jwcolby
jwcolby at colbyconsulting.com
Thu Jan 21 21:53:23 CST 2010
Drew, Amen Amen Amen! For all of my servers I use a raid 6 array running on raid co-processor cards. On those arrays I store all of my data. I have upgraded, moved and so forth all of my data many times and never lost a thing. A raid array is NOT a backup, but it is as close to bullet proof as you can get in terms of preventing HARDWARE caused data loss. I use VMWare virtual machines. I do so because I needed to access fast disks natively from the VM and at the time I started doing this Virtual PC wouldn't allow me to do the things I needed. But virtual machines are so recommended. The ability to simply copy the file off to another machine and be back up and running is indescribably useful. Likewise I capture all of my downloads. I have gotten lazy about things like Firefox and so forth where I can get it off the internet, though I even carry around a 4 gig memory stick with those and other programs. And ditto to the ISO images. They can be a PITA to get mounted and visible sometimes but I have always managed. I must say I have not gone so far as a virtual PC running my dev machine on my laptop running on "bare metal". It is a useful concept but I found it just a tad too slow. I have a fairly powerful laptop but it just didn't quite work fast enough. I also had issues with VMS client and Hamachi colliding. It took a LONG time to figure that out. Some day I will do the VM on plain jane OS but I'm not there yet. John W. Colby www.ColbyConsulting.com Drew Wutka wrote: >>From a techie's point of view, while I understand the dread some people > have towards doing a clean install, it is almost always better to do a > clean install. The VERY rare occasion where I have had to do an in > place upgrade, is when a driver for some way outdated software won't > install on a new OS, but it will upgrade to it. > > A few personal habits I have gotten into that make a 'clean' install > something I feel comfortable enough to do on the fly. > > --> Virtual PC. Can't tout this enough. I have a Windows XP virtual > machine setup that has all of my standard 'tools', from development > stuff all the way through network administration tools. So on a clean, > blank computer, all I have to do is install Virtual PC 2007, and copy > over that hard drive, and I am instantly back in business. (And as I get > tools that I find handy, I add them to that environment). Now I even go > a bit further on that. I have that same XP machine running on my > network at work, on a Virtual Server (Microsoft Virtual Server 2005 > (free)), so I can just remote into that machine at any time. > > --> Data structure. I always put my data on a separate drive/partion > (preferably drive). That way, a clean install won't affect my data at > all. I usually do a backup as a precaution before a clean install, but > it's not absolutely necessary. > > --> Downloaded Programs Folder. This may sound silly, in todays > broadband world, everything is available on the internet. But I have > found that when I download a tool, I take the time to add it too an > 'internet downloads' folder, in it's own category. That way, I don't > have to go find the tool, it's right there ready to be installed again. > > --> Finally, this coincides with the first one. ISO images. When I > get a CD or DVD with something that is going to be installed somewhere, > I copy that CD/DVD into an ISO image and store it in a similar fashion > as my Downloaded Programs folder. (I have this iso stash located in > three places, my laptop, my desktop, and the virtual server at work). > ISO images are great for use in both a regular machine, and a virtual > machine. For a regular machine, I use MagicIso, a free utility that > captures an ISO image as a DVD/CD. > > With all of these steps, I could go home tonight, I would have to copy > my iso images from my C drive to my E drive on my laptop (I have to > physical drives on it). Then I could pop in an OS CD, run the setup, > wipe my C: drive completely and install the OS. Once that's done, I > could install Virtual PC, and be up and running instantly. I can also > install everything from my E: drive, and with the ISO images, the > installations take about 20 to 30 minutes, cause I'm not hunting for > CD's, opening and closing a CD/DVD drive, etc. It's all in one place. > > Drew