[Linux] External firewire drive

Thu, 28 Jun 2007 01:04:31 -0400

This is a multi-part message in MIME format.

------_=_NextPart_001_01C7B941.D009ACBA
Content-Type: text/plain;
	charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

I know the point of your message was how good the hardware support of
linux can be these days, and that is really cool.  Ubuntu is an
impressive distro.  Debian has always been really nice on the lower
level stuff, and the Ubuntu folks have kind of filled in the rest of the
package by adding more frequent updates and a much easier user interface
to Debian's power.=20

=20

But....the mention of using a hard drive as a "personal backup solution"
made me cringe.  I've been a consultant of one type or another in the IT
industry for 15 years now and cannot count the times that people have
been utterly let down by such a system. =20

=20

It's not that you can't use a hard drive as a reasonable backup, but
most people don't. Simply copying your files to another place every so
often is a very poor backup.  It relies on you making sure that every
file you copy is correct before you do the "backup", and thats a nearly
impossible goal.  I don't know how many clients I've seen with two
perfectly identical copies of their virus infested, mistakenly edited or
otherwise corrupted files. =20

=20

You can use a hard drive to store incremental backups, transaction logs,
or as part of some kind of revisioning system, and then it's a pretty
fast and accessible means of backup if not an especially reliable one...
but people almost never do things that way.  To make it worse a lot of
the external hard drive manufactures actually market them as backup
solutions but include software that just does a copy every so often.
Not good!  Even worse are the "Raid 1 backup solutions" where you
basically just destroy multiple copies of your data in the same time it
takes to destroy one.=20

=20

So maybe you know all this already and I hate to beat a dead horse, I
think this has been covered on this list before.  I just always have
this "oh no" reaction when I hear about external hard drive backups and
felt compelled to speak out :-)

=20

-Aaron

=20

________________________________

From: linux-admin@flux.org [mailto:linux-admin@flux.org] On Behalf Of
Larry Kagan
Sent: Wednesday, June 27, 2007 11:44 PM
To: linux@flux.org
Subject: [Linux] External firewire drive

=20

I just got back from CompUSA where I purchased a CompUSA brand firewire
PCI card for my desktop and a MAD DOG external firewire drive enclosure
(MD-AEN350COM). =20

I just wanted to tell you all how easy this was.  I took a drive out of
my machine and put it in the enclosure.  I seated the Firewire card in
the desktop.  I connected the two, turned everything on and viola,
Ubuntu recognized it without a hitch.  It's located at /dev/sda1 on my
machine.  If any of you are considering this as a personal backup
solution, I highly recommend it.=20

I can't hear the sound of the enclosure over my machine and I'm not even
sure if it makes any sound at all.  If you're worried about heat, don't
be.  It's only a few degrees warmer than the ambient temperature.

Sometimes it amazes me how easy some of these linux distros have
becomes.

Speaking of sound, can any of you hardware guys recommend a quiet cpu
fan for my AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1500+?

Thanks.

Larry

------_=_NextPart_001_01C7B941.D009ACBA
Content-Type: text/html;
	charset="us-ascii"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable

<html xmlns:v=3D"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:vml" =
xmlns:o=3D"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" =
xmlns:w=3D"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" =
xmlns=3D"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">

<head>
<meta http-equiv=3DContent-Type content=3D"text/html; =
charset=3Dus-ascii">
<meta name=3DGenerator content=3D"Microsoft Word 11 (filtered medium)">
<!--[if !mso]>
<style>
v\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
o\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
w\:* {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
.shape {behavior:url(#default#VML);}
</style>
<![endif]-->
<style>
<!--
 /* Font Definitions */
 @font-face
	{font-family:Helvetica;
	panose-1:2 11 6 4 2 2 2 2 2 4;}
@font-face
	{font-family:Wingdings;
	panose-1:5 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0;}
@font-face
	{font-family:Tahoma;
	panose-1:2 11 6 4 3 5 4 4 2 4;}
 /* Style Definitions */
 p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal
	{margin:0in;
	margin-bottom:.0001pt;
	font-size:12.0pt;
	font-family:"Times New Roman";
	color:black;}
a:link, span.MsoHyperlink
	{color:blue;
	text-decoration:underline;}
a:visited, span.MsoHyperlinkFollowed
	{color:purple;
	text-decoration:underline;}
span.EmailStyle17
	{mso-style-type:personal-reply;
	font-family:Arial;
	color:navy;}
@page Section1
	{size:8.5in 11.0in;
	margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in;}
div.Section1
	{page:Section1;}
-->
</style>
<!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
 <o:shapedefaults v:ext=3D"edit" spidmax=3D"1026" />
</xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml>
 <o:shapelayout v:ext=3D"edit">
  <o:idmap v:ext=3D"edit" data=3D"1" />
 </o:shapelayout></xml><![endif]-->
</head>

