Thanks to everyone who responded about how they back-up their systems. I
back up every day on jump drives and my hard drive, rotating them every other
day. I have had to restore from my backup once before and was glad not to
lose more than one day of data. Below are the responses I received.
I use a zip drive and I do rotate them. I have four automation zip discs
and two AR that I rotate. I also sometimes do AR on a CD.
Our server does a daily back up to tape, then a complete back up once a week.
I do it several ways. Each day I use an Iomega external REV drive. I have
five cartridges, one for each day. Once a week I back up onto my flash drive.
Finally, once in a blue moon I back up on floppies. I have had two computer
crashes over the years so I am ultra careful. I always make sure that at
least one fairly recent one is out of the building at all times in case of
fire or flood. Even if I cannot recover all info, a week old backup is better
than no backup!
Because we use a program that comes from our DA site our records are
backed up every day away from our schools. So this is one worry that I
don't have.
I back up both my circulation data and AR data daily using a "thumb drive"
(jump drive or whatever you want to call those little things that plug into
your USB port). I have 3 drives that I use alternately through the week, and
each is sufficient to back up both the circulation and AR files on the same
drive.
For the summer months, I create 3 backups on the final day. One stays in the
library office, one goes in the school safe, and one goes home with me.
I inherited a zip drive in this library. I rotate M/W, T/TH and Friday
(for my own ability to keep track.) In my previous library, they had it
set up to automatically back up to another campus' server daily. They
figured that not all campuses would be impacted by any catastrophic
event, so backups were rotated among campuses. I did not have to try to
keep up with anything. The Technology admin did it all.
Hello! I'm in a Pre-K through 5th grade school. I only back up my
circulation/catalog records regularly. I do them every day on zip
disks, and I alternate between 2 disks. Our school server also has
backup tapes (3) which are changed each week, so between the 2 I feel
pretty good.
We are using zip drive. We have one disc for each day of the week and get
new ones every September.
We do a daily tape back-up of our server.
I do a tape backup of the whole shebang every night. I rotate the tapes so
that there is a separate tape for each day of the week, and one each for even
and odd months end.
I back up twice a week (Tuesday and Friday). Each time I do the backups to a
different desktop. Since I have 20 computers in the library, it takes about
10 weeks to work through all the computers before I start back around
replacing the backup on each desktop with a new backup. I figure if one
computer croaks, I'll have backups handy that aren't very old. However, I've
never had a computer fail so badly that I couldn't retrieve the data that was
on the desktop. By saving the backup to a desktop, I don't have to deal with
tapes, CDs, etc. Once a year I make a CD and take it home.
I had to fight the IT gnomes like you know what to get the "authority" to do
it, but I finally was granted permission. (But only after I 'faked' a minor
disaster and asked to be restored from the district's supposed fool-proof
nightly back-up. You guessed it...not ONE of our files or programs was there,
because none of the gnomes had thought to include the library's branch of the
directory tree in the back-up job description.) They really, REALLY did not
want to grant me access to the district's server! I burned it to DVD at least
once a week from my office workstation, or after we added or deleted any
significant amount of data. Before we were forced into the district's
network, I used a Colorado streaming tape backup off of our own server. DVD
is much faster.
That's a bit of a sore spot for me right now. I bought a USB drive and a
USB expansion card for the computer I was using then specifically for
doing backups. The card never did work correctly, so I wasn't ever able
to use the drive.
I back up to a second hard drive on my computer whenever I make major
changes (add in or delete a large batch of books), so backing up isn't
done on any sort of regular schedule. I know I probably ought to back up
at least weekly, but I don't always take the time. I think our server
does an automatic backup every night, but since I don't have to deal
with that I don't know for sure.
I backup my Accelerated Reader, STAR, and Athena records in two places each
night: the hard drive of my circulation station and a 1 GB or 256 GB jump
drive. (I alternate between the two jump drives--I recently bought the 1GB
because I am also yearbook advisor and the 256 wasn't big enough to hold
yearbook digital files and pictures, too. It's amazing how fast you can fill
up the space!) On the hard drive, I have three folders each for Accelerated
Reader, Star and Athena, and alternate between them each night. I used to
occasionally burn CDs but have stopped that since I got the jump drives,
although at the end of the school year I will also burn EVERYTHING to CDs
"just in case."
I use jump drives to back up once a week. I have two and rotate. I LOVE them.
I used to back up to CD's but that was more of a pain.
Cindy Schmidt, Librarian/NBCT
Central Middle School
P. O. Box 748
Charlotte C. H., VA 23923
434-542-4536 (p)
schmidtcym@ccps.k12.va.us
"The man who doesn't read good books has no advantage over the man who can't
read them." -Mark Twain
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Please note: All LM_NET postings are protected by copyright law.
You can prevent most e-mail filters from deleting LM_NET postings
by adding LM_NET@LISTSERV.SYR.EDU to your e-mail address book.
To change your LM_NET status, e-mail to: listserv@listserv.syr.edu
In the message write EITHER: 1) SIGNOFF LM_NET 2) SET LM_NET NOMAIL
3) SET LM_NET MAIL 4) SET LM_NET DIGEST * Allow for confirmation.
* LM_NET Help & Information: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/
* LM_NET Archive: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/archive/
* EL-Announce with LM_NET Select: http://elann.biglist.com/sub/
* LM_NET Supporters: http://www.eduref.org/lm_net/ven.html
--------------------------------------------------------------------
LM_NET
Mailing List Home