[NPMUG] Follow-up, major data loss during 10.6 install

Sat Sep 5 10:00:06 MDT 2009

I do something very similar, but with two separate dual-disk mirrored  
external drives.

I have a 500GB mirrored external WD disk (2 500GB disks mirrored) with  
a single volume called TMBackup for Time Machine. So yeah, I'm  
mirroring my TM backup for no good reason, but hey - it was there ;)

Then I have a 1TB mirrored external WD disk (2 1TB disks mirrored)  
that's partitioned into 2 volumes - one the exact size of my laptop's  
HD and used with SuperDuper! for nightly cloning.

And one partition called "Stuff" for my videos, music, ISOs, archived  
data, etc (which is relying exclusively on the mirroring for any kind  
of data protection - not great, but this stuff isn't prone to  
accidental erasure since it's not an OS partition, and the data is  
mostly re-creatable and non-critical. All my work/financial/etc data  
is on the laptop HD)

I also use my iDisk (www.me.com) for off-site backup of some critical  
stuff, like my Quickbooks data and company files. That I do by hand  
(not a fan of the syncing software, or the Apple Backup software)

Charles

On Sep 5, 2009, at 11:44 AM, Dadditude wrote:

> I can't speak for others, but I have my Mac Mini (160GB drive)  
> backing up to two partitions on a 500GB external drive as follows:
>
> 1. Using Carbon Copy Cloner (http://is.gd/2UVm7), I have a scheduled  
> incremental backup every night at midnight. This is done on  
> partition #1 of the external drive, named "Boba Fett" (since he was  
> a clone). This partition is exactly the same size as the internal  
> drive, and this incremental backup creates a bootable copy of my  
> internal drive, which is great in case the internal drive fails  
> physically.
>
> 2. Time Machine is set up on the second partition of the external  
> drive, named "H.G. Wells" (for reasons which SHOULD be obvious).  
> This second partition uses the rest of the 500GB external drive.
>
> It would be better to have these two backups on separate physical  
> drives, as if something happened to my external drive, both backups  
> could be list. This is something that I will probably address  
> sometime in the future.
>
> Hope this helps!
> -- 
> "We do not quit playing because we grow old; we grow old because we  
> quit playing." - Oliver Wendell Holmes
>
> On Sep 5, 2009, at 6:22 AM, Charles <charles.snyder at gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> Data loss scares me greatly!   Question that's going to sound  
>> really basic-  besides time machine,  what are people doing to  
>> backup their data. Is there a better solution than time machine?
>>
>> Thanks and have a safe long weekend;
>>
>> Charles
>>
>>  iPhone
>>
>> On Sep 4, 2009, at 9:39 PM, Dave Sevick <dave at davesevick.com> wrote:
>>
>>> So ....  "don't it always seem to go,  you don't know what you've  
>>> got till it's gone ...."
>>>
>>> My apologies to Joni Mitchell and other Ladies of the Canyon for  
>>> recycling the lyrics  .
>>>
>>> ===========
>>>
>>> The folks I saw Thursday and today have accidentally erased all  
>>> their data while install 10.6.  Several years of photos and music  
>>> and email and "who knows what else .." as I was not able to  
>>> retrieve anything.
>>>
>>> In the state of panic on Wednesday morning, they dug up their  
>>> Leopard 10.5.1 CD to do a "complete install"  over a failed 10.6  
>>> installation.
>>>
>>> I was not their on Wednesday to witness how it was done .... but  
>>> listening to the story  it seems that the Snow Leopard installer  
>>> failed once, failed a 2nd time and then they went back into old  
>>> boxes to find 10.5  installer DVDs to "go back to the way it  
>>> was ..."
>>>
>>> I'm going to spare you the rest of the story ... but I can tell  
>>> you that loss of precious personal data, or financial data or even  
>>> your favorite songs that you have purchased on CDs or over iTunes  
>>> can really be heartbreaking.
>>>
>>> Disk Warrior saw no data I could recover.  And since new 10.5.1  
>>> data was written over the failed 10.6 install, the likelihood of  
>>> getting Drive Savers to get anything back was slim and very  
>>> expensive.
>>>
>>> Moving forward :
>>>
>>> 1. We installed 10.6 over the newly created 10.5.1 and began anew !
>>>
>>> 2. A blessing was cast upon us when they remembered that they had  
>>> photos and music on an iPod Touch !!!!!  We got 2375 songs back   
>>> back with Senuti ( $18 utility ) . That was a great moment amidst  
>>> all other bad news.   Photos did not transfer over ... the Apple  
>>> Store will look into this with them.
>>>
>>> 3.  Time Machine 1TB drive was installed !
>>>
>>> 4.  Office 2008 was installed and updated to 12.2.1
>>>
>>> 5. iLife '09 was installed an fully patched.
>>>
>>> 6.  Grief counseling and pep talk.
>>>
>>>
>>> btw ... we installed the 10.6 compatible Epson R320 drivers from epson.com 
>>>   .... they don't work !
>>>
>>> Researching the cause this weekend.
>>>
>>> I hope this story helps to educate and warn people ....
>>>
>>> Dave
>>>
>>>
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>>> NPMUG at davesevick.com
>>> http://davesevick.com/mailman/listinfo/npmug
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