Backup strategy?
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This is probably better suited to a poll, but here goes anyway... After another lovely day of reinstalling software (a power supply fried and took out the primary drive in an older server, I guess I should have paid attention to that loud hum for the last week) I'm looking for advice... What do you do for a backup strategy? I have a home office, my laptop is my primary development system, and I have several test servers and workstations for various projects. My backup procedures are an automated backup of my documents and the VSS directory on the office file server to an external USB HD and also written to a DVD-RW on a nightly basis. The DVD's are rotated out and put in the office safe. Better than most, at least I don't stand to lose anything that I thought enough of to check in or toss in the directory I know is backed up. However, when it's time to re-install, it's painful. Especially if it's a development box. Install OS. Install antivirus. Download patches. Install development tools, find registration codes, install updates, install MSDN, install Office, etc. I've experimented with various backup methods for the complete system, but short of duplicate HD's and maintaining drive images (too expensive and time consuming), I haven't found something I'm happy with. Ghost and my laptop don't seem to like each other, so I've never been able to image it, but it does work nicely for the servers. What I'd love to be able to do is create a system recovery DVD, like what came with my laptop. Boot from DVD, say yes to restore and 10 minutes later I have a factory fresh installation. If I could create the same thing after I've removed the BS and set up the system with everything I need, I'd be golden. If anyone uses something like this I'd love to hear about it.
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This is probably better suited to a poll, but here goes anyway... After another lovely day of reinstalling software (a power supply fried and took out the primary drive in an older server, I guess I should have paid attention to that loud hum for the last week) I'm looking for advice... What do you do for a backup strategy? I have a home office, my laptop is my primary development system, and I have several test servers and workstations for various projects. My backup procedures are an automated backup of my documents and the VSS directory on the office file server to an external USB HD and also written to a DVD-RW on a nightly basis. The DVD's are rotated out and put in the office safe. Better than most, at least I don't stand to lose anything that I thought enough of to check in or toss in the directory I know is backed up. However, when it's time to re-install, it's painful. Especially if it's a development box. Install OS. Install antivirus. Download patches. Install development tools, find registration codes, install updates, install MSDN, install Office, etc. I've experimented with various backup methods for the complete system, but short of duplicate HD's and maintaining drive images (too expensive and time consuming), I haven't found something I'm happy with. Ghost and my laptop don't seem to like each other, so I've never been able to image it, but it does work nicely for the servers. What I'd love to be able to do is create a system recovery DVD, like what came with my laptop. Boot from DVD, say yes to restore and 10 minutes later I have a factory fresh installation. If I could create the same thing after I've removed the BS and set up the system with everything I need, I'd be golden. If anyone uses something like this I'd love to hear about it.
I have used Nero to burn a system recovery CD before. It is kind of neat and was useful but takes some time if you have a very large system and a single layer DVD writer. Poeple have told me that Norton Ghost does the same thing as well but I have never used it.
Paul Watson wrote: "At the end of the day it is what you produce that counts, not how many doctorates you have on the wall." George Carlin wrote: "Don't sweat the petty things, and don't pet the sweaty things." Jörgen Sigvardsson wrote: If the physicists find a universal theory describing the laws of universe, I'm sure the asshole constant will be an integral part of that theory.
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I have used Nero to burn a system recovery CD before. It is kind of neat and was useful but takes some time if you have a very large system and a single layer DVD writer. Poeple have told me that Norton Ghost does the same thing as well but I have never used it.
Paul Watson wrote: "At the end of the day it is what you produce that counts, not how many doctorates you have on the wall." George Carlin wrote: "Don't sweat the petty things, and don't pet the sweaty things." Jörgen Sigvardsson wrote: If the physicists find a universal theory describing the laws of universe, I'm sure the asshole constant will be an integral part of that theory.
Yes, Norton Ghost (Symantec now) is the almost perfect solution, if you do the 'ghosts' periodically. That is, via ghost you "snapshot" your disk (mainly OS stuff), and when a crash occurs, in less than 15 minutes you have the machine running again. For long-term backups, be carefull with CDs or DVDs, they don't last for years as expected. Most of the media goes wrong after 2 to 3 years if not kept on the right conditions. One nice strategy for crash-backups is to backup your data on a harddrive that is removable.
