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Re: HD Backup



On Mon, 2006-01-02 at 00:49 -0600, Casey Boone wrote:
> assuming one has external SATA ports, which not everyone does.

Agreed.  But it is now quickly becoming an option on new systems.

Furthermore, you can put in removable bays -- and SATA is most ideal
because of it's staggered pins for proper power/connection transient.

So on a server, I would put one in.  I do _not_ trust FireWire, and much
less USB, when it comes to connecting to a server for a period of time.
I've seen kernel panic after Blue Screen -- Linux, Windows, even MacOS
X, it doesn't matter.

Apple has had advisory after advisory on FireWire and its XServe
products.

> I did find an interesting external enclosure the other day though, external
> SATA/usb2/firewire.  Switched between SATA and 1394/usb2 mode with a switch.

Yep, I've seen those as well.

> honestly i think this thread has gotten a touch off track

The user wanted a filesystem that worked in Linux and could be read in
Windows.  UDF does that.

Someone _else_ interjected NTFS and a lot of other things.  I wanted to
point out that it didn't recommend it for various, sound, technical
reasons.

> yes bryan we know you dont like ntfs and you have seen some really bad
> things happen as a result of "design flaws" blah blah blah.

I don't say this stuff for my health.  I've been using NT since day 1 --
years before most people even played with Windows 95.  I have followed
all of the issues, trained enterprise NT administrators and help them
implement Best Common Practices (BCPs).

And I've seen no less than 50 NTFS volumes _toasted_ because of moving
them between systems.

And we're talking _Linux_ here.  NTFS does _not_ store traditional UNIX
permissions, much less POSIX ACLs or EAs.  The Linux UDF driver does.

> other people have used ntfs formatted drives bouncing from machine to machine
> without any trouble anything close to the trouble you describe (not that
> it isnt possible, just that it isnt likely to be encountered by most
> people). 

As I mentioned in my SLLUG-SLUUG presentations, NT5.1 (XP) does a better
job "protecting" SAM-SID information when the mounting system is
ignorant of such meta-data.  That's good, because it drastically reduces
the chance of corruption.

Microsoft has had to deal with the fact that they don't offer a
"solution" to FAT32 filesystem support beyond 32GiB (format) or 128GiB
(i.e., geometry gets "weird" beyond 128GiB for FAT32 on NT5.x).  More
and more flash and removable disc vendors are moving to UDF, and
including drivers for Windows with their products.

And that's before we even look at Basic v. Dynamic Discs.  I know people
think this is a lot of things they don't care about, but if you support
NTFS -- as a Windows administrator, you _should_ know it.  I don't
expect you to take any of my MCSE courses, but they are _factual_
information.

>  cant we all just drop ntfs?

I did *NOT* bring it up!  Someone _else_ argued that NTFS is a good
filesystem to use for Linux backup.  I argued very much _against_ that.

> as for the original issue, ray i would evaluate doing one or more of the
> following: external drive formatted ext3 and backed up using rsync.
> get more than one external drive and do a rotation (again rsync is "teh
> r0x0rz").
> offsite backup (via rsync of course) or just backing up to another
> machine on the network (a hidden backup locked away from the general
> office staff)
> keep a copy of knoppix with the server so that it is handy in case you
> need it for recovery or whatnot

Which I also agreed with _entirely_.

Ext2/3 or UDF with multiple discs.

I suggested 4 would be ideal -- full and then incrementals throughout a
week, for a full month.

I also recommended 2.5" drives for their off-line and shock tolerances
in comparison to 3.5" drives.  You can use them in the same 3.5"
removable bays if you like (to save on costs), and don't have to search
for 2.5" removable bays.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith   mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org
http://thebs413.blogspot.com
------------------------------------------
Some things (or athletes) money can't buy.
For everything else there's "ManningCard."



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