Thinkpads Forum

Do you guys have a recovery/backup plan if disaster strikes (OS/Software/HDD failure etc) , and your system goes down, and what kind of backups do you have and how often do you really backup?

I've taken the liberty of making a minor edit in your poll to reflect the fact that those of us who clone our HDs on a regular basis can be up and running again in about 5 minutes!

Those who make regular clones to other devices will need a little longer.

Regards,

James

Great poll!

If my HDD was stuffed, however, I *could* be up and running in hours *if* I had the new HDD ready to go. Chances are, it would take a few days to reach me from Auckland (or Sydney, as the case may be).

I do have a small 1.8" portable HDD, but I don't think it is the Hitachi (?) drive that is found in my X40.

I have most everything backed up (and did have the big airbag disaster). Nonetheless, it takes about 5 days to build the machine properly again. I can get running in about 4 hours but the rest takes care and time.
... JD Hurst

All of my data is backed up on my midtower or USB memory keys. If my ThinkPad becomes disabled I can just do work on the midtower until IBM does repair or sends replacement parts.

I'd be pretty fine if disaster struck my ThinkPad because I rarely keep important data on it and when I do, I move it to my desktop as fast as I can and I have two other ThinkPads that with the exception of the OS, have almost exact mirror images of my main ThinkPads hard drives.

If physical disastor ever happens to the computer itself and not the data, I have enough parts at hand to strip down and rebuild with working parts either of my two ThinkPad 760's.

i back up twice a day to both an online file storage and on a jumpdrive. If my hard drive blanked, it would take about 1/2 hour to reinstall OS, and another 10min to restore all my settings and files.

It pays to back up regularly... i learned it the hard way

<<EDIT>>

this should be in "General" forum... not all of us are using windows

If disaster struck my Thinkpad it would depend on whether it was just an OS issue (windows) or a hard drive gone. If it was the HD I'd have to wait for a new one (or run out to CompUSA and get one) but then I'd be good a cpl of hours later.

I keep all of my files backed up on my desktop PC, which has 2 external 200GB drives attached for backups of really important stuff.

I'll probably start cloning my TP drive as soon as I can figure out how to do it across the network and with software that works. I'll go back and read those threads from a few months back (has to wait till after finals).

If my desktop bit the big one I'd be good to go in 10 minutes. 5 minutes to plug in the new drive and 5 to get it imaged. Have a spare HD I can plug in and backups of my images.....

--Adam

Well so far it looks like Thinkpad users do have really good backup routines. My personal backup consists of daily backup of files and e-mail to my desktop "Server", and I make a Norton GhostClone of the entire 7K60 internal disk to another 7K60 in the X3 Ultrabay once a month. I also have a spare 40GB/5400 thats preconfigured with the preload OS and my main programs, but without personal files and setting in case both my 7K60 should be corrupt due to viruses etc. I guess I'd be up running in about an hour, worst case scenario.
But five minutes James...? I'd really like to see you at work

jdhurst wrote:Nonetheless, it takes about 5 days to build the machine properly again.

Can't you image your HDD and reapply it using Norton's Ghost? Saves a lot of time

bplaut wrote:i back up twice a day to both an online file storage and on a jumpdrive. If my hard drive blanked, it would take about 1/2 hour to reinstall OS, and another 10min to restore all my settings and files.

this should be in "General" forum... not all of us are using windows

1/2 an hour?!? you definately aren't using windows.
Even the recovery cd's take longer than that.

I can reinstall my OS in about 15 minutes but it takes a couple of hours of tweaking to get it the way I like it. Backgrounds, fonts, etc...
All my data is backed up on a NAS machine everyday and it would only take a couple minutes to get my business back up and running.
I guess my biggest wait would be for the replacement hard drive to show up. In that case there are plenty of spare computer I could use until it arrived.

Steve007 wrote:

jdhurst wrote:Nonetheless, it takes about 5 days to build the machine properly again.

Can't you image your HDD and reapply it using Norton's Ghost? Saves a lot of time

Possibly. I have a license for Ghost. I looked at it and there were so many options in the text base command line that I had no confidence it would do it right. I have been too lazy to order Acronis which I understand would do it right and is straightforward to use. I also have to acquire another hard disk to do the backup because the image is very large. ... JD Hurst

carbon_unit wrote:

bplaut wrote:i back up twice a day to both an online file storage and on a jumpdrive. If my hard drive blanked, it would take about 1/2 hour to reinstall OS, and another 10min to restore all my settings and files.

this should be in "General" forum... not all of us are using windows

1/2 an hour?!? you definately aren't using windows.
Even the recovery cd's take longer than that.

