It Can't happen To me

[johnwhelan]

If you are buying a new computer have alook for one with an Intel chipset that supports Intel Matrix RAID, it's fairly new and some variations support running one area of a pair of disks as RAID 1 and the other as Raid 0. Also it is possible to take an existing single hard drive and add drives to make raid sets of 1 or 5 without reinstalling everything.

It helps if you run with a UPS and some RAID motherboard solutions are not quite so robust.

Yes doing backups is sensible but RAID is beginning to make sense these days with cheaper hard drives.

Cheerio John

 

[Hot_Box_Detector]

It can happen and will...

Due to my own ignorance...I had all my stuff backed up on two separate RAID arrays (4 drives ) . I added a new "C" drive and re-installed OS. When asked to format the "new" drive, I said OK. Little did I know at the time that my new drive wasn't configured properly and I was actually formatting my old "raid" drives . Moral to the story, back-up on CD or DVD and remove from the PC.

 

[john259]

Indeed. RAID protects against hardware failures but not against user cockups etc.

John

 

[markbin]

DVD-RW's and CD-RW's are intended for temporary backup but they are not suitable for permanent backup. They are only reliable for a period of 5 years (as from date of fabrication, not as from the first time that you use them).
For a permanent backup use DVD+R; the error correction system of the "+" version is better ( and more modern ) than that of the "-" version.
This means an unreadable part on a "-" can still be readable on a "+".

 

[lewisner]

In fairness you would hardly want to back a layout up for 5 years.I have an older version of my layout on my old PC from last December and its virtually useless since my best work was done since then.Even if you backup every week you"ll still lose a weeks work..

 

[ckthomson]

Due to my own ignorance...I had all my stuff backed up on two separate RAID arrays (4 drives ) . I added a new "C" drive and re-installed OS. When asked to format the "new" drive, I said OK. Little did I know at the time that my new drive wasn't configured properly and I was actually formatting my old "raid" drives . Moral to the story, back-up on CD or DVD and remove from the PC.

I've taken to unplugging everything but my system drive before re-installing windows. I've also stopped installing software to my system drive, where possible, although a few things (like the Max Payne 2 level editor) *insist* on being put on C: . . .

I'm in the progress of trying to move all my software (including windows installs etc.) over to my SATA drives, in the hopes that one day I can actually afford enough identical drives to run a proper RAID. As it is, with a careful backup regimine and a keen eye for my system "misbehaving" I have managed to avoid any data loss (due to HW failure, at least) since 2001 or so.

Cheers,
Craig.

 

[rroby]

Just looking around and came across this. I to have had a hard drive failure with minimal back-up. By minimal I mean I had about 1MB of the 1GB that I lost.

I was able to recover about 99% of what I lost using a program called Get Back Data for NTFS. I got it from http://www.runtime.org/peb.htm.

It didn't cost a lot and I was able to run it from a CD and transfer data via my LAN to a new hard drive. Before everyone assumes I'm some super computer geek, I'm not. The program was incredibly easy to use.

Certainly doesn't replace a good backup, but knowing that there's help out there certain makes a crash a little better to take.

 

[shesa]

Oh gents,

I have a lot of cpd files in my cache file. Can I just delete them? Cause I have them installed and I think they are taking too much of disc space. I think they are something to get rid off, but when thinking of my recent adventures with installing and uninstalling TRS2006 I am not so sure anymore.
I recovered deleted assets like a week and that felt like a hard job .

Thank you all,

Esa

 

[john259]

I have a lot of cpd files in my cache file. Can I just delete them?

It might be safer to archive them onto a CD-R or DVD-R, then delete them from hard disk.

John

 

[TechnoWraith]

For those of you with bigger layouts and larger files, if you have them, use DVD writers to back up your data. I have a layout that's absolutely gigantic (several hundred boards, and i'm still not done laying the trackage yet). CD-R's are too small for this layout, so i use DVD's. Yes, it can get expensive if you constantly back-up using DVD's. But since i work on my route in spurts, i copy it from one hard drive to another after doing a little bit of work. Then once a month, i archive it to DVD. I haven't touched the route since last september, but it's safely archived to the DVD's. All my content is archived to a CD, but they are still on the hard disk, as it's cumbersome to keep deleting then re-installing the content for when i want to run certain routes.