OS/2, eCS & ArcaOS - Technical > Storage
Share a 2TB USB drive between Windows and OS/2?
Joop:
All backup programs which works through drivers do work, I do backup with a backup program on USB disk. All backup programs which do work direct with media needs to know how the media works, as progress is going more rapid with time its to be expected that all backup programs which works direct with media will vanish, the investment is too high to develop or rework source time after time. I use 120Gb USB drives for my backups and have real problems to fill it. My harddisk of 160Gb is formatted for 100Gb, the remainder is never touched. 2T, that's a nightmare, what do you do with it?
Pete:
Hi All
@Joop
You slowly fill the 2Tb disk with backups . It can take a while ;-)
However, as I am fairly sure Doug and others will agree, only 1 disk is not the way to go.
A backup strategy should include another device eg CD/DVD/2ndDisk, as there is always the possibility that the
backup disk could fail - I speak from bitter fairly recent experience where I had my system drive fail and when I replaced the system drive and attempted to restore from backups my USB backup drive went "fizzle, fizzle, BANG!"
I lost nearly 2 years worth of data... Luckily most of it was not important. I have, however, had to spend a little time in the past few months gradually rebuilding my USBcfg source code to the current release level. Nearly there, just have to try and figure out how I managed to code a few functions... :-)
My own fault as I had let my backup strategy of backing up my backups to a 2nd backup drive slide. This happened as a result of a letting my son borrow the 2nd backup drive which he failed to return when he was meant to. When he did return it, several months and a bit of "nagging" later, he had reformatted the drive NTFS... Grrr!!!
I will not be lending out my 2nd backup drive again - well, maybe... but only if it is necessary to save the world ;-)
@Andreas Kohl
I have to agree with Doug that there should be no problem using a USB drive as a backup and also that it is slower than an eSATA drive - a recent test here using an enclosure with USB3 and eSATA ports showed copying the same data from hard disk to eSATA drive took around 25% of the time that it took with the same external hard drive connected as a USB(2) drive. Of course, the problem with eSATA is the current lack of hot swap capability.
If you are having problems with USB drives post the details - hardware involved and bldlevels of drivers involved - and I am sure we will all do our best to help. If you have not tried using USBcfg to check and reconfigure your USB drivers it may be worth a try - especially as the Help has an FAQ relating to installing, configuring and using USB drives on OS/2. It is available as Warpin or Zip package from http://hobbes.nmsu.edu/h-search.php?key=usbcfg&pushbutton=Search
Regards
Pete
Doug Bissett:
--- Quote ---2T, that's a nightmare, what do you do with it?
--- End quote ---
Hehe, now that is a good question. There was an old saying that goes something like: "Give them the resources, and they will find a way to use them." More often than not, it is all too true. The biggest problem is that users tend to collect so much JUNK, that they can't find what they thought they stored there anyway.
--- Quote ---However, as I am fairly sure Doug and others will agree, only 1 disk is not the way to go.
--- End quote ---
Well, that depends a lot on how you use the machine, but yes more than one, PHYSICAL, backup is generally a good idea. Of course, under normal circumstances, the backup for your backup is the original. However, when Murphy sticks his nose into the mix, all bets are off (sounds like he got you good).
It is always a good idea to have an emergency backup. Mine consists of a USB stick, where I store all of my own personal data, and a few other things that would likely be difficult to get elsewhere. You can always get the OS, and most programs, from other sources, but you can't get your own address book, or e-mail, from other sources.
FWIW, I don't recommend storing more than one copy of a backup (including incremental, and/or differential backups, if you do it that way) on a single backup media. If it goes bad, you have lost the works. It is also a good idea to store an emergency backup off site. 14 backups, on 14 disks, won't do you much good if they are all destroyed by fire (for instance).
One of the newest backup media, is the "cloud". That might sound like a good idea, but in most cases, it is way too slow for doing normal backups. You also run a higher risk that somebody will break into it, and do bad things with it. My personal view is that the "cloud" is useful for sales people who need immediate access to things like price lists, and order forms, when they are out of the office. It is not a good place to put backups, or even photos.
Joop:
Little bit of topic. Always installs more than one drive in your computer. Be sure your power can handle the load easily, I always use factor 2. At start up a drive uses the highest amps and they do start same time. Because your power is twice what's needed it will stay cooler and less stress at tops. Clean the fan now and then, it helps. Now you have at least two drives in your system. So you can copy important data on both drives. Its very unlikely that both drives will fail same time. Have backups on also more drives, so you can have important data on more backup drives. If your private user, don't backup too often, once a month or so. Backing up more often does have the risk that you backup not noticed problems with it (from own experience). Backup is one thing, restore is totally different. Try at least once to be sure you have a working set for your system. I use a backup system which lets me the choice to make a restore in a total different configuration. As we go along our views, way of thinking and insights will alter and do have the outcome that we will do things different, after all we are the thinking generation...
Andi B.:
--- Quote ---Its very unlikely that both drives will fail same time.
--- End quote ---
Except when your power supply unit dies so badly that the output voltages rises up. F.i. while an over voltage event (surge) or simply cause it's to old or to low quality. Then your backup on the second internal drive will vaporize too.
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