Back up strategies

Not my backup strategy, but what i would do if i had the resources.

RAID-1 to store all the data while it is being worked on.

Nightly backup of RAID-1 to a RAID-5(or even better RAID-6).

Nightly copy the RAID-5(6) to another computer.

Weekly copy the RAID-5(6) to offsite storage.
 
a_unique_person said:
Basics of backing up (IMHO).

1) Offsite copies, covered
2) Redundancy, covered.
3) Frequency, covered.
4) Historical, not covered.
5) Testing, not covered.
6) Versioning, not covered.
A more comprehensive plan would involved dual copies every night, one offsite, one onsite, but in your case I don't think it's worth the effort.


Some people like to have a history that spans a year, or more, for example. This covers you if you delete a file, and are not aware of the fact for a year or so. That is, you back up your data every night, but if you delete a file, and aren't aware of the fact, you will not be backing it up any longer. This also gives you a history for a file that might be changed over time.
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At a previous job, where I was in actual charge of writing (and implementing) backup policies, we took nightly full backups of "all essential files" (source code, database dumps, configuration). Each week, we kept the last tape for the following month. Each month, we kept the last "kept week" tape for one year. The last backup tape for each year was kept indefinitely. All tapes that were kept were labelled and carried to a safety deposit box at a nearby bank.

Each backup included, as the last file backed up, a file containing a line created as part of the start-up for the backup script. After the backup was finished, this file was then restored. Not a FULL test of the backup, but with the tape format used, a decent indication that the tape was readable.
 
stormer said:
I have my hard disk in two partitions. The data (basically "my documents") is saved to the second partition. Every month I burn everything there to DVD. In addition, things like the mail folder, faxes, favorites all sit in the second partition. Each DVD backup has all the information I need in a complete system crash.
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I have basically set up the same thing without the partition (basically just a directory on the root drive that where I direct all my data).

stormer said:
I hate installing Windows, the drivers, the updates, the patches, the software. What I use is BartPE with the plugin DriveImage XML. This makes a complete image of the hard disk partition.
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I'm going to try Symantec's LiveState Recovery out this weekend by trying to do a full restore just to give it a try. *crosses fingers*
 
I tried to do a back up but it keeps telling me NO! As the files are in use. How on earth do you back up the main C drive when your using it?

My hardrive has been cut into 3 parts, C,D and E(recovery). Am I supposed to enter the other drives to back up the C? If so how?
 
Corpse_cruncher, it would really help if you provide more information on the software you are using and the procedure you are going through.
 
What works for me

Windows XP and Nero backup cannot back up the entire drive if the files are being used (by Windows) This method of backup will only be useful if you are backing up your data files.

If you were to have a complete hard drive failure, you will have to reinstall windows, then restore your data using the previous backup utility. You will not get past reinstalling windows, that is, using the backup files from DVD to magically restore your hard disk.

I hope someone will correct me if I am wrong, but so far Windows backup or Nero has not been useful as a complete restore for me.

Now you will be asking "so what works for me?" Well, I cannot answer that unfortunately. I can only say that the method I posted previously works for me. This is starting off with backing up all my data files to DVD (kind of like what you do), and then making an image of the "c:" drive.

In the event of a failure, I first restore the "c:" image, then copy all my data (from DVD) back to the hard disk.
 
Dark Jaguar said:
My backup strategy is "hope nothing bad happens". I just don't have the money to spend on a backup hard drive or disks or something.
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Let me quote a piece of advice given to me by a computer professional:

"There are only two kinds of computer user: those who have never suffered a disk failure, and those who will at some time suffer a disk failure."

As it happens, the computer professional who said that is my son. But not everything he says is nonsense.
 
Okay, I've finally got an insane set up that I'm comfortable with.

I'm running Symantec LiveState Recovery. With it, I'm doing full system back up images every Wednesday to an external hard drive. Daily, I'm doing incremental back ups with three times a day and consolidated at the end of the day. In each case, I'm having it verify the back up each time.

I'm also running Windows' back up program. With it, I'm doing a full system back up to the same external hard drive every Friday.

I'm also running SyncToy that only backs up my data files and just does a straight copy with no compression. With it, I've got 5 seperate daily backup jobs (one for every day of the week) that runs at the end of the day. I also have it running a sync to my iPod every half hour.

I can go back in time as far as 5 working days or as close as the nearest half hour.

The external hard drive stays at the office 24/7. The laptop comes home with me at night and I usually don't take it anywhere else. The iPod stays with me nearly at all times.

a_unique_person said:
Basics of backing up (IMHO).

1) Offsite copies, covered
2) Redundancy, covered.
3) Frequency, covered.
4) Historical, not covered.
5) Testing, not covered.
6) Versioning, not covered.
Click to expand...

1) and 2), I understand. What is the difference between 3) through 6) and have I now met them?
 
Remember to test recovering from backup every so often. Nothing worse than backing up religiously for years only to find that none of your backups can be successfully restored from. (yes, speaking from experience)
 
And do that on a different computer. Otherwise you find that you have wrecked your own computer and have no backups.

And that was from playing safe.
 
Anyone looking for an excellent and cheap offsite backup solution I highly recommend Amazon's S3 service.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/browse.html?node=16427261

Combine it with Jungle Disk and your favorite backup solution and I don't think it can be beat.

http://www.jungledisk.com/

Basically I can backup my entire 20GB of (legal) music for $36 a year (plus $4 to upload it). I don't have to worry about DVD rot or bad discs or the time spent putting that much stuff on DVD's.

My daily backups from march 2006 to july 2006 totaled about 70 GB of data (a full backup in march and daily incrementals thru july). That would be under $100 a year to store. Do some selective purging on a quarterly basis and I could probably keep it around $20 a year for a decent set of offsite backups.
 
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