[Tfug] bacula et ilk

[Jim G]

Bexley Hall wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> My W2K machine recently suffered a series of hardware
> crashes.  After each, I dutifully restored my  most
> recent backup and would limp along until the next
> crash.
> 
> [I've since traced the problem to a bad memory device
> *and* a marginal disk drive.  :<  ]
> 
> Anyway, in those few times when the machine was "up"
> enough for me to do some useful work, I noticed that
> my "restore" seemed incomplete (or, perhaps the
> original *backup* was to blame?).
> 
> E.g., I would have to "re-register" (authorize) programs
> that *had* been registered previously.  Certain programs
> would complain that there were "necessary files missing",
> etc.
> 
> At the time, I was more focused on trying to figure out
> why the machine was repeatedly crashing so I didn't spend
> much time trying to resolve these issues (all of my "data"
> was preserved/restored correctly so these other issues are
> just "inconveniences" -- though damn costly ones!)
> 
> Of course, now is the time to resolve those issues.  :-/
> 
> I had used Windows' "Backup" utility to do the backup and
> restore -- since it seems ludicrous to have to install an
> *application* (i.e., some "backup" utility) just to
> restore a system!  Annoying enough to have to reinstall
> the OS to do this...  :<
> 
> I've since looked through all the options in the backup
> *and* restore aspects of that tool and have just concluded
> that it must have some fundamental flaw -- it doesn't
> restore an exact image of your system regardless of how
> you tickle it!
> 
> My Solaris and NBSD boxes I have been doing backups just
> using simple tarballs.  Portable, no overhead to set it up,
> etc.  But, since the W2K box appears to need some other
> "solution", I figure I should look into things like bacula
> in the hope that it *really* can cope with a heterogenous
> environment (as opposed to just *claiming* it can!)
> 
> Any advice on this from folks who have actually *lived*
> with such an environment?  (I can read the propaganda just
> as easily as the next guy... I'd like to know what The
> Real Story is...)
> 
> Any *other* suggestions?
> 
> BTW, I restore exclusively to tape.
> 
> Thx,
> --don
> 
> 
>       
> 
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Hi Don -

What were you using to create the backups -