OT: What am I missing?

From: Jerome Fine <jhfine_at_postoffice.idirect.com>
Date: Fri Feb 8 20:50:05 2002

I have a problem - am I the one at fault?

I am upgrading to a "newer" system and one of my concerns is adequate
backup. Normally, I do a full backup about once a day - or once every
other day. It has been suggested that the "newer" have a "RAID 1"
controller which would use two 40 GByte EIDE drives. A "RAID 1"
system uses two disk drives and keeps two copies of ALL files
at all times. This provides a duplicate set of images - so that
even if there are only intermittent errors with one drive, I would be
aware of the problems before both drives became bad and (normally)
have time to make a complete backup before I replace the bad drive.

However, I am experiencing two difficulties:

(a) The firmware/software for the "RAID 1" controller seems to
NOT have anything that will alert the user to be able to identify
which disk drive might be bad even after a drive failure, let alone
intermittent errors.

(b) Even though my current files are (seemingly) all correct and
I have two duplicate copies, when I said that I was was going to
restore from my initial back-up from CD (I currently have no
data files, just the installed software), I was looked at as if
I was a bit crazy - why would I do a recovery if there is nothing
wrong? Even though I attempted to explain that a full back-up
includes the total recovery from scratch - at least a few times
at the beginning to establish that the procedure works, that attitude
is considered overcautious to say the least - at the worst it is:

"So what if you loose all you files, you can always rebuild the
system from scratch if you have to?" These individuals seem
to have never heard of data files - like in a legal office, the
client records don't need to be kept since everything in published
law books is how to start all over again after a fire.

Is this attitude common in industry? Am I wrong? I know that
my wife has a cousin who works for an accountant who
NEVER makes a back-up of the client files.

If I am correct, is there any way to get my point across or is
this a Catch-22 situation?
Received on Fri Feb 08 2002 - 20:50:05 GMT