View Single Post
  #19  
Old 10-23-2010, 08:53 AM
Solomoriah's Avatar
Solomoriah Solomoriah is offline
Incorrigible Kit Basher
 
Join Date: Jul 2006
Posts: 1,888
Default

RAID mirroring and backup are both good; don't ever rely on RAID alone, as it only protects against hardware failure. Malicious software or user FUBAR could still wipe out valuable things.

If you go with Linux on your main workstation, there are lots of good free software options to back up your data. I prefer external hard drives myself, and use good ol' tar to do them. The rule I give my customers is, you need at least three "sets" of backup media (where a "set" is enough media to back up your valuables once). Use them in rotation, never using one twice in a row.

The rationale is like this: You have one backup set, and it's in the computer (connected, whatever). Lightning strikes. Now you have nothing.

So now you have two backup sets. One is in the computer, and lightning strikes. Well, you still have the other backup (from yesterday, last week, whatever) so it's not a total loss. But say, before lightning strikes, that one of the sets dies; suddenly you are vulnerable to the lightning.

Three sets is therefore the minimum number I recommend. More is always better, of course.
__________________
NAR # 115523
Once upon a better day... SAM #0076
My site: http://rocketry.gonnerman.org
Reply With Quote