From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon May 24 06:42:06 2004 Return-Path: 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 384B016A4CE for ; Mon, 24 May 2004 06:42:06 -0700 (PDT) Received: from clunix.cl.msu.edu (clunix.cl.msu.edu [35.9.2.10]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B8E8743D1F for ; Mon, 24 May 2004 06:42:05 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from jerrymc@clunix.cl.msu.edu) Received: (from jerrymc@localhost) by clunix.cl.msu.edu (8.11.7p1+Sun/8.11.7) id i4ODekb17506; Mon, 24 May 2004 09:40:46 -0400 (EDT) From: Jerry McAllister Message-Id: <200405241340.i4ODekb17506@clunix.cl.msu.edu> To: oxo@rucus.ru.ac.za (John Oxley) Date: Mon, 24 May 2004 09:40:45 -0400 (EDT) In-Reply-To: <20040524082737.GA29727@rucus.ru.ac.za> from "John Oxley" at May 24, 2004 10:27:37 AM X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.5 PL2] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit cc: questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: disk recovery X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 24 May 2004 13:42:06 -0000 Hi, > Hi, > > I have a personal server with 400Gb of hard disks in various shapes and > sizes. I don't have enough money for redundant disks, and I would like > to know what the most efficient way of making sure my data doesn't get > lost, in case of a hard drive failure. The best would be for some sort > of recovery if a disk goes south for the winter. If that data is important, then it is worth the cost of backing up. > > On this note, what's the best way of recovering data when a disk does go > bad. The only way is to restore it from a backup. You could try one of those emergency NSA type recovery services, but that would cost you far more than buying a backup system. So, whatever media you choose, shell it out for some backup capacity. In the short run, some additional disks might be the easiest and cheapest. Just add enough disk to hold everything and use dump(8) to a file on the extra disk to make the backup. Pull the disks and set them aside in a clean storage space. Use a different set of disk the next time and alternate/rotate them. Then if you need something or everything back, it is easy to get it using restore. You could create a mirroring system, but that is not quite a backup since it is left on the machine and is subject to the same environmental conditions that might cause the main disks to fail. In the longer run, it might actually still be cheaper to get a good tape system such as DLT. Then you can make a really good media rotation of maybe 5 sets, plus an occasional "archive" set. With that much data or more, don't bother with one of the cheapie tape systems. You will overload its duty cycle quickly and have to replace it too often. ////jerry > > -- > /~\ The ASCII ASCII stupid question, get a EBCDIC ANSI. > \ / Ribbon Campaign John Oxley > X Against HTML http://oxo.rucus.net/ > / \ Email! oxo rucus.ru.ac.za > "Personally, I'd rather pay for my freedom than live in a bitmapped, > pop-up-happy dungeon like NT." > -- Thomas Scoville > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >