ext2 Advice

[ron.peterson at yellowbank.com]

On Thu, Nov 07, 2002 at 01:45:11PM -0500, Warren E. Agin wrote:
> I installed an external hard drive - and back up all the photos and other
> key data on a regular basis. Why external? So if there is a fire you can
> grab it going out the door.

I like to back stuff up to remote computers.  Occasionally I take a
snapshot of my data to CD.  I don't generally back up apps or whole
systems, just data and config files that I've spent considerable time
tweaking.

If you haven't tried it, I'd recommend you take a look at rdiff-backup
(http://rdiff-backup.stanford.edu/).  It allows you to do differential
backups over a network, via ssh.  Kinda like rsync, but better for doing
backups.  Keep rsync around for mirrors and such.  If you've ever had to
run over to a remote server room to dig for the right tape, you'll
appreciate this option:

-r, --restore-as-of restore_time
    Restore the specified directory as it was as of restore_time.

You can keep the backup archive from growing without bounds using:

--remove-older-than time_interval
    Remove the incremental backup information in the destination
    directory that has been around longer than time_interval.

One thing I discovered is that development is still active enough that
you can't rely on the archive format to remain consistent between
releases.  I.E. - if you start using 0.9.5, you'll want to use that
version on each machine.  And keep it around to access old archives if
you upgrade.

-- 
Ron Peterson                   -o)
87 Taylor Street               /\\
Granby, MA  01033             _\_v
https://www.yellowbank.com/   ----