Friendly Reminder

[javacontour]

Back up your data.

I just had a hard drive fail on my VPN box. I got the data before the drive totally failed. The last 1/3 of the drive was not accessible.

Nothing I couldn't replace if it had totally failed.

However, having an image of the data and another image of the O/S partitions, I was able to recover in about an hour.

Just a reminder, back up.

This was a 120GB Maxtor drive that I'd been using since 2003. The drive was manufactured 18May2003 according to the label. That's not bad at all.

So back up and make sure you know how to recover your data.

Gotta love the Solaris flarcreate command. I created a flash archive of my OS config, stored it away and when the drive crashed, I replaced it and restored from the flar, then restored my data files from backup.

 

[Shuttler]

Which release/version of Solaris are you using? Oracle has been hostile lately: I can not legally get firmware updates for SUN boxes anymore.

 

[StevieC]

I have a time-capsule from Apple and it backs up all my Mac/PC's automatically with ease.

Beats running a computer that generates a ton of heat.

 

[javacontour]

My VPN access box is an old beige box running Solaris 10 Update 8.

I have Solaris Nevada build 129 on my laptop.

 

[brianl703]

Last hard drive failure I had was a 160GB WD in an Acer Aspire netbook.

I replaced it with a 320GB Hitachi.

I think the drive failed because I knocked the netbook off the windowsill and it was still shutting down. There's no shock mounting for the hard drive in the netbook.

I used Acronis True Image (which I got for $8 after a $20 rebate) to image the drive before this happened, so restoring the data was very easy. Much easier than disassembling the netbook to get to the drive...I also upgraded the RAM in the netbook to 1.5GB at the same time.

 

[Kestas]

I just ordered a backup for my files at work. I have an extensive 10-year portfolio of pictures that would be a horrible loss to my career and the company if they got lost.

 

[calvin1]

If it isn't stored on tape, in a safe, off-site then it isn't backed up.

 

[StevieC]

I pay $5 USD and have an unlimited amount to backup my work PC in some data center that is mirrored on the other side of the U.S.

Pretty cheap effective way to get my data after a crash.

 

[javacontour]

Originally Posted By: calvin1
If it isn't stored on tape, in a safe, off-site then it isn't backed up.


Monthly trips to my safe deposit box handle this aspect of the back up scheme.

 

[calvin1]

Originally Posted By: javacontour
Originally Posted By: calvin1
If it isn't stored on tape, in a safe, off-site then it isn't backed up.


Monthly trips to my safe deposit box handle this aspect of the back up scheme.


That's definitely both a safe and a site I'd trust.

 

[javacontour]

I do put the files on a DVD, but then I refresh it.

I know, we sell tape solutions (the StorageTek brand) but I don't want to listen to the tape whirr. Besides, I can buy DVDs for a lot less than DLT carts. (And I do have a DLT drive at home.)

 

[calvin1]

Originally Posted By: javacontour
I do put the files on a DVD, but then I refresh it.

I know, we sell tape solutions (the StorageTek brand) but I don't want to listen to the tape whirr. Besides, I can buy DVDs for a lot less than DLT carts. (And I do have a DLT drive at home.)


It's too bad the consumer market has been left with no good tape solutions. It's shameful that they are selling those external hds as backup. "Ya just push dat button right thar and ... poof ... yer all takin care of."

HDs are unreliable enough without making them something that can be bounced around for its whole life. Anyone that's bet his data on one of those is in for a rude surprise some day. DVDs are okay but they're small and their long term durability hasn't been proven, IMHO of course. What is left is to buy old enterprise gear off ebay and repurpose it for home use.

 

[javacontour]

I think services like Mozy and Carbonite are going to be the ticket for home users. They can push the button and their files go over the interwebs to a secure (we hope) data center on the cloud.

If ISPs wanted to get into the storage business, this would be an opportunity for them. It really locks a customer into the ISP if an amount of backup space came with the account.

ISPs once offered web pages.

It's probably just a source of more questions, and if folks want to direct content and provide pipes, storage isn't the core business.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted By: javacontour
I think services like Mozy and Carbonite are going to be the ticket for home users. They can push the button and their files go over the interwebs to a secure (we hope) data center on the cloud.


I am pretty sure they *all* use Amazon S3.

 

[uc50ic4more]

Originally Posted By: calvin1
DVDs are okay but they're small and their long term durability hasn't been proven, IMHO of course.


I don't know where I got this from, but I have it stuck in my head that DVD's *lack* of durability is well proven. Not only to they seem to be hideously sensitive to damage (read: scratches), but layers of substrate or dye or heaven-knows-what are pretty much a lock - especially with cheaper disks - to degrade in normal conditions into uselessness in 10 or 15 years.

 

[javacontour]

But I don't need them to last 10-15 years. I need them to last until next month or next year.

 

[Colt45ws]

Right now Im backing up all the other machines to my RAID array. Im looking into some sort of off-site storage, but at this point Im looking at 1TB of data. Probably just get a couple of HDs and rotate them into a safe deposit box or something.