Gerhard Fiedler wrote:

> > make extra-copies.
> It doesn't help a lot to buy another dozen if the one copy you
> made (because making those copies is such a pain) has
> gone bad.

Backup only user files or, even changed user files. Zip them before
back up. Do not backup system folders.
I don't see why you have to backup more than some Mbytes each time
under such scenario. With CDR under XP it takes a minute. When
zipping, split the big zip into reasonable number of smaller volumes
and store them according to your favorite redundancy algorithm among a
number of CDRs. Small 200 Mbytes CDRs are reliable mechanically and
could hold tenths of sessions.

> > That's the point: the cost of validating (testing) of the new long-run
> > situation is much higher than the cost of just getting to the start
> > position once in a while, like for steppers.
> You missed the point. The starting position doesn't help me a lot,
> it's the working position that I want. That's where the current system
>  is. And it's pretty far away from the starting position.

You can't enter twice the same river; you can't reproduce twice the
same set of hardware. So, in a strict meaning, there is no much sense
to backup working position, at least with Microsoft software. Setting
a snapshot of some process as starting point of another process is
out-of-specs business.

Regards,
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