On 25 Oct 2006 at 10:19, Harold Fuchs wrote: ... > > Is there a special reason why you want to backup to CD? > > > > My experience (but maybe no one else's?) is that when you finally > > need your CD backup, the CD can't be read properly anyway. I ... > > think that will be necessary. Maybe an external HDD could be a good > > idea? > <snip> > Till someone steals the computer with *both* disks inside it ...
This is really a bit OT for this list, but anyway.... Before deciding how to do a backup, decide /why/ you're doing it. What are you protecting against? What are the possible problems and their extent? eg "what": *1 accidental user destruction of data *2 sudden hardware malfunction (incl HD dying) *3 incremental malfunction (I've seen data on a HD /slowly/ damaged over a period of many weeks) *4 loss of machine (eg theft) ** ????? eg "extent" *A affects only the machine (eg power surge) *B affects the building (burns down) *C government confiscates the equipment (all of it :-) ) *D nuclear explosion wipes out the neighbourhood ** ????? What you do will depend on what you assess the risks and associated losses and costs to be. For example, dumping to a 2nd internal HD won't protect against item 4. Dumping to a usb drive won't help if it's stored near the computer and the building burns down (item B). Dumping to a RAID farm the other side of the world is likely to be rather expensive :-) If D happens, you're quite probably not fussed anyway about the data. But then, we all know these things....... :-) -- various incoming sites blocked because of spam; see http://www.scottsonline.org.uk for a list and openpgp crypto key (key fingerprint 2ACC 9F21 5103 F68C 7C32 9EA8 C949 81E1 31C9 1364) [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mike Scott, Harlow, Essex, England --------------------------------------------------------------------- To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
