[FRIAM] Backup solutions (was "stupidest question....")

[Marcus G. Daniels]

Bill Eldridge wrote:
> Also, I can't imagine NTFS being around for 11 years with various 
> upgrades and having this error
> situation persist.
Really brave people will try a ext2/3 plugin for Windows.   That's your 
best bet for losing data fast!  (I know.)

I find that with a few machines around, I inevitably need a Windows 
machine and mutual access to the data on that system from various 
operating systems.   SMB/CIFS being a universal client (and server), the 
most robust and least frustrating configuration for me is a large 
windows file server (on NTFS) and network clients via SMB.  Samba is 
such a nuisance to setup compared to just configuring shares in 
Windows.  It's not the fastest setup, but not all data access needs to 
be super fast. (e.g. target for mirroring backups, compressed source 
packages, etc.)

Anyway, on the topic of backups, I put in a vote for buying lots of 
drives (they are dirt cheap) and having some at a remote location (e.g. 
at work).  Then it is just a matter of mirroring, in a waterfall type 
arrangement, so to have different ages of backups.  The last one being 
to a remote location for a physical copy outside of your primary work 
location.  (Hey, gotta get every penny of value out of that broadband 
subscription!)