but I've had data vanish from all the removable media types mentioned.
 
I might have put it more nicely...but I've got to agree. What a
stupid article.

I've never lost data from a hard drive except when it was my own
fault, but I've had data vanish from all the removable media types
mentioned.
Click to expand...

Ditto.

I set up systems to back up to at least 2 hard drives, preferably 1 internal
and 1 external. They are alternated so a differential backup goes to
backup disk #1 followed by a full backup to backup disk #2. The next night
it first does a differential to #2 and then a full backup to #1. So both
are always up-to-date and it only takes about 10% longer than a single full
backup.

When a tape drive is available I set NTBackup to back up to the tape in copy
mode (like full backup mode but it doesn't clear the archive flags). I
supplement that with a full backup to 1 or more disks on weekends, and
differential backup to disk every weeknight just before the copy backup to
tape.
 
Tom Del Rosso said:
I set up systems to back up to at least 2 hard
drives, preferably 1 internal and 1 external.
Click to expand...

I do it to two internal drives, on different machines on the lan.

And the irreplaceable stuff goes onto DVDs and offsite as well.
The volume is low enough that a single DVD works fine.
They are alternated so a differential backup goes to backup
disk #1 followed by a full backup to backup disk #2. The next
night it first does a differential to #2 and then a full backup to #1.
So both are always up-to-date and it only takes about 10%
longer than a single full backup.
Click to expand...
When a tape drive is available I set NTBackup to back up to the tape
in copy mode (like full backup mode but it doesn't clear the archive
flags). I supplement that with a full backup to 1 or more disks on
weekends, and differential backup to disk every weeknight just before
the copy backup to tape.
Click to expand...

Tapes have passed their useby data for personal desktop backup
now. External hard drives make a lot more sense for that now.
 
Rod Speed said:
I do it to two internal drives, on different machines on the lan.

And the irreplaceable stuff goes onto DVDs and offsite as well.
The volume is low enough that a single DVD works fine.
Click to expand...

My backup script also runs XXcopy with the /BB and the /DB#n switches. The
first copies files that do not already exist in the destination, and the
second includes only files that have not been modified since n days ago. So
it automatically archives anything not changed in n days. Then I can burn
the archive folder to DVDs without sorting it manually.

Tapes have passed their useby data for personal desktop backup
now. External hard drives make a lot more sense for that now.
Click to expand...

Yeah but I'm talking about small LANs with one server. They usually don't
have a tape drive because it costs as much as the rest of the server by
itself, and I don't recommend it because I know people won't take care of
the tapes every day anyway. I see that tape is still preferred in the
enterprise though.
 
My backup script also runs XXcopy with the /BB and the /DB#n
switches. The first copies files that do not already exist in the
destination, and the second includes only files that have not been
modified since n days ago. So it automatically archives anything not
changed in n days. Then I can burn the archive folder to DVDs
without sorting it manually.
Click to expand...

XXcopy is too slow for me. I have the irreplacable files in a single
directory tree and just archive that tree and write it to DVD.
Yeah but I'm talking about small LANs with one server.
Click to expand...

So am I.
They usually don't have a tape drive because it costs as much as
the rest of the server by itself, and I don't recommend it because
I know people won't take care of the tapes every day anyway.
Click to expand...

I did in the days when it still made sense.
I see that tape is still preferred in the enterprise though.
Click to expand...

Sure, different animal entirely and external hard drives just arent viable for that.
 
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