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pdurrant · 03-16-2009, 04:33 PM

The one certain thing about a hard disk is that it will die. I often tell people this when discussing backups.

And yet it still comes as a surprise when it happens. On Saturday morning the 250GB hard disk in my MacBook died. Very dead. Examination shows no visible damage, and the electronics seem to be OK. But there's a nasty clicking sound when trying to access the data, and no data is to be found.

Luckily I have an automatic backup to DLT Tapes.

But I'd forgotten how long and painful the restore process was. I'm just about all done now, after two days of copying and restoring.

Note to self: Add in a Time Machine backup drive to my system. It's a lot quicker and simpler to restore the current system from a Time Machine backup. The Tapes are excellent for recovering small batches of files that have been deleted or corrupted (& for moving offsite), but are no substitute for a current copy of the hard disk on another hard disk.

If I'd had a current Time Machine backup, I'd have been fully recovered on Friday evening, instead of Monday evening!

03-16-2009, 04:33 PM	#1
pdurrant The Grand Mouse 高貴的老鼠 Posts: 74,002 Karma: 315160596 Join Date: Jul 2007 Location: Norfolk, England Device: Kindle Oasis	Dead Disk Pain The one certain thing about a hard disk is that it will die. I often tell people this when discussing backups. And yet it still comes as a surprise when it happens. On Saturday morning the 250GB hard disk in my MacBook died. Very dead. Examination shows no visible damage, and the electronics seem to be OK. But there's a nasty clicking sound when trying to access the data, and no data is to be found. Luckily I have an automatic backup to DLT Tapes. But I'd forgotten how long and painful the restore process was. I'm just about all done now, after two days of copying and restoring. Note to self: Add in a Time Machine backup drive to my system. It's a lot quicker and simpler to restore the current system from a Time Machine backup. The Tapes are excellent for recovering small batches of files that have been deleted or corrupted (& for moving offsite), but are no substitute for a current copy of the hard disk on another hard disk. If I'd had a current Time Machine backup, I'd have been fully recovered on Friday evening, instead of Monday evening!