That most important of subjects
Backing up data
It never ceases to amaze me how many folks (and businesses) have no data backup strategy in place. There isn't a week goes by in these forums where we don't see someone asking how to recover their data because they don't have a backup :(
So let's discuss the best way of saving your critical data for when you need it.
Up until recently I've been a big fan of Mirrored RAID drives (RAID 1), but things that I've read of late have made me want to have a rethink. The onboard RAID built into motherboards really offer protection only against the failure of one of the drives. A power surge/lighning strike/PSU failure that will take out one driove will most likely take out both. Master File Table corruption will affect both drives, and there is the risk of problems with the RAID controller itself. In light of all that, I've now come to the conclusion that using a backup program to store critical files on both drives set up independantly makes more sense, as well as giving the full amount of space on both drives. What's everyones opinion of RAID?
In any case, I never have relyed on RAID alone, my other primary backup strategy is to transfer important files to another PC on the LAN. And very important files get burnt to CDR as well. What other ways of backing up data do you guys use?
Like death and taxes, there is another certainty in life - your hard drive will fail sooner or later.
