[AccessD] System Image Failure

James Button jamesbutton at blueyonder.co.uk
Mon Jul 24 14:44:14 CDT 2017


3 in a cycle would be better
At least have 2 so you have a data recovery possibility if the  system fails and
takes out the system and backup drives - (as happened to me).
Do drive (image) or OS partition image backups to the drive
( set it as bootable so you can just point the BIOS at the USB port for the boot
device.)
(Or at least include the OS on that drive as a selection option in your boot
options.)
 
Then setup a facility or .bat script to take copies of whatever in the data
folders you have updated since the last time the script backup was taken to that
drive. 
My script has a file with the last run timestamp on the backup drive, and 
The script creates a folder with the run date in its name so the backups of
files changed since the date get written to a new folder every time the script
gets run.

I'm also considering (for my future use) the cost of 2 or 3 hard drives replaced
every 2 years against the cost of an unlimited cloud store. 

JimB




-----Original Message-----
From: AccessD [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of Rocky
Smolin
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2017 8:09 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
<accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
Cc: 'James Button' <jamesbutton at blueyonder.co.uk>
Subject: Re: [AccessD] System Image Failure

My thought is to have the system image or complete backup on an external
hard drive.  If I'm feeling paranoid, I'll disconnect it between backups. 

r

-----Original Message-----
From: AccessD [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of
James Button via AccessD
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2017 11:34 AM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Cc: James Button
Subject: Re: [AccessD] System Image Failure

So you are not going to consider the probability that the PC system -
motherboard, or PSU, or memory/CPU could have a problem (like one of mine
did) -

And when you have the backup drive connected to take a new backup, Fail
taking out the backup drive, the OS drive and the system

That meaning you'll have to get a new PC -  and recover your data from ??
Restoring the system image to the new system's hard drive would mean that
you would either Have the old OS setup for the old hardware  not working
because it will be on the new system OR have split the new hard drive into
multiple partitions to restore the old image to a 'data' partition 

Note - I am currently using the hard drive from an old system - in a new
system having moved the hard drive and then fixed the OS to use the new
motherboard etc.

If your concern is a failed hard drive - there is RAID - mirror the drive -
but remember a bad file will ba bad on both copies - that only deals with a
drive failure.
Alternatively there is a periodic imaging of the OS drive to a backup one -
And - as I do, have daily (or more frequent - even maybe use crashguard free
options to do it continuously) backup  data to attached drive.

As stated before - It's up to you to consider the cost and effort of backup
and restoration for whatever catastrophe you would be recovering from 

And the basic catastrophes are: 
Windows OS failing.
System failure requiring a new PC.
That failure also making all the built-in and attached hardware unusable.
Malware making all the files it can get at unusable.
All the stuff at the PC location being lost.

JimB


-----Original Message-----
From: AccessD [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of
Rocky Smolin
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2017 6:30 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
<accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
Subject: Re: [AccessD] System Image Failure

I guess for me having the system image in the cloud is not as important as
having it on an EHD. I'm less concerned about theft or virus attack than
having a way to image the drive back to a new HD (or SSD in this care) in
case the drive fails.

R


-----Original Message-----
From: AccessD [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of
James Button via AccessD
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2017 9:51 AM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Cc: James Button
Subject: Re: [AccessD] System Image Failure

Hi,

Re backup volume - I'm considering the monthy backup and then the months
daily incrementals.
Lots of development and maintenance facilities on the system.

However as indicated before - those going to use cloud backup need to
consider the restore time and effort needed to get back their system? Apps?
And data from the backups they will have posted to the cloud For me - I'd
probably not need to have the incrementals from the system image - Just the
full backup from major app changes (maybe 3 a year)  and the incrementals
from the data.  MS can reupdate the OS with their latest image, retaining
the settings from my restored old backup.  



Connection being online all the time is a matter of what the cloud backup's
processing requires So the online all the time consideration would be a
matter of how the facility you (or I ) get actually work


My use of Spideroak backup is for my personal stuff needed for resetup of my
environment.
I do not run the service from system startup, just when I will be updating
those files, and then I quit the facility It will run catch-up on files
updated while it was not running.
Also - the ongoing backup is of the changed blocks of the files - so
effectively an incremental changes set. and not the complete file in each
set.  


Note - Onedrive
with a 50Mb link runs about 3GB of upload a day seems to be MS throttling,
at their end, or maybe the app they installed on my PC, and is not reliable
- manual drag-n-drop mode Sync is a is even more of a pain So no use for
automating an upload of the monthly backup -  let alone the daily
incrementals

JimB



-----Original Message-----
From: AccessD [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of
Rocky Smolin
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2017 5:02 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
<accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
Subject: Re: [AccessD] System Image Failure

Being semi-retired I don't have the volume of backup you have. So it doesn't
need to be on line all the time. Monthly system image would do for me.  For
the daily stuff Google Drive is doing the job. So upload speed of a system
image is not a concern - just start the monthly image and let it run.  My
Norton Ghost total backup of the C: drive is about 88GB.

r

-----Original Message-----
From: AccessD [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of
James Button via AccessD
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2017 8:31 AM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Cc: James Button
Subject: Re: [AccessD] System Image Failure

Backblaze -
Crashplan - about the same cost for the unlimited 1 month free? trial)
Spideroak for 2GB free 

Basic consideration -
Do you need the PC to be online at all times for the backup to work Can you
stop and start the facility manually and haver it 'catch-up' - or does it
have to be running from system startup

Encryption and facility to sync to other PC's - when they connect What
happens if a folder is removed from the list of 'stuff' to be backed-up How
is the backup to be managed

And - Speed of the backup as well as effect on the system of 'sync' if
there's a few large files to be backed-up.

It's about time I reassessed the options for cloud backup of my system - I
expect to be looking to include the folder where the OS partition backups
are placed That will be - an average of maybe 12GB a day for the main
working system during the busy weeks of the year.


JimB  


-----Original Message-----
From: AccessD [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of
Rocky Smolin
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2017 3:56 PM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
<accessd at databaseadvisors.com>
Subject: Re: [AccessD] System Image Failure

Unlimited?  Sounds good. Trustworthy company?

r

-----Original Message-----
From: AccessD [mailto:accessd-bounces at databaseadvisors.com] On Behalf Of
Heenan, Lambert
Sent: Monday, July 24, 2017 7:06 AM
To: 'Access Developers discussion and problem solving'
Subject: Re: [AccessD] System Image Failure

For general off-site data backups I use BackBlaze. Runs continuously on my
system in background backing up *everything* I tell it to. For $5 a month
(yes five) as a personal user I get unlimited storage. I have a couple of
terra-bytes tucked away there.

https://www.backblaze.com/cloud-backup.html


Lambert  


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