Best IBM Backup Program

[Bill (Smithville NJ)]

(11-23-2014 11:41 AM)John W Kercheval Wrote:  Thanks I just checked that out. So this is a crapshoot right?

We cannot do a "test restore" because that could fail & we could blow out the machine.


Any ideas?

Can this Paragon pgm back up the encrypted drive?

John

A backup or image is NEVER complete without doing a test restore. Even if it means purchasing a new hard drive or using a second machine just for the purpose of doing the test restore.

The question is: How important is your work on the hard drive? If the restore failed would you be out of business, or just lose a lot of time recreating the work? The cost of a second hard drive for the purpose of testing a restore is usually minor compared to the cost of losing your work.

There are two parts to every backup scheme. The first being doing the backup. The second is the ability to know how to do a successful restore. Most backup schemes fail on the second part. Either the operator does not know how to do the restore, or he finds out that he wasn't really backing up what he thought he was. The time to learn how to do the restore is while the machine is still running - NOT after the machine has failed. It's too late then to learn what you should have already learned.

I remember many years ago, we were using our first Sun workstation at work. I was not comfortable that we were doing our backup correctly. We had a service company that had set up our system and I really didn't care too much for their attitude. So I told them that I planned to "crash" the machine and see what it would take to restore it back to working condition. There were horrified that I would do this. So Dave & I at work, stayed one weekend, "crashed" the system, and proceeded to learn how to do a complete restore. The end result was that the service company had set up the backup totally wrong. While Dave & I had a very stressful weekend, we learned a lot, and ended up setting up the backup/restore the correct way so that we could in-house bring the system back from a disaster. Oh - We also fired the service company and learned how to service our own systems.

I have never set up a backup scheme without ALSO doing a complete test of the restore. Otherwise I'm just kidding myself that what I'm doing will actually work. The time to learn that a restore will not work is NOT after the system has crashed. Then it is too late.

There's one more thing to consider. There are typically two types of disaster failures: hard drive or system board.

Since I'm not familiar with using encrypted drives, if a hard drive fails, can a new drive just be installed and the image restored and system is back working?

If a system board fails, can the encrypted hard drive be pulled and put in a new system and it still work?

Both of these failures should be tested. Or, as you so eloquently put it, "this is a crapshoot". And one that I would not wish to take.

Bill