<div dir="auto"><div>I once had to do a drive recovery on the laptop of a cfo who swore up and down he was handling his own backups. They were getting audited by the IRS when it went down. </div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Backups? You know the answer.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">I managed to recover almost all of the drive and crucially the data needed for the audit. </div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Cfo got backup religion and did a full image every day at lunchtime from then on. He also did not flinch when I was handed a very large check for my time.</div><div><br></div><div data-smartmail="gmail_signature"><div dir="ltr">-- <br>James P. Kinney III<br><i><i><i><i><br></i></i></i></i>Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you
gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his
own tail. It won't fatten the dog.<br>
- Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain<br><i><i><i><i><br><a href="http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/" target="_blank">http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/</a><br></i></i></i></i></div></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote gmail_quote_container"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Jan 14, 2026, 3:43 PM Jon "maddog" Hall via Ale <<a href="mailto:ale@ale.org">ale@ale.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:times new roman,serif;font-size:large">Crayons are basically wax too, and suffer the same fate if the writing gets too hot.<br><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:times new roman,serif;font-size:large">You really can't win...back to "rm -rf"<br><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:times new roman,serif;font-size:large">I did that one time and it was going along fine until the "rmdir" command was deleted.....things went downhill from there.😂</div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:times new roman,serif;font-size:large"><br><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:times new roman,serif;font-size:large"><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:times new roman,serif;font-size:large">md</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Wed, Jan 14, 2026 at 11:22 AM lollipopman691 via Ale <<a href="mailto:ale@ale.org" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">ale@ale.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px">OTOH, wax and stylus still works. At least until it gets too hot.</div><div style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><span><a rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener noreferrer" href="https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/newly-discovered-ancient-roman-writing-tablets-provide-snapshots-roman-era-020857" target="_blank">https://www.ancient-origins.net/news-history-archaeology/newly-discovered-ancient-roman-writing-tablets-provide-snapshots-roman-era-020857</a></span></div><div style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><br></div><div style="font-family:Arial,sans-serif;font-size:14px"><ul style="margin-top:0px;margin-bottom:0px"><li style="list-style-type:"\00220e ""><span>CHS</span></li></ul></div>
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On Tuesday, January 13th, 2026 at 10:42 PM, Jon "maddog" Hall via Ale <<a href="mailto:ale@ale.org" target="_blank" rel="noreferrer">ale@ale.org</a>> wrote:<br>
<blockquote type="cite">
<div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:times new roman,serif;font-size:large">Sorry, but as an archivist I can vouch for the fact that the simple use of crayons alone is not good enough. You need archival quality paper, or better yet, crayon on some type of stable stone. Modern day acid-washed paper falls apart after only a few decades.<br><br></div><div class="gmail_default" style="font-family:times new roman,serif;font-size:large">On the other hand, have you ever taken a good look at ancient stone tablets? Some are really hard to read....</div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Jan 13, 2026 at 8:00 PM Jim Kinney via Ale <<a href="mailto:ale@ale.org" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ale@ale.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><div dir="auto"><div>You just nailed it.</div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Crayon</div><div dir="auto">THE backup tool </div><div dir="auto"><br></div><div dir="auto">Hahahaha!!!</div><div><br></div><div><div dir="ltr">-- <br>James P. Kinney III<br><i><i><i><i><br></i></i></i></i>Every time you stop a school, you will have to build a jail. What you
gain at one end you lose at the other. It's like feeding a dog on his
own tail. It won't fatten the dog.<br>
- Speech 11/23/1900 Mark Twain<br><i><i><i><i><br><a href="http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">http://heretothereideas.blogspot.com/</a><br></i></i></i></i></div></div></div><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr" class="gmail_attr">On Tue, Jan 13, 2026, 6:42 PM Steve Litt via Ale <<a href="mailto:ale@ale.org" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ale@ale.org</a>> wrote:<br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left:1px solid rgb(204,204,204);padding-left:1ex"><br>
On Sat, 10 Jan 2026 14:39:21 -0500 (EST)<br>
"jon.maddog.hall--- via Ale" <<a href="mailto:ale@ale.org" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ale@ale.org</a>> wrote:<br>
<br>
> One of my fears about e-books, the web and documentation that can<br>
> disappear as easy as "rm -r *", is that we will lose a LOT of this<br>
> information and not know where we came from and how we got here.<br>
<br>
Good backups allay that fear. What I fear is that over time current<br>
physical and software formats are replaced and disappear. I can't read<br>
my QIC tape backups anymore. I can no longer read my cptools floppy<br>
backups: Hell, I don't currently have a floppy drive installed. With<br>
cases no longer accommodating CD/DVD/BluRay, how long will it be until<br>
those become very difficult to get. I have nothing to read my old VHS<br>
video tapes. I have no way to recover any files from my ancient Kaypro<br>
2x, even if I did have a floppy drive.<br>
<br>
It's very important to take old backups and convert some of them to<br>
newer formats every once in a while.<br>
<br>
LOL, I still have a crayon picture I drew in 1955 of my trip to the zoo.<br>
<br>
SteveT<br>
<br>
Steve Litt <br>
Featured book: Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful<br>
Technologist <a href="http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques" rel="noreferrer nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">http://www.troubleshooters.com/techniques</a><br>
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