5 replies to this topic

[Timelord]

I've seen my fair share of people who cry over data loss, and Kivtoe has posted several threads regarding concerns over system crashes, that I take to mean OS corruption. For all of you who want to know, here is a briefing on my backup technique, that is rather straightforward, and takes a bit of discipline, but is well worth it in the end.
 
Backups keep me calm, and tranquil. They're like anti-anxiety medication, and I do them nightly; just like my sleeping pills, and whiskey. I also keep spare, blank drives on hand, and I love CloneZilla (or, if you want the full Monty, use 'Parted Magic'). Unfortunately, both are too digitally square to wear a blue diamond ring, or I'd marry them.
 
i do fill OS/SW implementation backups on a routine basis, but working path backups, are either nightly, or 'whenever I change datum'. That meaning, if I haven;t changed, modified, added to, or subtracted from files; or touched files in any way, in a given path; that making a back-up (incidentally identical to the last one) is purely wasteful.
 
I do make a monthly archive of all my working paths, whether they change, or not, just for surety. Peace of mind is a wonderful thing. I do need to get an SAS Tape drive up and running locally though, to archive all these TBs of media. Doing that remotely is very time-consuming. I have a spare, external SAS LTO-4 drive, but I need to put together a Windows, or Linux system with an SAS bridge to use here. The remote servers have SAS, but those are quite a way away.
 
Anyhow, how large is your system drive? If it's 1TB or less, you can cheaply buy a 1TB to 3TB SATA drive (be sure it's enterprise rated), connect it, format it in Parted Magic, and use CloneZilla to copy your main drive, to it, as a clone image.
 
That's your initial back-up. Then, use the extra space, on a daily basis, or weekly basis, to copy your new files into paths like this:
 
/BACKUPS
    /2015
        /AUGUST
            /20AUG2015
                / {datum}
 
This will allows you to do manual, incremental backups, without trouble.
 
As an example, my ZC directory backups look like this:
 

 
Backups of your main drive (including any partitions, and your boot sectors), plus routine backups of datum, may very well give you the calm that you need, if you want to experiment.
 
I advise doing a full disk clone on a regular basis, if you change/add/remove any OS components, or programmes. It's prudent to do them at least semi-annually, in any event; but don't purge/delete your older ones.
 
Last, 'CloneZilla' (and 'Parted Magic') are very useful if you want to clone one HDD to another, verbatim. This is very nice, if for example, you want to upgrade to a larger drive. You can clone your existing drive to a fresh, new drive, of equal, or greater capacity. Once you acclimate to the tools, you can easily add partitions, and make a multi-boot system; and likewise, you can clone multi-boot systems worry-free.
 
Spare Hardware
For hardware, I make it a habit to keep a second system, with identical hardware, on hand. This allow me to shift the drives from a damaged system, into another identical one, in a few moments, and thus, keep going if the main system dies at a hardware level, or requires a replacement component, with no downtime.
 
About CloneZilla and Parted Magic
CloneZilla is a free, open-source utility for Linux, while Parted Magic used to be a free distro. Newer versions of the CloneZilla distro cost a few quid, but if you can't afford that, and want one of the older, free versions, I can put it on a server for you to fetch. (It's probably on at least three servers that I manage, as an ISO, now.)

 

CloneZilla is easy to use, with most taks handled with a GUI, not a command line.
 
Otherwise, you can find the old distros via torrents on numerous sites: It's GPL2 or GPL3, if you're wondering. The author charges for datum access, and for his time to maintain the packages, to download the updated versions, which is something that I comprehend, although I don't personally like his methodology. If he kept the old version alive, on his own accord, I wouldn't complain, but he intentionally removed the link to it from the main site, to push newer (paid) versions.
 
I feel that he should make it optional, to buy the latest release, but keep a torrent link for the last free release available. Either way, it's probably three quid to buy the latest version, and the toolset is invaluable.
 

Other Tips

• Buy some USB pen drives (a.k.a. 'flash drives, jump drives). Even 128GB versions are quite affordable now, and make archiving far less painful. You can also easily store them off-site, or in a fireproof safe.
• Never overwrite your quest files. When saving, always choose' Save As...' and append a version number, or date, to the quest filenames. This prevents incidental quest file corruption, and also allows you to easily revert.
• The same applies to script files. Never over-write those!

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Edited by ZoriaRPG, 21 August 2015 - 06:52 AM.

[ShadowTiger]

Very nice guide! An enjoyable read.

