Re: [tlug] Hard Drive Failure (Was: Help! Total hardware failure)

[tlug@example.com]

On Sunday 14 September 2008 21:20:01 Dave M G wrote:
> I was wondering about the feasibility of buying a second drive, and then
> doing a complete copy once a day.

Hmmm...  I highly recommend you do some research and learn about RAID...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RAID_1#RAID_1

Software RAID 1 is trivial to implement in Linux and is superior to the idea 
above in the following ways:
* It is MUCH less work for you!
* It gives you continuous backup.

> My problem up to now has not so much been the frequency of backups, but
> the completeness. I'm always creating new documents and folders and data
> that I don't remember to include. So really I want a system where every
> now and again I can just slam the entire contents of a drive onto
> another drive.

RAID 1 is complete.  It is not a replacement for a good backup system, but it 
is a cheap addition that requires very little effort yet takes care of the 
problem that you are describing.

Travis