[SLUG] Backup

[Martin Webb]

john at johnallsopp.co.uk wrote:
>>> 1) I want a system that backs up to DVD
>> You and your bloody backups ;)
> 
> Well, I still haven't actually done one, and I find it incredible that
> it's so difficult. There's nothing in my Fedora menu that says
> 'backup', so I just want to know how other people manage it.
> 
> I'm moaning, as usual, about Linux usability.
> 
>>> 2) DAR seems not to interface with the DVD drive at all.
>> Does this surprise you? You need clever things like mkisofs and
>> cdrecord to write to dvds... or use something cleverer than DAR to
>> write it on the fly?
> 
> In some ways yes, but I hear what you're saying. What's a backup
> system if it doesn't write to backup media? But obviously unix
> tradition breaks things up into single tasks. kdar isn't listed in the
> repositories I have registered.
> 
>>> I'm expecting
>>> to be able to point DAR to, for instance, /mnt/CD, but having put a
>>> DVD disc in the drive, and seen it pop up on the desktop, I can't
>>> for
>>> the life of me work out where it's mounted .. any clues?
>> Erm, does "mount" give you any clues?
> 
> I posted this in response to Martin
> 
>>> 4) Online resources suggest DAR is something that will max my CPU
>>> and
>>> render my PC useless while operating. You may have read my previous
>>> posts about that. I'd rather not. Do we know a way to control that?
>> This all depends on a number of things. Clearly your hard disk is
>> going to be busy - I presume you've accepted that fact? As for the CPU
>> thingy then it depends a bit on what type of backup you're doing - if
>> incremental/diff then I'm not sure what its diff algorithm is, I'm not
>> sure about that. Then you have a couple of other options - you can
>> compress the files and also encrypt them. If you choose to do neither
>> of these and just store the files then cpu usage shouldn't be too bad.
>> These options are the dar options file.
> 
> Aye, CPU usage does all seem to come down to how much compression I
> want, I see that. I'm still mooching around for a way to control any
> process to stop it maxing out the CPU. It just seems like something
> linux would definitely provide.
> 
>> Hope that helps.
>> Steve O
> 
> It's all good, thanks :-)


Just so you can say "rubbish, that's not what I'm talking about at all", 
which will be a clue to me, and a step forward, I  back up all my 
important files to DVD every time I come up home.  When I leave Whitby I 
do the same for the Whitby Fedora rig.  That way I have constant access 
to the files that are on both the London and the Whitby PCs.

I drop a DVD-R into the drive, start K3b and its gui, drag and drop the 
directories I want on the DVD and (given settings and adjustments long 
established and known by experience to be optimal) press the burn 
button.  Ten minutes later I have a labelled DVD-R with all requisite 
files, backups, etc.  This has worked very well.

I've tried DVD-RW, but find that, unless they are v expensive discs, 
they either aren't reliable or don't last very long.  I also tried 7GB 
DVD-R dual layer, for films.  They sort of worked, but not quite well 
enough.  Presumably that will improve, unless they are abandoned for the 
new formats.

Whilst the burn is in progress, yes the cpu is pretty busy.  That's OK. 
  I go and have a cup of tea.

Martin