blog.jj5.net (2003 to 2005)

Is it just me, or is backing up to tape harder than it needs to be?

Tue Feb 3 11:45:00 UTC+1100 2004

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OK, this is what I want to do:

Create a backup job that runs every night at 3:37AM that copies all my crucial data to the tape that is in the drive.

Everyday (assuming I remember (which I may not)) I can cycle tapes through a system. So basically I'd have tapes labelled: D1, D2, D3, D4, W1, W2, W3, M1, M2, M3, M4. D=Day, W=Week, M=Month. Then the cycle would be, D1, D2, D3, D4, W1, D1, D2, D3, D4, W2, D1, D2, D3, D4, W3, D1, D2, D3, D4, M1, D1, etc..

If I forget to replace the tape one day..? So what. The backup should run on the tape that is in there, and just overwrite whatever was on the tape. I would remeber to cycle the tapes regularly, I'm not fussed about a day or two here or there.

But, nooooooooooo.. I can't do that with NT Backup can I?

Maybe I can, but after _months_ of trying to figure out how I'm stuffed if I know what it is.

If anyone out there knows, please, please, please, tell me how I can do this. Manually, swapping tapes, de-allocating them, freeing them, then selecting the appropriate backup batch file to run _sucks dogs balls_. Swapping a tape in a drive at lunchtime takes one minute, tops. The crap that I have to go through takes far longer while I wait for media to load, etc.

I hate NT Backup.

John.


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