From owner-freebsd-questions Wed Sep 11 15:55: 0 2002 Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.FreeBSD.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 7B77237B400 for ; Wed, 11 Sep 2002 15:54:57 -0700 (PDT) Received: from ns1.austclear.com.au (ns1.austclear.com.au [192.43.185.68]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EAC6643E4A for ; Wed, 11 Sep 2002 15:54:55 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from ahl@austclear.com.au) Received: from tungsten.austclear.com.au (tungsten.austclear.com.au [192.168.166.65]) by ns1.austclear.com.au (8.11.2/8.11.3) with ESMTP id g8BMssH18540; Thu, 12 Sep 2002 08:54:54 +1000 (EST) (envelope-from ahl@austclear.com.au) Received: from tungsten (tungsten [192.168.166.65]) by tungsten.austclear.com.au (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id IAA13879; Thu, 12 Sep 2002 08:54:53 +1000 (EST) Message-Id: <200209112254.IAA13879@tungsten.austclear.com.au> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.1.1 10/15/1999 To: "Brian M. Kincaid" Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Backups on IDE disks In-Reply-To: Message from "Brian M. Kincaid" of "Wed, 11 Sep 2002 13:04:19 MST." <200209112004.g8BK4JtZ001693@adsl-64-174-159-18.dsl.sntc01.pacbell.net> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 08:54:53 +1000 From: Tony Landells Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk List-ID: List-Archive: (Web Archive) List-Help: (List Instructions) List-Subscribe: List-Unsubscribe: X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Hi Brian, Backing up to a hard disk is very cool and convenient and, as you point out, not really that expensive. And with the HUGE capacity you can do complete backups of your system each time instead of doing incrementals most of the time so you can leave it unattended and be confident it will fit on a CD. The problem is that all the time the hard disk is in your computer, it is susceptible to the following problems: disaster (your house burns down) power spikes (which could cause the heads to scratch the disk, meaning the only chance of ever getting data off it again is to send it to an expensive data recovery service) malice (someone doesn't like you so they scribble on the backups) accident (someone mistypes something and ends up scribbling on your backups) Just make sure you're safe from the things that you want to be safe from; that's all I'm saying. If you can afford for your last backup to be slightly out of date (i.e. to the last time you took a disk out), and you think the chances of the above are small enough, then go for it and enjoy the convenience! Tony -- Tony Landells Principal Networks, Security & IT Systems Engineer Ph: +61 3 9677 9319 Australian Clearing Services Pty Ltd Fax: +61 3 9677 9355 Level 4, Rialto North Tower 525 Collins Street Melbourne VIC 3000 Australia To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message