[ILUG] Well, all my playing with distros and now I've lost everything

[Brian Foster]

  | Date: Wed, 30 Jan 2008 10:37:09 +0000
  | From: John Allen <john.allen at dublinux.net>
  | 
  | Conor Wynne wrote:
  | >[ ... ]
  | > Well, windows and all my purchased apps are now gone, gone gone hone,
  | > along with my account details to download em again!
  | >
  | > Nice one!
  | >
  | > Yes I did have a backup, I emphasise did!  While nuking vista and
  | > installing xp on my father-in-law's laptop, I used MY backup USB
  | > HDD just for his docs.  [ ... ]
  | >
  | > I am forever preaching backups to people [ ... ]
  | 
  | Arrgghh, the old I used my backup disk for another purpose, and now
  | I've lost everything.
  | 
  | The moral of the story is *NEVER* use your backup disk for anything
  | other than backup :)

 yup.  other good advice includes, but is not limited to
 (and not necessarily in any particular order):

  0. if anything can go wrong, it will.  hence, act/prepare
     accordingly.

  1. backup media is for backups, nothing else.

  2. have MORE THAN ONE backup.  on separate physical media.

  3. NEVER ASSUME a backup worked / is good.  verify!
     (or, “unverified backups should be assumed to be bad”.)

  4. don't use the most recent backup (N) for the very next
     backup (N+1) unless you can afford to lost both of the
     backups — the making of backup N+1 destroys N, but then
     N+1 will turn out to be bad .... oops!

  5. backups should be physically write-protected (especially
     the important / valuable / long-term ones!).

  6. store selected backups (or duplicates thereof) in a
     physically separate location as a precaution against
     fire, theft, flood, cats, not paying attention to the
     other rules, watching TV, drinks, and so on.

  7. assume backups will be stolen (or lost or destroyed);
     i.e., will not be under your control and falls into
     the hands of someone who you don't trust / don't want
     to have access to your data.

  8. clearly label the backups!

  9. ...

 96. a backup is “too expensive” (in money/time/whatever)
     only if you don't need the data (i.e., can afford to
     lose the data you didn't backup).

 97. there is no such thing as an extra or un-necessary
     backup.

 98. ALWAYS have some media available / ready to be used
     for a backup.

 99. some key data can/should ALSO be backed-up on paper.

 note that, in this case, since rule 1 was broken, rule 2
 should have saved the situation.  and if something still
 managed to go wrong (per rule 0), rules 4, 5, and/or 6
 would have provided more chance(s) to prevent disaster.

cheers!
	-blf-

p.s.  my own (known) major failings with backups are that
     I don't make them often enough (I've been know to go
     for nearly a full year with, at most, one.  not good!);
     and I don't pay attention to rule 7.

      I use DVD-R, DVD+R, or CD-R for essentially all
     backups and hence automatically follow rules 1, 4,
     and 5; also 2 since they are almost never discarded.
     rules 3, 6, and 99 are fitfully followed; i.e., I
     could/should do better .... .

-- 
“How many surrealists does it take to    |  Brian Foster
 change a lightbulb?  Three.  One calms  |  somewhere in south of France
 the warthog, and two fill the bathtub   |     Stop E$$o (ExxonMobile)!
 with brightly-coloured machine tools.”  |       http://www.stopesso.com