Backing up (was Re: DuelTris...Kevin's reply #2)

[glyn@cs.UAlberta.CA (Reade Glyn Devin)]

In article <uerics.730181206@mcl>, uerics@mcl.ucsb.edu (Eric D. Shepherd) writes:
> In <C2MKqE.Gyz@iat.holonet.net> ksg@orac.holonet.net (Kevin S. Green) writes:
> >Sure programmers are human, but they of all people should
> >follow the golden rule of backing up.
> 
> Utter nonsense.  Most programmers I know are one of the following (a) too
> arrogant, (b) too confident, (c) too stupid, or (d) too busy to back up.  I
> very, very rarely back up my hard drive just because it takes way too much
> time (which I don't have) and way too many floppies (which I can't afford). I
> do, however, make a backup copy of my registered users database every time I
> update it (I'm not quite that (c)).  Programmers tend to believe that backing
> up is for people who don't know how to manually reconstruct the directory
> structure of a hard drive (which I've done a few times myself... :). :)

First of all, this isn't meant as a flame, but as something you may wish to
consider.

Well, I haven't seen (a) often enough to make it a generalization.  I'll
believe (b), and accept (c) if that includes "too lazy".  I do, however,
have a problem with (d).

Shortly after I got my first hard drive, I was forced to reconstruct it
from original disks (luckly, I had saved my important _data_ to floppy).
Since then I have forced myself into a fairly strict backup policy:  I
use three sets of backup disks for each partition, used in rotation.
Under heavy use, the data partitions get backed up once a week.  The
application (program) partitions get backed up whenever there is a major
change in the configuration (and once a month when there is no change).

For one reason or another, I have had to do quite a few restorations,
but not once (since the first time) have I had to rebuild a hard drive
from scratch.  This method reduces the restoration process from one
day of cursing to an (approximately) one hour of minor inconvenience.

Note that for cases where you don't have enough disks, you can script
Prosel (and probably other packages) to backup just data, even if
you don't keep your data on separate partitions.  Don't use less than
two sets of backup disks (ever have a bad disk?).  Of course, this
will be a lot better when I can afford a tape drive ...

As far as manually correcting the structure of a hard drive, sometimes
it's not possible (wouldn't the ability to force programs to core
dump be nice?).  Almost always, it's time consuming.  Ever write the
wrong byte and forget what the original was?

The 45 minutes spent each week doing these backups isn't wasted; there's
always something that can be done concurrently (paperwork, reading...).
Don't try to multitask during a backup.

You may say that this method is expensive in disks.  How much is your
time worth?  It's one of the most valuable things I have.

--Devin Reade		glyn@cs.ualberta.ca