Re: XyWrite/NB with BartPE

[J R FOX jr_fox@xxxxxxxxxx]

--- Michael Norman  wrote:

> I understand the logic of partitioning, though not
> how it provides
> greater security. Perhaps it's the basket metaphor
> that I'm reading
> wrong. If you have partitions and the disk fails,
> fails irreparably,
> how does partitioning help? Either you'd have to get
> a new disk or a
> new machine and rebuild your setup anyway.

Michael,

What you are saying is true, up to a point. Maybe I'm
lucky, but I've yet to have a hard drive die on me
outright. (This may have something to do with my
insistance on using good quality parts, starting with
the power supply.) A much more likely scenario is
that just the boot partition gets hosed -- corrupted,
or you are locked out, or it just won't boot --
although there is no mechanical failure responsible.
This has happened to me, a few times. In that case,
restoring or replacing one partition sure beats having
to do this for the whole damn drive.

> Your point about back-up
> times is well taken. That I can see being a real
> burden. I'm using
> only 13 gigs of an 80-gig disk. I make two images a
> week, verify each
> from a boot disk and mount each to double check.
> Takes 8 minutes to
> make the image, 7 minutes to verify it, two minutes
> to mount the
> image and spot check the files. I also use Second
> Copy to backup
> selected data folders/directories -- everything on
> an external HD.
> Once a month or so I also burn my most important
> data to a CD. So
> twenty minutes overall twice a week to back up. I'm
> sure with a
> better strategy, and partitioning, I could cut that
> at least in half.
> The biggest weakness in my scheme, such as it is, is
> the lack of a
> redundant external HD.

It sounds like your disaster-preparedness regimen is
*already* much better than most. I do have the
feeling that an identical backup drive, kept
reasonably up to date and ready to be swapped in, is
about the best one can do. I have kept a rotation of
two of these clone drives going, periodically
re-cloning them to be more current, and storing at
least one off-site. Way too much work went into
getting my multiboot setup *just right*, so I have a
great incentive to protect that work. Not to mention
all the accumulated data, on other partitions. It is
hard to keep things as current as one should. I'm not
nearly as methodical as you seem to be, particularly
in regard to the whole drive solution, so I supplement
this with making somewhat more frequent partition
images, and storing these on external storage.

More on this later, have to run.


 Jordan