I can reinstall my OS in about 15 minutes but it takes a couple of hours of tweaking to get it the way I like it. Backgrounds, fonts, etc...
All my data is backed up on a NAS machine everyday and it would only take a couple minutes to get my business back up and running.
I guess my biggest wait would be for the replacement hard drive to show up. In that case there are plenty of spare computer I could use until it arrived.

back up the folders

c:/Documents and Settings/[your account]/Local Settings

and

c:/Documents and Settings/[your account]/Application Data

...saves all of you settings for windows and programs (you probably already knew the application data, but most people, including me until recently, forget to backup Local Settings)

oh, and backup the registry occasionaly, too
----
no, i'm not using windows... so i can just back up /home/ben folder and ALL of my settings and documents are saved. And keep a good list of what packages i have installed

I use two different computer on two completely different operating systems. The PowerBook is my primary computer so if my ThinkPad crashed I would still be OK. My backup solution is that anything I create on the ThinkPad gets copied to the PowerBook the first time I have them together, or burnt to a CD if I'm travelling with the TP only.

The PowerBook is fully backed up to an external fireWire drive (just the data, not the OS and apps which I can easily reinstall).

In effect, I have three places where all of my data resides. The ThinkPad where I keep everytying that is current, the PowerBook where I keep absolutely everything, and then an external firewire drive that has a backup from the PowerBook. The two computers are stored separately and the FW drive is locked in my gunsafe, which is also fireproof.

Probably overkill, but its comforting.

bplaut wrote: no, i'm not using windows...

Me neither

bplaut wrote:so i can just back up /home/ben folder and ALL of my settings and documents are saved. And keep a good list of what packages i have installed

How big is you home folder and what do you back it up on? Mine is a little over 2 gigs and growing.

carbon_unit wrote:

bplaut wrote: no, i'm not using windows...

Me neither

bplaut wrote:so i can just back up /home/ben folder and ALL of my settings and documents are saved. And keep a good list of what packages i have installed

How big is you home folder and what do you back it up on? Mine is a little over 2 gigs and growing.

mine is at about 500mb... all the files that are more than a few months old go off of the HDD and onto the desktop (200gb HDD on that beast)...

if i had all of my files in /home, then it would be about 4gb (lots of graphics and high res images)

i am a packrat

I make full system backups (the entire HDD) about every 3 months to an external USB2 HDD using Acronis TI. I then burn the images to CD's a couple times a year or just before going on a trip.

...

Seagate 200 gb Firewire, USB 2.0 - 1 touch backup drive.

I have an image on an external 120GB HDD enclosure, which I update on a regular basis. Works just fine.

Just to throw a bit of retro-reflection in here...

Anybody else been around puters long enough to remember punch card ques?

About 20 years ago I was doing some data entry on an IBM VM370. The standard practice at the end of the day was to spool all your data to the punch card que. Not because you actually wanted cards punched, but because it was a separate device with separate physical memory. More than once I arrived for work in he morning to find that the 370 had crashed hard, taking all my data with it. Once they'd get it back up I'd connect to the punch card machine and there would be my file, sitting in the que. Talk about relief.

Ed Gibbs

My first love was FORTRAN 77. Believe it or not - I'm a certified FORTRAN programmer on IBM S360 type systems. That certification and $1.90 will buy a cup of coffee these days!

a31pguy wrote:My first love was FORTRAN 77. Believe it or not - I'm a certified FORTRAN programmer on IBM S360 type systems.

Jeez, and I thought I was old!

Regards,

James

JHEM wrote:

a31pguy wrote:My first love was FORTRAN 77. Believe it or not - I'm a certified FORTRAN programmer on IBM S360 type systems.

Jeez, and I thought I was old!

Regards,

James

what's that? Hold on let me get my hearing aid!

a31pguy wrote:My first love was FORTRAN 77. Believe it or not - I'm a certified FORTRAN programmer on IBM S360 type systems. That certification and $1.90 will buy a cup of coffee these days!

I learned Fortran 77 at the University of Waterloo, and wrote geometry programs for curved bridges for the Department of Transportation in my home Province (while a University student) in Fortran IV on both IBM 7040 and S360 machines. ... JDH

...

Since many of you guys seems to have really nice recoveryplans, is there anyone who's documented how to react in a certain situation. Anyone who has a real contingencyplan?