-- **Ricky Marek** (_AKA: rbid_)-- "Things are only impossible until they are not" --- Jean-Luc Picard -
This is probably better suited to a poll, but here goes anyway... After another lovely day of reinstalling software (a power supply fried and took out the primary drive in an older server, I guess I should have paid attention to that loud hum for the last week) I'm looking for advice... What do you do for a backup strategy? I have a home office, my laptop is my primary development system, and I have several test servers and workstations for various projects. My backup procedures are an automated backup of my documents and the VSS directory on the office file server to an external USB HD and also written to a DVD-RW on a nightly basis. The DVD's are rotated out and put in the office safe. Better than most, at least I don't stand to lose anything that I thought enough of to check in or toss in the directory I know is backed up. However, when it's time to re-install, it's painful. Especially if it's a development box. Install OS. Install antivirus. Download patches. Install development tools, find registration codes, install updates, install MSDN, install Office, etc. I've experimented with various backup methods for the complete system, but short of duplicate HD's and maintaining drive images (too expensive and time consuming), I haven't found something I'm happy with. Ghost and my laptop don't seem to like each other, so I've never been able to image it, but it does work nicely for the servers. What I'd love to be able to do is create a system recovery DVD, like what came with my laptop. Boot from DVD, say yes to restore and 10 minutes later I have a factory fresh installation. If I could create the same thing after I've removed the BS and set up the system with everything I need, I'd be golden. If anyone uses something like this I'd love to hear about it.
Here are the CP "backup strategy" stages: :cool: :zzz: :doh: :wtf: X| :sigh: :(( :-O :mad: :| Matt Gerrans
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This is probably better suited to a poll, but here goes anyway... After another lovely day of reinstalling software (a power supply fried and took out the primary drive in an older server, I guess I should have paid attention to that loud hum for the last week) I'm looking for advice... What do you do for a backup strategy? I have a home office, my laptop is my primary development system, and I have several test servers and workstations for various projects. My backup procedures are an automated backup of my documents and the VSS directory on the office file server to an external USB HD and also written to a DVD-RW on a nightly basis. The DVD's are rotated out and put in the office safe. Better than most, at least I don't stand to lose anything that I thought enough of to check in or toss in the directory I know is backed up. However, when it's time to re-install, it's painful. Especially if it's a development box. Install OS. Install antivirus. Download patches. Install development tools, find registration codes, install updates, install MSDN, install Office, etc. I've experimented with various backup methods for the complete system, but short of duplicate HD's and maintaining drive images (too expensive and time consuming), I haven't found something I'm happy with. Ghost and my laptop don't seem to like each other, so I've never been able to image it, but it does work nicely for the servers. What I'd love to be able to do is create a system recovery DVD, like what came with my laptop. Boot from DVD, say yes to restore and 10 minutes later I have a factory fresh installation. If I could create the same thing after I've removed the BS and set up the system with everything I need, I'd be golden. If anyone uses something like this I'd love to hear about it.
My server uses nothing but mirrored drives, that way I'm not so worried about having to reinstall the OS. I run daily (weekly sometimes) backup on tape, and every month or so, I burn a backup to DVD's and get it stored outside my house. I have never been worried about making diskimages as I almost never reinstall my computers. My current server has been running for a few years now, and the only reason I'll reinstall it is because I replace all the hardware with my current workstation, as soon as I get my new workstation[^], hopefully next week. I reinstall my workstation maybe once each year, but to keep an image with all software and so on would probably not help much as most software would be replaced by new versions when I would need it. I do all testing and stuff of beta versions using Virtual PC, that way I never get half-finished software, like VS 2005, on my dev box and I guess thats why I almost never have problems and need to reinstall. - Anders Bill's Bar
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This is probably better suited to a poll, but here goes anyway... After another lovely day of reinstalling software (a power supply fried and took out the primary drive in an older server, I guess I should have paid attention to that loud hum for the last week) I'm looking for advice... What do you do for a backup strategy? I have a home office, my laptop is my primary development system, and I have several test servers and workstations for various projects. My backup procedures are an automated backup of my documents and the VSS directory on the office file server to an external USB HD and also written to a DVD-RW on a nightly basis. The DVD's are rotated out and put in the office safe. Better than most, at least I don't stand to lose anything that I thought enough of to check in or toss in the directory I know is backed up. However, when it's time to re-install, it's painful. Especially if it's a development box. Install OS. Install antivirus. Download patches. Install development tools, find registration codes, install updates, install MSDN, install Office, etc. I've experimented with various backup methods for the complete system, but short of duplicate HD's and maintaining drive images (too expensive and time consuming), I haven't found something I'm happy with. Ghost and my laptop don't seem to like each other, so I've never been able to image it, but it does work nicely for the servers. What I'd love to be able to do is create a system recovery DVD, like what came with my laptop. Boot from DVD, say yes to restore and 10 minutes later I have a factory fresh installation. If I could create the same thing after I've removed the BS and set up the system with everything I need, I'd be golden. If anyone uses something like this I'd love to hear about it.
What you need is Acronis True Image[^]. It's fantastic piece of software which allows you to create an image of your current installation from with Windows. You can then boot from the recovery CD and restore the image. The image can be on another internal HSS, an external (USB or firewire) HDD or DVD. You can even put the restore cd and the image to restore on the same DVD to make it even easier. Cheers James