Any suggestions on what backup software to use? I'm using unison to backup/sync multiple PCs. I just took a look at the latest version & the gui version looks to be a pain to setup, so it's probably not a good recommendation. I remember futzing with it for a while to get it "right".
The other method is xcopy - also not a great solution since it's got a path [or name?] limit of something like 256 characters, so it _will_ miss stuff. I'm looking at robocopy as a replacement... On the other hand, other than the removable drives, the cost is 0$ On 12/22/16, NFN Smith <[email protected]> wrote: > All good stuff. A couple of additional thoughts inserted... same here > Paul B. Gallagher wrote: >> David E. Ross wrote: >> >>> I have files unrelated to SeaMonkey that are no less important. I >>> do a system-wide backup every week. >> >> In my case, nightly (mission-critical work computer). The first week >> I had a computer (a PC-XT in 1985), I lost a whole day's work by >> failing to back it up. Ever since, my motto has been, "If you love >> me, back me up." >> >> Some basic principles all users should follow for backup (I'm sure >> you know this, but other readers may not): > > I would go one step further -- think through your potential recovery > scenarios. And think through your potential disaster scenarios. That cryptolocker malware that encrypts all your data files is scary, so I backup to removable media. What happens if the removable media is lost/stolen? Truecrypt to the rescue :) > There's enough variants that one particular backup > methodology or tool may not fit all the possibilities for recovery. > There's a difference between doing a bare-metal recovery following a > device or controller failure and a recovery from an "oops" overwrite or > deletion of one or two critical files. Maybe I've been lucky, but in personal use I've had only one disk failure. Keeping install CDs + downloaded install programs + data files was enough to restore everything to the new hard drive. Altho it took~2-3 days from getting the new disk to a fully usable PC. >> 1) Do it automatically. If you have to think about it, you'll forget >> or make excuses, and when disaster comes you'll lose something >> important because you didn't back it up. +1 make it easy & make it work unattended. I mount the truecrypt volume, start a .bat file and go have dinner, watch a movie, go to bed, etc. >> 2) Separate the backup media from the source computer. If the backup >> is killed by the same disaster as the computer, you have no backup. +1 altho do you _really_ need a full, offsite, backup? If my PC is melted in a fire, I care about pictures and some data. I don't care at all about \program files, \windows, etc. so the offsite backup data set is _much_ smaller. > And don't rely on a single media set that's continuously attached, I like removable disk drives. It's hard to f*** up a drive in my desk drawer or @ my sister's house. > although this works against point 1). Now that one of the varieties of > malware that we have to account for includes ransomware, you need to > make sure that you account for the possibility of that kind of thing > encrypting your backups. Plus, there's always the the matter of making > sure you have off-site backups (think: building burning down, or a > lost/stolen laptop). > > A further consideration: cloud-based backups can be one way of quickly > getting off-site, but it's one that is good not to rely on entirely. If > you can't get to your backups (no internet connectivity, DDoS of > provider, provider failure, etc.) you have no backup. > > Years ago, I was backing up a desktop PC onto floppy disks, and I had > the habit of using just one set of floppies, writing a new backup over > the previous one. One time, I was doing a backup when the hard drive was > in the process of failing, and I had a crash while I was backing up. > Thus, the new backup set was unusable, and the old backup was no longer > available. Following a reboot, I was able to run a new complete backup, > but I learned that it's important never to discard/obliterate an old > backup, until you have a usable one to replace it with. > >> >> 3) Use a system that doesn't impact your lifestyle or workstyle. If >> it's a PITA, you'll find an excuse to abort it or cancel it, and then >> you'll have no backup. >> >> 4) Test the restore function periodically. If you can't restore, you >> have no backup. > > Absolutely. Think: fire drill. Years ago, I had a major disaster when a > server failed, and then we discovered that the controller of the backup > device had silently failed some time previously. We didn't have any > backups. > > Keeping this on a slightly Seamonkey focus: several months ago, I was > having problems with my inbox and indexing (which I discussed in this > newsgroup), and more than once, I lost most of the messages in my POP > inbox. I was grateful to have daily backups to draw from, and I needed > them more than once. For that, a file-centric backup (where I could > recover just my inbox, and not even the entire profile) was what I > needed. A full-image backup (including boot sectors and Windows > registry) would have been far less useful for that kind of recovery. Daily backups can be _extremely_ nice. Like I said, I've had one hard drive fail on me. I've had more than one instance of ohNoes!! what did <this> file look like <that many> days ago. > On my own system, I do have things set to do nightly backups (and I know > how to get to the profile data in the Windows directory hierarchy), but > with my main Seamonkey profile, I periodically use MozBackup to make an > extra copy. If I don't write that archive directly to my backup drive, > it's not a problem to drop it into a folder that normally gets backed up > as a part of the daily backup process. However, because I do that one > manually, it's a good example of why it's unwise to rely on backups that > require that you run them manually. Lee _______________________________________________ support-seamonkey mailing list [email protected] https://lists.mozilla.org/listinfo/support-seamonkey
