Re: HD Backup

["Robert G. (Doc) Savage" <dsavage@peaknet.net>]

On Thu, 2005-12-29 at 15:36 -0600, Ray Holtz wrote:
> Well Hello SILUGers!  Long time no write.  I’m doing well up here in
> Chicagoland, but I miss the monthly meetings.  I don’t do nearly enough
> Linux work up here like I want to, my office is 95% M$.
> 
> Anywho, I’ve got a client on the side up here who wants to backup the
> Linux (Fedora 4) file server I setup for him.  I’m thinking of doing an
> external hard drive backup and just writing a script to copy all the file
> shares to the external HD so he can move that off-site very easily.  What
> I’m looking for here is recommendations of external HD that are good
> brands, breath easily (so it doesn’t overheat), is USB2, and not too hefty
> of a price tag hopefully.  Currently he has less than 20GB that need to be
> backed up, so even a ‘small’ 100GB drive would give him a about 5 weeks of
> backups per drive. I’m thinking of setting him up with 3 drives, so a
> backup Mon, Wed, and Fri nights.
> 
> Also if anyone has any creative ways of writing such a script to copy the
> files, I’d love to hear about that too!  Something simple like Bash
> Scripting that I can follow, and edit when necessary. I’m thinking of
> something where it checks for backups that are older than 4 or 5 weeks,
> deletes those to open up space, then copies the files and folders it
> needs.   I’m not asking for anyone to do my work for me, but to point me
> in the right direction or maybe any resources I can check online to create
> this.
> 
> Also also, what are anyone’s thoughts on formatting the drives with FAT32
> so that if need be, the drive and its files can be read by a Windows
> computer?
> 
> Thanks for the advice everyone,
> Ray
> Formerly from Carbondale

Ray,

If raw capacity in a small package interests you, then consider a 500GB
EIDE drive in an external USB2 enclosure. I recently picked up a Hitachi
7K500 drive from Computer Giants and a "Metal Gear Box" USB2 enclosure
from Kara at The Computer Room. The all-metal case provides good heat
dissipation for a 4-platter 7200rpm drive that does get warm.

For best prices go to http://www.pricewatch.com, select Hard Drives /
Removable under Storage Devices, then "eide 500gb" to see the latest
from Seagate and Hitachi. Your total outlay would be about $430 for both
drive & enclosure.

Also, LaCie is about to release a new line of USB2 external drives
packaged in very cool oversize Lego-like cases. See
http://www.lacie.com/products/product.htm?pid=10693

Regarding FAT32, my 500G drive is formatted with NTFS so I can move
stuff to/from Windows systems and requires Paragon's NTFS for Linux
read/write driver (http://www.ntfs-linux.com/). After overcoming an
early problem which Paragon fixed straight away, it now works perfectly.
I do have to recompile every time I upgrade the kernel (just like
VMware), but a script makes that almost trivial.

--Doc


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