On Wed, 2005-02-09 at 17:43 -0800, Rick Stevens wrote: > Arthur Pemberton wrote: > [snip] > >> > >> You could even swap between a few external drives so that you have a > >> USB drive in use, one on the shelf, one in the safety deposit box, one > >> home, one in the car, etc. Get as crazy as you like. :-) > >> > > Interesting idea. However. What if something goes wrong in the chasis, > > for example, power surge, all teh HDD's go? no? > > The prob I have I have with the USB solution is that it requires user > > intervention. > > ANY backup solution requires user intervention unless you're backing up > to something offsite. You have to rotate your tapes, change CD-R or > DVD-R or swap the hard drive (USB, firewire or hot-swap) and take the > backup media off site if you want safety. > > If you leave the media near the system being backed up, you aren't > secure. I recommend to clients that, whatever media they use, AT LEAST > get a fire-rated document box (about $100) and put the media in it. If > the building burns down or an earthquake occurs (both real possibilities > here in Southern California), at least the backup will probably survive. I recently bought a firesafe for the backup tapes at work; one thing to bear in mind if you're going to buy one is that a safe described as a "document safe" may not as fire-resistant as a safe described as a "media safe"; the latter will maintain a lower internal temperature and for a longer time, given the same external conditions. This is important because media is damaged at lower temperatures than paper documents. Paul. -- Paul Howarth <paul@xxxxxxxxxxxx>
