Hard (disk) lessons...

For years I have been telling people that "an untested backup is worse than no backup at all because it lulls you into a false sense of security". Some people who matter to me recently lost a lot of document files because I was not careful to practice what I preach. They're a non–profit organisation with no permanent I.T. staff, so I'm the closest thing they have even though I live 132 miles (212 km) away.

After I installed the tape drive I did some simple tests to reassure myself that it it was working and during occasional visits to the site I would back up all the document files to tape. My workload elsewhere increased to the point that my visits to the site became infrequent and I delegated backups to someone who was there every day. Sadly the tape drive failed shortly before the last hard disk that held the document files. The person on–site had not been running a compare after each backup, or restoring files from tape to compare checksums against the original.

Since I'm the closest thing they have to an I.T. staff, I bear responsibility for the loss of this data. I knew that backups were being made, but I did not take the time to test them, or to ask important questions about how many copies of the data there were. Hard disks are mechanical devices with moving parts. I know that it's not a question of if they fail, but when. I knew better and I let these people down. In doing so, I have learned some important lessons:-

• Practice what I preach!
• If I delegate something, I have to verify that it's being done correctly.
• Sometimes it's kinder to walk away than to over–extend myself
• Use tar for tape backups, nothing proprietary or closed-source.