[ubuntu-uk] External hard disks and backup strategies

[David M]

Mark Harrison wrote in gmane.linux.ubuntu.user.british 
 about: Re: External hard disks and backup strategies 

> So, relating to the home network, not the work one:
>
> - I have a home network with a few machines
> - All data gets stored on a server
> - I have an external USB hard disk
> - Once an HOUR, the server copies everything over to the USB drive 
> (rsync is your friend)
> - Once an hour, at the "other half of the hour", the server copies "work 
> info" over to an ultra-low power PC, also running Ubuntu, so I have a 
> third copy of that.

Wow, that's a very frequent backup schedule! ;-)

If you have a lot of data to backup, you need to be careful that you
don't get to the stage where the backup starts catching up with itself 
before the previous backup has finished: I get the impression that 
transfer rates of about 1 GB/min are about as good as you can hope for 
over USB 2.0..

This brings me to a question about the actual backing-up process. How do
rsync and the like cope with backing up files that are in use? If you
make frequent backups similar to the above or happen to be using your
computer at the time your periodic backup is scheduled, it's more than
likely that you'll be editing at least one file at the time of the 
backup. Would I be right in thinking that the backup program would just
copy the 'last saved' version of the file on disk, and keep moving on?


> Oh... and I also have two filing cabinets for originals of bank 
> statements / mortgage / tax returns / etc. :-)

I dream of the day when we can actually keep paperless paperwork! :-)


Cheers,


David.

-- 
David M.  Edinburgh, Scotland. ---- [en,fr,(de) <-- corrections welcome]
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