From: Victor Bien    
      
   ivan wrote:   
   > On Wed, 10 Nov 2010 10:28:25 UTC, Victor Bien  wrote:   
   >    
      
   [cut...]   
   > The simple way to get a RAID setup is to use something like the D-Link   
   > 323 or 343 NAS.  With the 343 you have up to 4 disks and can have a    
   > pair in RAID and the others as JBOD.   
   >    
   > Remember RAID is NOT for backup!!   
   >    
   >    
   > ivan   
      
   I know RAID is no substitute for backup but it would save me from the bad   
   effects of a disk collapse!  Of course for example it can't save me from   
   making a wrong delete; or some chaos creeps into the ini files etc.   
      
   Backing up has become more and more a problem here basically because   
   everything is getting bigger and bigger.  I am thinking a variety of   
   approaches and strategies to try to avoid losing data.  One difficulty for me,   
   that has nothing to do with computing, is simply time.  As computing is   
   getting more and more powerful and bigger and bigger it is taking longer and   
   longer to deal with issues which are more likely to happen and which take   
   longer to think and work through when they do.  So what happened a few months   
   back was that I was heavily fixated handling an issue that I took my chances   
   that the computer would not fail on me but it did!  The HD was relatively new,   
   Feb 2010 (re-certified repaired though)so I thought it was a safe bet and I   
   lost what I had in a "temporary" folder where I had my files for that issue (I   
   got a lot of it back from various ways but there was a hard core of painful   
   loss).  Now if I had a RAID 1 setup I would not have had all my eggs in one   
   basket (   
   disk).   
      
   I'm stuck with using Back Again 2000.  The difficulty is that backing onto a   
   file on a HD (the only practical medium for me these days) one is limited to   
   2.1 GB.  If through lack of sufficient attention the backup exceeds that size   
   you get a hang sometimes requiring a restart, very disruptive... which takes   
   up even more time...  So I have to think carefully what and how to backup,   
   more time...  Well since I now have the old HD with the data I had up to a   
   certain day in May I now can and have specified backups to backup only files   
   more recent than that date which makes it a bit easier to manage.  However, I   
   still have to divvy up what to backup not to exceed the 2.1 GB.  I then use a   
   mixture of Full and Incremental backups but the management of the backups   
   start to take up too much time.  As the months roll by I get more and more   
   increments so it then becomes time to take another Full backup but then the   
   volume of data has built up and there is that 2.1 GB limit.   
      
   I know that with tape BA2k would have no 2.1 GB limit but tape drives cost   
   more than what is in my pocket!   
      
   Any thoughts welcome!   
      
   Victor Bien   
      
   --    
   To reply by e-mail edit this address to the correct form: vbien at attglobal   
   dot net   
      
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