The Lair

I’ve just backed up my backups. I never want to do that again.

My backup strategy for various odds and ends used to be so simple, really. Throw random things onto a special folder on my hard disk. Check the size of the folder from time to time. When the size of the folder reaches 650mb or so; break out a blank CD, burn contents, add contents to catalog and store CD securely in the case. Delete folder. Whenever I need something, I search the catalog; find the file(s) I need, flip through the alphanumerically sorted CDs till I find the one I want, grab the files I need off the CD and I’m done.

Simple, right? Just needs a bit of organization upfront, but it pays off. I’ve been using this system for years – mostly with some homegrown cataloging software that works across both Unix and Windows.

Unfortunately, my download habit didn’t allow this happy state of affairs to continue. I realized this when I went down to my last 10 CDs from a 100 CD pack. So, a new backup approach was required. Bought a portable hard disk and thought, hey – I’ll just transfer all the CDs contents onto the hard disk and I’m done.

It takes an average of 10 minutes to transfer 600 megs of data from a CD-ROM drive to a USB external hard disk. Multiply that by a 100? Yeah. Fun times. I spent most of yesterday doing that incredibly interesting task. Along the way, some interesting data points:

1. My 100 pack of CDs (bought 2 years ago) has a failure rate of 12%. I lost about 5 disks before I burnt anything on it. There were 8 disks with at least one error.
2. Large files transfer much much quicker than lots of tiny files. I knew this, but I had allowed myself to forget it. Archiving even uncompressible stuff (like images or movie files) into a single archive is recommended, even if it gains no space.
3. If you’re running any sort of anti-virus on a Windows machine, turn off on-access scanning before starting the transfer. It will make things proceed much much faster.

All I needed was Unison for the task.

Now I just need to hope the hard disk doesn’t fail.