[X4U] Re: X4U Digest, Vol 43, Issue 9

[David Ledger]

At 19:38 -0700 14/3/08, x4u-request at listserver.themacintoshguy.com wrote:
>From: Ed Gould <edgould1948 at comcast.net>
>Subject: [X4U] Back up ideas/suggestions needed....
<snip>
>I really don't have any good way to send to an offsite place my
>backup drive. I need a reasonably inexpensive solution. I thought
>about asking a neighbor to "care" for my drive but this is not doable
>(I won't go into reasons), I have friends but don't necessarily see
>them once a week.
>
>I have thought about buying remote site backup space but my friend
>says that COMCAST throttles upload speed to approx 100Mb sec making
>backup time extremely poor.
>
>Does anyone have some ideas for any options I might have?

Maybe your 'offsite' backup doesn't need to be quite so off-site. You 
can get fireproof document safes that will  hold a hard drive for 
less than £30 ~ $60. They are "document" safes rather than "data" 
safes, so they will not keep a drive safe if it's in the middle of a 
house fire. But, depending on your local conditions and 
circumstances, you may be able to keep one in an outhouse or even 
bolted to a large paving slab in the garden. (If flood or insect 
infestation is possible, the latter is not a good idea). There are 
many situations where this would not do, but also many where it would.

I have thought of buying an old big commercial 'beyond its sell-by 
date' second hand data safe, putting it in my garden, and making it 
look like a shed. I could then hold backups for people in the local 
area. The main problem here in the UK would be preventing 
condensation in winter.

David


-- 
David Ledger - Freelance Unix Sysadmin in the UK.
HP-UX specialist of hpUG technical user group (www.hpug.org.uk)
david.ledger at ivdcs.co.uk
www.ivdcs.co.uk