Backing Up Your Stuff Part 2: A Solution

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So what do you do when you have so much stuff on your computer that ...
... if not ...
to back up the whole thing on aregular basis? You know that you must perform backups (the wo So what do you do when you have so much stuff on your computer that itbecomes difficult, if not impossible, to back up the whole thing on aregular basis? You know that you must perform backups (the world is full ofdangers to your computer and it's valuable data), but it's just becometechnically impracticable simply due to the volume of data.Don't believe for a second that this problem is unique to the home user. Atwork I manage a staff of computer people which is responsible for about 500gigabytes of data.
In fact, we expect our data size to exceed a terabyte(1,000 gigabytes) before too long! Some of my peers now manage sites whichexceed 60 terabytes! Imagine how difficult it is to come up with a backupsolution to databases of those sizes!What I decided to do for my home computer system is simple. I separated mybackup tasks into small, manageable pieces.
These include:being prepared to recover the entire system in the event of a catastrophicfailure.- being able to restore each individual application (program), which isuseful not only in the event of a system failure, but also if theapplication itself becomes unusable.- backing up my own personal data files on a regular basis.- understanding the location of special data such as desktop themes, outlookstationary and ICQ skins so that I can back them up regularly.- Ensuring that all of the websites that I manage are backed up to my ownhard drive regularly.- keeping copies of this data in a second location in the event of acomplete loss (such as fire or earthquake).Before you can start any of these backup procedures, however, you mustfigure out what device are you going to use as a backup media. You haveseveral choices.Floppy disks - In days long past, we all used floppy disks as our backupmedia.
This was in ancient times (5 to 20 years ago), when the volume ofdata was much less. Floppy disks are not a good choice for backups for thefollowing reasons:- They are expensive (when figured on dollars per megabyte)- They are small (slightly over 1 megabyte)- They don't last long (I've found five years is about the maximum amount oftime).ZIP or Jazz disks - You can use a device known as a zip drive to performyour backups.
Zip disks were originally 100 megabytes in size, and havesince been upgraded to 250 megabytes. Jazz drives went from 1 gigabyte to 2gigabytes.
I am sure that larger sizes will be released as the years go by.At first glance, this seems like a real solution to the media problem.However, I have found several problems which make it less than desirable.- I have found that the zip and jazz disks do not last for a long time. Ihave attempted to restore data from zip disks which are over 2 years old andhave discovered an alarming number of data errors.- There have been may reports in the news of problems with these products.In fact, Iomega has been the target of at least one class action suit fordrive failures.- Zip and Jazz drives are extremely slow.- The media (disks) are extraordinarily expensive.Personally, I have had so many problems with these products that I would notrecommend them to anyone - even my worst enemy.
You must be able to dependupon your backups - otherwise, why do them at all?Magnetic Tape - One of the most difficult choices. Magnetic tape certainlyhas the ability to back up large amount of data, but it tends to be slow andrequires specialized software to access.
Out of all of the formats, I wouldbe least likely to recommend magnetic tape.- Very slow- Data errors are common- Specialized backup/restore software required.- Attempting to restore on different tape drives or on different machines islikely to fail or to be extremely difficult.Tapes do not support random access, so restoring single files is a long andpainful process.Writeable CDs - I have found that writeable CDs are by far the best optionto use for backups. When you purchase media, you have the choice of buyingwrite-once disks (very cheap) or read-write disks (much more expensive).
Ilike to mix and match - sometimes write-once is good (when I want to createa permanent archive of my data) and sometimes read-write is what I need. I recommend writeable CD drives for the following reasons:- The media comes in two formats.
Both formats are relatively cheap,especially when purchased in bulk.- The error rate is low.- The media will last a long time.- You can store over 600 megabytes on each disk.- The disks are easy to store. In fact, you can use the same jewel cases andstorage racks that you use for your audio CDs.- If you write in compatible format, you can read the CDs on any system witha CDROM drive.- You can use the same hardware and software to create audio CDs.On the other hand, some of the disadvantages are:- Writing is rather slow.- The drives do require specialized drivers and cabling to be installed onyour system.Disk-To-Disk - Disk drives are becoming extraordinarily cheap.
You caneasily purchase 50 gigabyte drives for under $500 (and I've seen them muchlower). One possible backup solution is to purchase a drive to match each ofyour other disk drives.
For example, if you have a C and D drive, you couldpurchase two more disk drives and install them, making them E and F (orwhatever).The advantages of this scheme are:- Disk-to-disk backup is very fast- Data written from disk to disk tends to be very reliable.- The data is easy to recover.Disadvantages include:- The data is still accessible from your system, which means viruses,hackers ad environmental disasters (such as a flood) can destroy your data.One alternative to look at if you have a small network in your house is toget a network disk drive. These are available at the $500 to $1,000 rangeand sit on the network.
You can backup and restore files from them easilyand quickly.Conclusions - So what do I recommend? Purchase a writeable CD drive andinstall it on your system (make sure it is compatible before you make yourpurchase). If you've got the money, purchase a networked disk drive which isthe same size as all of your local disks put together.Why? The writeable CD unit allows you to create backups at will of many ofyour files.
You can store these backups off-site, transfer files between,machines, and have a high expectation that the data will still be good infive to ten years. The networked disk drive allows you to create fullbackups of your system quickly and easily while you are sleeping.
This givesyou complete recovery in the event of a disaster. Article Tags: Have Found, Disk Drives, Disk Drive Source: Free Articles from ArticlesFactory.com .