Approach_Medium
Trainz Addict
Hi all;
I would like to pass on an experience I had with backing up my TRS2006 files using Microsoft Backup on Windows XP Pro; may this NOT happen to you!
I was doing weekly backups to a removable (usb) HD, and believed I had everything covered.
I never did a test restore to make sure the files were indeed being backed up. This little oversight cost me dearly, as I will explain:
Last week, my system suffered a failure on the main RAID 0 array. I was using RAID 0 for performance, knowing full well that this configuration not only does not provide for any fault tolerance (as all other configs of RAID do), it is even more susceptible to failure than a single drive is, because data is striped across all of the disks in the RAID volume, so losing one disk results in a broken volume, and thus total loss of all data.
When this failure occurred, I could not boot into my OS.
I also lost access to all my data files, as I had them stored on the same RAID set (but different volume) as the OS.
I didn't panic, because I knew that I had just done a full backup of all my data files, including my huge TRS2006 layout, which I had been working on for nearly a year!
But last night when I was pulling files off of the backup set, I realized that I had only the empty folders for my content; no files!
The same thing happened with my mp3 files in iTunes, but luckily for them I had another copy of those files on my notebook computer.
Unfortunately I had no reason to copy the Trainz files to the notebook, or I would have also had a backup of them.
At this point, I do not know how I got only the empty folders onto the backup set. I will have to play around with MS Backup and see how that is possible.
I went frantically looking through my CD and DVD collection to see if I had burned my Trainz files to a more durable media, but no luck there.
I have lost everything I have done in TRS2006 since I purchased the program when it was first available. The huge layout I had spent so much time, but never come close to finishing is history. It's like the entire universe just disappeared.
The only consolation I get is that I gained a lot of experience working with TRS2006, and all those hours I worked on the layout were enjoyable, so all is not lost. In addition, I did not spend a lot of time detailing the lost layout. Most of my time was spent creating the terrain and laying rails.
I now have the opportunity to start all over, and I will certainly do things differently. For one thing, I won't fill in all the spaces between populated areas as I did previously. Having all that unused land, mostly mountainous which would never be inhabited anyway would have been too much work to detail. In the new layout, the world will take the shape of the rail lines, towns, and roads I place onto it. Sure, there will be distant hills, but not to the extent I had in the lost world.
As far as backups go, I think this teaches me, and hopefully a lot of you a good lesson.
Not only do you need a full backup of your important files, you need to test that backup periodically by performing a restore (to an alternate location so you don't overwrite your working files).
Whether or not I continue to use MS Backup remains to be seen. Perhaps I will write some simple batch files that will copy files to the remote drive, or perhaps I will use WinZip. But whatever method I use, I will always test the backup.
Happy Rails
FW
I would like to pass on an experience I had with backing up my TRS2006 files using Microsoft Backup on Windows XP Pro; may this NOT happen to you!
I was doing weekly backups to a removable (usb) HD, and believed I had everything covered.
I never did a test restore to make sure the files were indeed being backed up. This little oversight cost me dearly, as I will explain:
Last week, my system suffered a failure on the main RAID 0 array. I was using RAID 0 for performance, knowing full well that this configuration not only does not provide for any fault tolerance (as all other configs of RAID do), it is even more susceptible to failure than a single drive is, because data is striped across all of the disks in the RAID volume, so losing one disk results in a broken volume, and thus total loss of all data.
When this failure occurred, I could not boot into my OS.
I also lost access to all my data files, as I had them stored on the same RAID set (but different volume) as the OS.
I didn't panic, because I knew that I had just done a full backup of all my data files, including my huge TRS2006 layout, which I had been working on for nearly a year!
But last night when I was pulling files off of the backup set, I realized that I had only the empty folders for my content; no files!
The same thing happened with my mp3 files in iTunes, but luckily for them I had another copy of those files on my notebook computer.
Unfortunately I had no reason to copy the Trainz files to the notebook, or I would have also had a backup of them.
At this point, I do not know how I got only the empty folders onto the backup set. I will have to play around with MS Backup and see how that is possible.
I went frantically looking through my CD and DVD collection to see if I had burned my Trainz files to a more durable media, but no luck there.
I have lost everything I have done in TRS2006 since I purchased the program when it was first available. The huge layout I had spent so much time, but never come close to finishing is history. It's like the entire universe just disappeared.
The only consolation I get is that I gained a lot of experience working with TRS2006, and all those hours I worked on the layout were enjoyable, so all is not lost. In addition, I did not spend a lot of time detailing the lost layout. Most of my time was spent creating the terrain and laying rails.
I now have the opportunity to start all over, and I will certainly do things differently. For one thing, I won't fill in all the spaces between populated areas as I did previously. Having all that unused land, mostly mountainous which would never be inhabited anyway would have been too much work to detail. In the new layout, the world will take the shape of the rail lines, towns, and roads I place onto it. Sure, there will be distant hills, but not to the extent I had in the lost world.
As far as backups go, I think this teaches me, and hopefully a lot of you a good lesson.
Not only do you need a full backup of your important files, you need to test that backup periodically by performing a restore (to an alternate location so you don't overwrite your working files).
Whether or not I continue to use MS Backup remains to be seen. Perhaps I will write some simple batch files that will copy files to the remote drive, or perhaps I will use WinZip. But whatever method I use, I will always test the backup.
Happy Rails
FW
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