About three years ago, in a moment of human triumph over technology, I unplugged a SCSI cable in the middle of copying an entire hard disk of information to another disk drive. The consequence of this action was, well, disastrous.
The irony was that I was in the process of backing up my disk when I ruined both disks. I tried all the usual assistants — Norton Utilities, Apple DiskTools, etc., etc. I called the experts in my circle of friends, asking for their support. In the end I paid Drive Savers about $3,000 to restore most of the data on the first disk drive. They did an amazing job, and considering the value of the materials they restored, it was worth the money.
In addition to the $3,000, I was forced to purchase a DAT drive to read the data they recovered for me (they were also forcing me to adopt a hardware backup regime), so I added another $500 to the bill for the DAT and software.
And thus began my long and sometimes painful dance with scheduled backups.
DAT’s the Ticket?
I made a set of DATs for Wednesdays and Fridays, and a backup set which I rotated into the pool, and I ran them religiously for over a year. But then I lost interest (can you guess where this is going?) and stopped making the backups. In my experience, DAT is slow and mostly reliable. On the two occasions when I went to a DAT tape to recover files, the first was effective and the second resulted in an “unknown error” when I tried to read the back-up tape.
So, why back it up if you’re going to get an “unknown error” when you are seeking a file that’s been backed up?
I bought a CD-ROM writer — this was when they were a lot more expensive than they are now — and it was the CD-ROM device that changed my backup strategy for the better, and forever. The benefits of CD-ROMs for backup are: (1) they are cheap as dirt; (2) they are flawless in the storage of data (assuming that the disc is written correctly and that your office doesn’t burn down); and (3) they provide fast, random-access to files stored so they can be retrieved almost instantly.
My backup system evolved slowly, with the occasional backup CD emerging from my computer to the shelf nearby. I knew the contents of each disc by heart, and could access almost any file quickly and easily.
And then I made more CD-ROMs. And more. And pretty soon I couldn’t remember what was where, until I found a shareware program called Catalogue, from Swiss programmer Jacques Bersier. There are several of these in the shareware market but Jacques’ program was the one I tried and liked. I sent him the shareware fee, and not only did I become a registered user, but became a friend also. He sent me an e-mail thanking me, and has kept me apprised of updates since the beginning. Not only does his program work nicely, he’s a prince of a guy.
His program allows any combination of fixed and removable disks to be indexed to make an archive of files that is searchable by almost any combination of criteria. My library of CD-ROMs, optical disks, Iomega Jaz and Zip disks, and the permanent hard disks is now listed in the archive, and I can find any file’s location in a matter of seconds.
According to the Script
The second part of the back-up strategy was to develop a system to accumulate files for archiving, and then write them to CDs whenever necessary. My solution to this was to make a folder on my main disk drive called “Make CD.” As I work, I put copies of my active projects into this folder. I wrote a small AppleScript that I stored in my Startup Items folder so it runs every time I start up the computer (you could do this on a PC with Visual BASIC). Its function is to measure the size of the folder and alert me when I need to make a CD.
Whenever that happens, I write a CD of the contents as soon as possible. I can postpone this as long as I wish, but the computer makes a beep and a dialog reminds me that it’s time to make a backup whenever I restart the computer. The reminder is in my face every time I start the machine.
I also made a backup of my applications, my fonts, and my important permanent files so that in the event of a catastrophic failure (like a fellow unplugging the SCSI cable in the middle of a copying event) I can start over and lose almost nothing.
The trick is to remember to put copies of your active files in the Make CD folder, and to actually make the CDs. I don’t put this off. In fact I made three discs yesterday morning and one this morning (an unusually busy backup week!).
As soon as the discs are made, I run Catalogue and it automatically adds the newest disc to the archive. I have many, many duplicates of files, which is no problem, and I have unerasable, hard-to-damage discs with the files that matter most.
Tales from the Cryptic
Bersier’s Catalogue software has a $20-ish registration fee and it’s a bargain at that price. I now have two copies operating on two machines here, and the result is a solid archive of all the files on all the discs used in my office. To find a file, I search for any name or date or type (usually name) and let it run. Currently I have 73 CDs in my back-up archive, and Catalogue has an index of over 80,000 files in that archive. To search the entire archive takes less than 5 seconds, and it almost always helps me to find the right file (often several copies of it) in a few seconds.
When it fails to find a file, it’s because I put the wrong criteria into the search – pilot error. It’s flawless, I’m not. But this also means that I have to name my files with real names that I have a fighting chance of remembering or associating when I am searching. The easiest way for me to do this is to name my files with names that describe the contents of the document (novel idea!) in English words — whole words — without cryptic meanings.
When I searched this morning for the backup “Duke of Earl,” Catalog found a drawing I did with that name in about two seconds. Retrieving the disc took another 15 seconds, and I had the file I was seeking in a matter of two minutes. This efficiency is really helping me.
As a result of this strategy, I have good, fast recovery of files, and an inexpensive method for writing them to disc (CDs are about $1 each these days). It requires an active process on my part, and I must be diligent about making the discs, but I do it regularly, and so far I have been successful in keeping all of my most important files archived and easily accessible. Now I just hope my office doesn’t burn to the ground.
Read more by Brian Lawler
The AppleScript follows:
tell application “Finder”
— The following line gives you time to dawdle and respond to the dialog.
with timeout of 1000 seconds
set _FolderSize to size of folder “Make CD” of startup disk
— Don’t be put-off by the scientific notation in the following line
if _FolderSize is greater than 6.3E+8 then display dialog
“It’s about time to make a back-up to CD”
end timeout
end tell
This article was last modified on December 13, 2022
This article was first published on May 3, 2000
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