[TriLUG] Re: Dieing hard drive?

[Ben Pitzer]

Backups are well and good, and I think that everybody should do them.
However, the problem is that (especially for a 120GB HD) a backup system
with enough capacity is way too expensive.  Seagate has/had an IDE Travan
tape drive for around $120, but that held 40GB max compressed.  That's 3
tapes for a full backup of a 120GB drive.  Now, yes, I can see you saying
that you don't need to backup everything.  And I agree.  However in a drive
that large, the OS probably only takes up about 2GB, say.  Then you have all
of the additional software, almost all of which you can reinstall, yes, I
realize.  But how about the config files?  Data files?  Databases?
Documents?  MP3s, Ogg files, mpegs, pr0n, resumes, email, bookmarks,
contacts, gpg keyrings, desktop settings, etc, etc, etc.?

The fact is that a great deal of this data probably won't change.  But if it
does, then you need to have a backup system with enough capacity to handle
even an incremental backup that is at least half of your drive space.  A
home system won't need this as much, unless you're like me, and constantly
updating, adding services, testing new tools, etc.  But the fact is that to
get a system with that kind of capacity is pretty salty.

Unless some of you know of an inexpensive backup system that is larger than
DVD and Travan tapes.  By inexpensive, I mean less than $500.  The $200 and
under range would be better, but I'm not keeping my hopes up too far.

Regards,
Ben Pitzer

---------------------------------------------

"Those that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
 --Ben Franklin--




> -----Original Message-----
> From: trilug-bounces at trilug.org [mailto:trilug-bounces at trilug.org]On
> Behalf Of Aaron S. Joyner
> Sent: Tuesday, November 30, 2004 9:59 AM
> To: Triangle Linux Users Group discussion list
> Subject: Re: [TriLUG] Re: Dieing hard drive?
>
>
> Lance A. Brown wrote:
>
> >I ran the PowerMax tester.  The short test failed, the long test found
> >errors and I went ahead and let it repair them.  Supposedly the disk
> >passes the tests now, but I'm still leery.
> >
> >I hate not being able to trust my system...
> >
> >--[Lance]
> >
> >
> <rant content=insightful>
> One word.  Over and over.  Backups, backups, backups, backups.  Don't
> trust the system.  Trust your backup and restore process because you've
> tested it, and are confident it works.  Anything less is asking for
> Murphy to ruin your day.
> </rant>
>
> Aaron S. Joyner
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