If I understand you correctly then I only back up data, not the system.
You have an excellent point and although I have never, so far at least,
had a large problem losing my system or data I do see the advantage to
doing just what you have said. I will be buying the book you suggested
and hopefully get through enough to do a back up of the new system
before I actually go on line with it.
Thank you for the info.
Moe
On 02/27/2015 09:54 PM, David Christensen wrote:
On 02/26/2015 07:46 PM, Maureen L Thomas wrote:
[Why] back up a new install?
1. To integrate the machine into your backup procedures and make sure
it is being backed up correctly, so that you can trust it with your
data moving forward.
2. To have a baseline to compare changes to.
3. To have a baseline that you can revert to if changes don't produce
the results you want.
As an aside, the term "backup" has multiple meanings:
1. Copying working files to another device via the file system (e.g.
'rsync').
2. Copying raw device contents to a binary file (e.g. 'dd').
I like to use the term "backup" for the former and "image" for the later.
(Backups can be further split into two categories: "full" and
"incremental". This saves space on the destination devices, but adds
complexity.)
A related term is "archive". I like to use that for files collect
into a single file that is never modified thereafter (e.g. 'tar').
Related terms include:
1. "scope" -- what files or devices are being backed up, imaged, and
archived.
2. "frequency" -- how often you create backups, images, and archives.
3. "redundancy" -- multiple copies of backups, images, and archives.
4. "site" -- the physical location of the backups, images, and archives.
5. "strategy" -- a specific set of decisions involving all or part of
the above.
It helps to segregate your working files based upon your backup,
image, and archive strategies. For example, every machine on my SOHO
LAN has a small solid-state or USB flash "system" drive, and one
machine has a shared large magnetic "data" drive. I only take images
of system drives. I take backups and archives of all or part of the
system drives and of the data drive. As your systems and networks
grow, so must your backup, image, and archive strategies and
infrastructure.
I found [1] to be a helpful book on the subject.
David
References:
[1] W. Curtis Preston, 2007, "Backup & Recovery, Inexpensive Backup
Solutions for Open Systems", O'Reilly Media, ISBN: 978-0-596-10246-3,
http://shop.oreilly.com/product/9780596102463.do
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