[ubuntu-uk] Backup strategies: [Was Hard drive- Bad sectors]

[Alan Lord (News)]

On 19/04/10 08:00, mac wrote:
> Alan Lord (News) wrote:
> <snip>
>> It isn't perfect - currently it uses rsync but this makes it hard to
>> recover from a few days (or weeks) ago. I've been meaning to migrate it
>> to rsnapshot but just haven't got round to it yet.
>
> Would you mind saying a bit more about the problem with rsync?  I've
> used it regularly for backup, but I've not had to recover much (only
> bits of data I've accidentally deleted).  So, in view of your passing
> comment that it's hard to recover from a few days/weeks ago, I'm now a
> bit worried about not being able to recover from a more serious data loss.

The way my script (and I think rsync) works is that what is stored on my 
backup location is only a copy of what was last backed up (i.e. last 
night). If I wanted to restore a system to how it was say 3 days or one 
week ago I don't think you can.

rsnapshot and rdiff-backup both provide alternatives to this where there 
is also a "history" (length and precision of your choosing) so you can 
re-create data that was around at some arbitrary point in the past.

It hasn't really been a problem before, but it would be nice to be able 
to have this facility. There are pros and cons to both solutions I think.

HTH

Al



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