The reason I don't recommend mixing business with ham is there is a difference in the value of the data associated with each function and therefore you need different backup/protection strategies for them. Or maybe my definition of business is different than yours.
On the computer I use for my business, every critical file is backed up 3 different ways, in real time. I am confident that I will not lose more than a few minutes worth of data unless a catastrophe happens on the scale I will not be too worried about it. Its my financial, tax and legal documents for my family and business. My ham stuff is important but not legally binding stuff. I want it backed up but if I lost even a month of QSOs I would not smile but I wouldn't stay awake at night either. I use computers powerful enough to implement a backup strategy that gives me the level of backup I need for ham stuff, but its not good enough for my business data. To do that, I want real-time backup with off-site copies in real time. Since these types of programs screw up PowerSDR, I do not want to do that. If you do not mind if you lose data, in terms of days or weeks, for your business: go ahead and use your ham computer. If you do mind losing that much data, then implement some strategy that allows you to do both. In my opinion, having separate accounts on the same computer strictly defines the role you are using and allows you to use Carbonite, Acronis Real-Time, or whatever for your business role but not your ham role. I see guys all the time (I bet 5 a week) that have completely lost their DXBase log of 10+ years because the hard drive they were using just died and they have no readable backup. If this level of data protection is acceptable for your business data then you can go ahead and use the same computer/account with my blessing! I honestly am not that crass a guy to scare you into buying a computer, its truly my real opinion! I am not considering that you have Word and Excel installed and are figuring out budgets for your family, etc. (although these could be valuable to you also). Likewise, if you have family documents that you will really need in the future on the computer and thats the only copy, you need to think about backup. I will also say that just having another external hard drive is good enough. When the bottom of my water heater rusted out 10 years ago, the water in my shack was about 7" and no hard drive survived, I lost everything stored on anything. Carbonite, Acronis, Dropbox (my preferred approach), etc are dirt cheap, especially if you have a good internet connection. Use them for valuable data, but keep them under your control for powerSDR computers. _______________________________________________ Flexedge mailing list [email protected] http://mail.flex-radio.biz/mailman/listinfo/flexedge_flex-radio.biz This is the FlexRadio Systems e-mail Reflector called FlexEdge. It is used for posting topics related to SDR software development and experimentalist who are using beta versions of the software.
