Re: Apple ready for mainstream enterprise use?

Michael Vilain <vilain@xxxxxxxxxxx> writes:

I use Retrospect as a local backup solution. I copy the catalog to a
disk image and burn an Emergency Boot CD to go with each backup I do.
You could keep the Retrospect catalog in some networked location and
try and access it from the Emergency Boot CD, but I don't have that
complex an environment. ...

Sounds like a bit of overkill. You could make a single emergency boot
CD with the OS and Retrospect, and copy your catalogs to a removabe
media device (like a USB keychain).

In my case, the computer has two internal hard drives. I created a 10GB
emergency boot partition on the second one that contains little more
than the OS, Retrospect, and some disk-repair utilities. I copy my tape
and CD backup catalogs to it as they are created/updated.

I don't see any way to do backups on the enterprise scale without tapes,
or maybe I'm just out of touch. Only Timeline will tell.

For storing the most recent generation or two of backup, you can use a
large file server and back up to files on it.

For archival storage, you need some form of removable media, since a
shelf full of hard drives will get to be expensive, and they will be
damaged if they are dropped. DVD is usually too small for this (at
8.5GB per DL disc). Until recently, tape was the only choice with
sufficient capacity to be useful. Today, however, Blu-Ray Disc is
another possible alternative, with 50GB capacity on a 2-layer BD-RE. I
don't think anyone is making a BD-changer, however, so we may have to
wait a bit before this becomes practical for enterprise use.

For myself, I'm hoping Retrospect will get Blu-Ray support soon. (The
Windows version has it, but the Mac version says it will be supported in
an upcoming driver update.) I make an archival DVD backup of my system
(everything but my iTunes and iPhoto collection) just before each major
system software upgrade, in case I need to undo the upgrade, or recover
a file that the upgrade deleted.

When I started doing this, on the upgrade from 10.1 to 10.2, this took 2
DVD-R discs. The archive before 10.3 took 3 discs. The archive before
10.4 took 4 discs. A similar archive taken today will be about 30GB,
meaning I'll need 7 discs or 4 dual-layer discs (maybe a bit less,
depending on how much compression I can get.) This is doable, but its
not convenient, since I'll be swapping media all day (once for each disc
during the backup, and all of them again during the verify.) A BD-R or
BD-RE disc would allow all that data to go on a single disc, which is
much more convenient.

-- David
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: retrospect or dvd drive problem?
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    (comp.sys.mac.apps)
  • Re: External Hard Drive used for System Backup.
    ... you for the tip about the "Startup Disc". ... disc in order to clone the backup to an empty internal drive. ... someone buys the Casper 4 software after they have chatted with you. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: ANY reason not to turn off System Restore for non-boot drives?
    ... sector-by-sector snapshot of the disc, which includes the operating system, ... procedure is called "creating a disc image," and the resulting backup ... flipped), or you do a sector by sector backup, but the above seems to ... see the manuals, because the graphics and layout are identical), and a ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • Re: Backup
    ... Backup 2 post, ... DISC and SYSTEM RECOVERY DISC, ... What you are describing does *not* sound like Windows System Restore. ... The copy is the clone. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.general)
  • RE: Broken Admini Rights
    ... Tried Retrospect (the backup software) It came back and said I needed administrator rights to run the program. ...
    (microsoft.public.windowsxp.setup_deployment)