<body bgcolor=3Dwhite lang=3DEN-US link=3Dblue vlink=3Dpurple>

<div class=3DSection1>

I know the point of your message =
was how
good the hardware support of linux can be these days, and that is really =
cool.&nbsp;
Ubuntu is an impressive distro.&nbsp; Debian has always been really nice =
on the
lower level stuff, and the Ubuntu folks have kind of filled in the rest =
of the
package by adding more frequent updates and a much easier user interface =
to
Debian&#8217;s power. <o:p></o:p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><font size=3D2 color=3Dnavy face=3DArial><span =
style=3D'font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><font size=3D2 color=3Dnavy face=3DArial><span =
style=3D'font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>But&#8230;.the mention of using a =
hard
drive as a &#8220;personal backup solution&#8221; made me cringe.&nbsp; =
I&#8217;ve
been a consultant of one type or another in the IT industry for 15 years =
now and
cannot count the times that people have been utterly let down by such a =
system.&nbsp;
<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><font size=3D2 color=3Dnavy face=3DArial><span =
style=3D'font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></font></p>

It&#8217;s not that you can&#8217;t =
use a
hard drive as a reasonable backup, but most people don&#8217;t. Simply =
copying
your files to another place every so often is a very poor backup.&nbsp; =
It
relies on you making sure that every file you copy is correct before you =
do the
&#8220;backup&#8221;, and thats a nearly impossible goal.&nbsp; I =
don&#8217;t
know how many clients I&#8217;ve seen with two perfectly identical =
copies of
their virus infested, mistakenly edited or otherwise corrupted =
files.&nbsp; <o:p></o:p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><font size=3D2 color=3Dnavy face=3DArial><span =
style=3D'font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></font></p>

You can use a hard drive to store
incremental backups, transaction logs, or as part of some kind of =
revisioning
system, and then it&#8217;s a pretty fast and accessible means of backup =
if not
an especially reliable one&#8230; but people almost never do things that =
way.&nbsp;
To make it worse a lot of the external hard drive manufactures actually =
market
them as backup solutions but include software that just does a copy =
every so
often.&nbsp; Not good!&nbsp; Even worse are the &#8220;Raid 1 backup =
solutions&#8221;
where you basically just destroy multiple copies of your data in the =
same time
it takes to destroy one. <o:p></o:p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><font size=3D2 color=3Dnavy face=3DArial><span =
style=3D'font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><font size=3D2 color=3Dnavy face=3DArial><span =
style=3D'font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>So maybe you know all this already =
and I
hate to beat a dead horse, I think this has been covered on this list =
before. &nbsp;I
just always have this &#8220;oh no&#8221; reaction when I hear about =
external
hard drive backups and felt compelled to speak out </span></font><font =
size=3D2
color=3Dnavy face=3DWingdings><span =
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Wingdings;
color:navy'>J</span></font><font size=3D2 color=3Dnavy =
face=3DArial><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p></o:p></span=
></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><font size=3D2 color=3Dnavy face=3DArial><span =
style=3D'font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><font size=3D2 color=3Dnavy face=3DArial><span =
style=3D'font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>-Aaron<o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><font size=3D2 color=3Dnavy face=3DArial><span =
style=3D'font-size:
10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></font></p>

<div>

<div class=3DMsoNormal align=3Dcenter style=3D'text-align:center'><font =
size=3D3
color=3Dblack face=3D"Times New Roman"><span =
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt;color:windowtext'>

<hr size=3D2 width=3D"100%" align=3Dcenter tabindex=3D-1>

</span></font></div>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><b><font size=3D2 color=3Dblack face=3DTahoma><span
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;color:windowtext;font-weight=
:bold'>From:</span></font></b><font
size=3D2 color=3Dblack face=3DTahoma><span =
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt;font-family:Tahoma;
color:windowtext'> linux-admin@flux.org [mailto:linux-admin@flux.org] =
<b><span
style=3D'font-weight:bold'>On Behalf Of </span></b>Larry Kagan<br>
<b><span style=3D'font-weight:bold'>Sent:</span></b> Wednesday, June 27, =
2007
11:44 PM<br>
<b><span style=3D'font-weight:bold'>To:</span></b> linux@flux.org<br>
<b><span style=3D'font-weight:bold'>Subject:</span></b> [Linux] External =
firewire
drive</span></font><font color=3Dblack><span =
style=3D'color:windowtext'><o:p></o:p></span></font></p>

</div>

<p class=3DMsoNormal><font size=3D3 color=3Dblack face=3D"Times New =
Roman"><span
style=3D'font-size:12.0pt'><o:p>&nbsp;</o:p></span></font></p>

I just got back from =
CompUSA
where I purchased a CompUSA brand firewire PCI card for my desktop and a =
MAD
DOG external firewire drive enclosure (MD-AEN350COM).&nbsp; 
 
I just wanted to tell you all how easy this was.&nbsp; I took a drive =
out of my
machine and put it in the enclosure.&nbsp; I seated the Firewire card in =
the
desktop.&nbsp; I connected the two, turned everything on and viola, =
Ubuntu
recognized it without a hitch.&nbsp; It's located at /dev/sda1 on my
machine.&nbsp; If any of you are considering this as a personal backup
solution, I highly recommend it. 
 
I can't hear the sound of the enclosure over my machine and I'm not even =
sure
if it makes any sound at all.&nbsp; If you're worried about heat, don't
be.&nbsp; It's only a few degrees warmer than the ambient =
temperature. 
 
Sometimes it amazes me how easy some of these linux distros have =
becomes. 
 
Speaking of sound, can any of you hardware guys recommend a quiet cpu =
fan for
my AMD Athlon(tm) XP 1500+? 
 
Thanks. 
 
Larry<o:p></o:p>

</div>

</body>

</html>

------_=_NextPart_001_01C7B941.D009ACBA--