[ale] Hard Drive Failures

[Ron Frazier (ALE)]

Agree mostly.  Disagree slightly.

I agree that the best solution is to be unconcerned over a drive failure.  But, it's very hard to do in the real world, at least from my perspective.  Let me say that my PC's backup data online every 6 hours.  If my drive pukes, I won't lose much data.

What I will lose is a good amount of sleep and hassle.  I far and away prefer to have image backups versus any other kind.  If the drive did puke, and I didn't have a recent image, it would take me probably a week to reinstall the os, reinstall all the apps, configure all the apps, install plugins in the apps, configure all the plugins on all the apps, and do all the system tweaks that I want to make the machine run the way I want.  It would probably take me another few days to get all my email restored, and rebuild all my filters to filter 10's of thousands of messages.

On the other hand, let's say I had cloned the hdd last night.  I swap in the cloned drive, and I'm literally back up and running within 15 minutes.  I just restore the latest data from my online backup, download any recent email, and re do anything else I remember that occurred since the last online backup up to 6 hours ago.

Relatively simple and painless.  If I can use something like Spinrite to recover the drive, even if it's just to clone it to a replacement drive.  Then I don't lose any data or have to do any reconfiguration.

The problem comes into play because I don't clone my drive every night.  I don't like to leave the backup media attached, since a virus or electrical problem could take it out.  So, I prefer to attach the backup media only when I clone the drive.  Also, I have to reboot the machine and boot from a CD to do the imaging, then reboot the machine to use it again.

The end result is that my image backups don't get done too often, particularly with 4 PC's.  So, if I could find a way to automatically clone each PC's hard drive every night, or at least every week, and automatically detach and shut down the backup media when done, and reattach it when the next clone job is due, then I could be in a position to really not care too much if a drive fails.  If I could get snapshot versions like JD has mentioned elsewhere in this thread, so much the better.  My number one goal for my backup is to enable me to restore a complete system, including all data, all applications, and all settings, either within 15 minutes, or at most within a few hours.

Sincerely,

Ron




David Tomaschik <david at systemoverlord.com> wrote:

>So, I was going to let myself be sucked into Ron and dev null's debate
>on
>the other thread, but decided better of it.  While I am no Steve Gibson
>fan
>(in fact, I believe his products and advice are only slightly better
>than
>snake oil) I'm going to steer clear of that and head for the central
>topic:
>there are a *lot* of threads on this mailing list about drives failing;
>and
>no, I'm not suggesting there's an epidemic of drive deaths, just that
>people are approaching it the wrong way.
>
>If you care (aside from replacement time and cost) about a single hard
>drive (rotational or SSD) failing: you are doing it wrong.  Plain and
>simple.
>
>Backups are the solution to hard drive failures, not ddrescue,
>spinrite, or
>snake oil.  Pick any one hard drive in my place and destroy it.  Other
>than
>buying and installing a new hard drive, I won't lose much sleep over
>that.
>I might lose a little bit of data, but not enough that I'll be
>struggling
>with ddrescue over it.
>
>JD and I once did a presentation at ALE-NW about backup solutions. 
>There
>are many out there: commercial and open source, local and remote,
>network
>or disk-to-disk, etc.  Pick one (or be like me and pick several) and
>use
>them.  Then enjoy the zen of treating hard drives as the commodities
>they
>are, as opposed to the heart of your electronic world.
>
>(FYI, this all comes from a couple of painful experiences before I
>was enlightened to the path of the backup.)
>
>-- 
>David Tomaschik
>OpenPGP: 0x5DEA789B
>http://systemoverlord.com
>david at systemoverlord.com
>
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>_______________________________________________
>Ale mailing list
>Ale at ale.org
>http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo/ale
>See JOBS, ANNOUNCE and SCHOOLS lists at
>http://mail.ale.org/mailman/listinfo


--

Sent from my Android Acer A500 tablet with bluetooth keyboard and K-9 Mail.
Please excuse my potential brevity if I'm typing on the touch screen.

(PS - If you email me and don't get a quick response, you might want to
call on the phone.  I get about 300 emails per day from alternate energy
mailing lists and such.  I don't always see new email messages very quickly.)

Ron Frazier
770-205-9422 (O)   Leave a message.
linuxdude AT techstarship.com