In terms of PartEd Magic, unless I'm horribly mistaken, Hiren's BootCD 1.52 includes a copy of it. I've never used the specific version of PartEd Magic that you're likely referring to though, so I'm not entirely sure if there's a difference between the version it includes and the version not tied in with Hiren's BootCD.

EDIT: Why, yes, I was mistaken! Good. Different things.

(Note that everyone should have a copy of Hiren's BootCD in case they somehow lock themselves out of a local Windows account. Doesn't work on a Microsoft live account on Win8, sadly. That requires account migration on the local machine to an eventually identical one.)

[Theryan]

Backup? I usually just put the car in reverse and remove my foot from the brake, applying light pressure to the gas pedal as needed.

I used to have my laptop set to backup every 2 weeks to an external hard drive, and I'd copy the most important things to Dropbox and a flash drive. Haven't been good about doing any of that lately.

[Timelord]

Very nice guide! An enjoyable read.

In terms of PartEd Magic, unless I'm horribly mistaken, Hiren's BootCD 1.52 includes a copy of it. I've never used the specific version of PartEd Magic that you're likely referring to though, so I'm not entirely sure if there's a difference between the version it includes and the version not tied in with Hiren's BootCD.


(Note that everyone should have a copy of Hiren's BootCD in case they somehow lock themselves out of a local Windows account. Doesn't work on a Microsoft live account on Win8, sadly. That requires account migration on the local machine to an eventually identical one.)

 

HBCD includes a a Windows tool, 'PartionMagic', which is absolutely not the same thing.

 

'Parted Magic' is a full Linux distro, that makes HBCD look like a childrens' toy. Really, just try it. Ignore the name, as it's not just a partition editor. The number of diagnostic tools is, as I stated above, invaluable, and will likely make you toss everything else that you use; plus, they're all open-source.

 

I've recovered 'absolutely unrecoverable datum/partitions/boot sectors' in minutes using PM; and cloned multiboot systems running Windows, OSX, Linux, and FreeBSD (four partitions, one HDD), flawlessly with CloneZilla. It's also a thirty-second MBR repair tool, and can revive 'corrupted' FAT-32 (possibly also NTFS) Windows installs in a click of the fingers; and it handles just about every filesystem ever devised, including some of the most obscure--plus raw datum recovery, via full surface scanning for fragments, filetypes, and other key datum types, to reconstruct files, even from a formatted device, or a device with a filesystem structure that is 'lost' or 'entirely destroyed'.

 

About the only thing it won't do, is disassemble disc platters for manual forensic at the physical level. You still need to remove, insert, align, and space those by hand, for drives that have been in fires, floods, or otherwise physically mutilated.

Edited by ZoriaRPG, 21 August 2015 - 09:29 AM.

[ShadowTiger]

'Parted Magic' is a full Linux distro, that makes HBCD look like a childrens' toy. Really, just try it. Ignore the name, as it's not just a partition editor. The number of diagnostic tools is, as I stated above, invaluable, and will likely make you toss everything else that you use; plus, they're all open-source.


I've recovered 'absolutely unrecoverable datum/partitions/boot sectors' in minutes using PM; and cloned multiboot systems running Windows, OSX, Linux, and FreeBSD (four partitions, one HDD), flawlessly with CloneZilla. It's also a thirty-second MBR repair tool, and can revive 'corrupted' FAT-32 (possibly also NTFS) Windows installs in a click of the fingers; and it handles just about every filesystem ever devised, including some of the most obscure--plus raw datum recovery, via full surface scanning for fragments, filetypes, and other key datum types, to reconstruct files, even from a formatted device, or a device with a filesystem structure that is 'lost' or 'entirely destroyed'.

I think I drooled a little bit.

About the only thing it won't do, is disassemble disc platters for manual forensic at the physical level. You still need to remove, insert, align, and space those by hand, for drives that have been in fires, floods, or otherwise physically mutilated.

Of course. We do have a facility in Manhattan for that though. They're a bit on the expensive side, but sure, they would be. It's situated in a clean room for pete's sake.

[Timelord]

I think I drooled a little bit.




Of course. We do have a facility in Manhattan for that though. They're a bit on the expensive side, but sure, they would be. It's situated in a clean room for pete's sake.

 

It's expensive, for many reasons. It's highly specialised work, and requires precision down to micrometre tolerances. I've done platter, and head work on older drives, but newer ones have such low variances, that it'd be impossible with my tools.