Don_Ward@gec-epl.co.uk (Don Ward) (07/24/89)
We have users who make life difficult for themselves by a) believing that back-ups are a giant waste of their time b) occasionally deleting things by mistake One particularly talented individual lost about three weeks work recently by a careful choice of when not to back his files up and when to remove them. My own opinion is that these users should give up (a) or (b) and, providing they also believe that the hardware never fails, I don't mind which. However, after giving the standard "tough-titty" response to the "how can I get my files back?" question, I was prompted to ask this group if there is any PD software which attempts to do at least some of the recovery job. I'm aware of the difficulties which arise, especially on a multi user machine. But on a single user workstation with private disks, something might be possible if action is taken early enough (ie. immediately afterwards). I've considered telling them that they *may* be in better shape (if they realise the mistake just after the button has been pressed) if they just halt the machine, reboot and let fsck have it's way. The assumption being that they might have got lucky and the undesired modifications have not yet been flushed to disk. I haven't suggested this and don't feel inclined to experiment with my file system to see if it holds up in practice. What do other people think? Don Ward Systems Design Division GEC Electrical Projects Ltd Email: Don_Ward@gec-epl.co.uk Boughton Road, Rugby, CV21 1BU UK. Tel: (+44 788 or 0788) 542144
pvo3366@oce.orst.edu (Paul O'Neill) (08/11/89)
ref: v8n87 Users back up their own files? You've got to be kidding. That's a sysadmin's job. If your talking about people who insist on administrating their own workstations, there's not much that can be done other than convincing them to learn how to do it right or hire a competent administrator to do it for them. Paul O'Neill pvo@oce.orst.edu Coastal Imaging Lab OSU--Oceanography Corvallis, OR 97331 503-737-3251