[Gllug] the tao of backups...

[itsbruce at uklinux.net]

On Mon, Sep 23, 2002 at 10:37:54AM +0100, John Winters wrote:
> I'd agree though that unless you're strapped for space on your backup
> medium or time in your backup window there's no point in not backing up
> everything.  You don't have to *restore* everything, but one of the
> fastest ways to get back up and running after a disc failure is to
> install a new hard disc, boot with a floppy or CD, partition and format
> the new HD, restore everything and then re-install your bootloader.

Absolutely.  And if you use a backup application that does intelligent
incremental backups, like Amanda, you can have a full backup of your
system on your tape set without having to copy the entire lot each run.

I'd recommend supplementing your usual tape backups with an occasional
(every one, two or three months) Mondo Rescue backup.  Mondo Rescue
lets you create a bootable snapshot of part or all of your system (space
allowing).  If you have a CD-RW drive, for example, you can create a
bootable CD which will boot and restore the snapshot.  That would get you
back and running quickly and you can then use your tape backups to bring
the system fully up to date.

http://www.microwerks.net/~hugo/

This is not overkill for a home system.  Even people who do no complex
computing work at home tend have a huge amount of important information,
contact details and commercial data stored only on their PC.  It's often
just as important to have that particular application with that precise
version and configuration as it is to have the data it reads or
generates.

-- 
Bruce

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