I. Introduction: 2

II\. Backup technologies available: 2

a\. DVD: 2

b\. Tape (DLT and LT02) 3

c\. External hard drive (grant funded): 3

d\. Comparison of available backup technologies 4

III\. Detailed Instructions 6

a\. Backing up to tape 6

1\. How to back up to tape (Solaris) 6

2\. For advanced users: multi-volume backups 8

b\. Backing up to DVDs: 10

1\. How to backup to DVD (Linux): 10

Switching to GNOME for first time users, or for KDE users wanting to
switch to Gnome: 11

Creating a DVD or CD under Gnome on Linux 11

2\. How to backup to DVD (Windows): 13

Mounting a Unix home directory on Windows: 14

Creating a DVD or CD under Windows: 14

3\. How to backup to DVD (Macintosh OS X) 16

Creating a DVD or CD under Macintosh OS X 16

c\. Backing up to an external Fire Wire Hard Drive: 18

1\. How to backup to an external drive (Macintosh OS X) 19

Preparing the disk for use (partitioning and formatting) 19

Backing up to an external drive under Macintosh OSX 20

2\. How to backup to an external drive (Windows 2000/XP) 21

Preparing the disk for use (partitioning and formatting) 21

Mounting a Unix home directory on Windows: 21

Backing up to an external drive under Windows 2000/XP 22

3\. How to backup to an external drive (Linux) 23

Preparing the disk for use (partitioning and formatting) 23

Backing up to an external drive (Linux) 23

# I. Introduction:

There\'s is a common saying among IT specialists: backups are most
commonly done the day **after** a disk crashes. Sad, but true -- try not
to let that happen to you. Modern computer hardware is a miracle of
technology, and extremely reliable in relation to the complexity of the
underlying mechanisms, but it is not foolproof. Bad things happen on
occasion. Disks crash. Errors are made. Uninterruptable power supplies
get interrupted. Data gets lost as a result. The IT group backs up
critical files (home directories, system files, etc) on a regular basis.
However, due to the large size of the CDC storage pool we do not have
the manpower nor the resources to back up everything every night. Some
file systems are backed up nightly. Others are only backed up on a
monthly basis. Still others are not backed up at all. Please see:

http://www.cdc.noaa.gov/systems/policy.html#backups

For the current backup schedule. It is up to you, as a user, to
understand the backup schedule and policy and use the various tiers of
storage available appropriately.

Even with this, there are going to be times you have large datasets on
storage that is not backed up by the IT group, or when you have done a
large amount of work and the file system you\'ve been working in is not
scheduled to be backed up again for some time. For those occasions, CDC
has a number of user-initiated backup facilities available. Even **if**
the filesystem in question is backed up regularly, for particularly
valuable data that could not be replaced, it is not a bad idea to create
your own backup as well. Remember, YOU are ultimately responsible for
your own research results and data. And in this situation, paranoia is
healthy.

# II. Backup technologies available:

OK, enough with the scare tactics. Time to do some backing-up. How?
Where? On what? This document will describe several different means
available to CDC members for backing up all the data they have acquired.
These include:

## a. DVD:

CDC has several different machines available that allow you to create
your own DVDs. DVDs cost approximately \$0.75 and hold approximately 4.3
gBytes. The estimated life span of a user-written DVD is around 100
years. You cannot rewrite to a DVD nor change the information that\'s on
the DVD in anyway once it\'s written. Transfer rates (for 8x drives, of
around 10 mBytes/sec) -- not too bad on the face of things, but because
of the other operations involved in creating a readable DVD, the actual
time to burn a CD is usually around 30 mins. For small amounts of
high-value data that you want to keep for a long time (for instance,
that proposal you just finished, paper you just submitted, or computer
program you just wrote), a DVD might be the best solution. They\'re also
relatively cheap and easy to mail across the country (and world). With
some care, DVDs can be created on any of the "big 3" operating systems
that will be readable by other operating systems, so they make a good
medium for collaboration and sharing of results with others.

## b. Tape (DLT and LT02) 

DLT tapes are the most readily available media to backup to, and provide
the most capacity / \$ of all backup technologies. They\'ve been around
the longest (as a viable back up solution), and we have a number of
different tape drives available. DLT tapes hold 35 gBytes uncompressed,
and cost approximately \$50/tape. CDC just recently added 2 HP
Storageworks Ultrium 460 LT0-2 drives to its hardware inventory -- these
newer technology drives hold 200 gBytes uncompressed, and cost
approximately \$60/tape. DLT drives typically have about 5 mByte/sec
performance, while LT02 can go up to 60 mByte/sec.

The decision to compress or not compress data prior to copying to tape
is an individual one -- the drives themselves can do an LZW algorithm
compression,\
like the Unix compress command. If you have only a few large files, the\
results will probably be better if you run a newer compression program,
such as bzip2 on them beforehand. On the other hand, if you are backing
up many small files, the streaming LZW compression on the drive itself
may actually perform better.

Tapes typically have around a 15 year shelf life. For relatively
economical, long term storage of intermediate to larger sized datasets,
tape is still a very viable alternative. At this point, tape drives are
available from the Solaris systems only.

## c. External hard drive (grant funded):

The fastest, most "hands free" backup technology is probably an external
hard drive. With the prices of firewire enabled drives coming down
quickly, hard drives are approaching a cost per gigabyte where they are
economically competitive with tape. External firewire drives are
available in capacities ranging from 80 gBytes to a tByte, or more, with
costs ranging from \$120 to \$900. Transfer speeds across a firewire
interface range from 250 mBytes/sec to 500 mBytes/sec -- much, much
quicker. Although we have firewire ports available on all of the "big 3"
operating systems (Linux, Windows, and Macintosh), drives aren\'t
**really** portable from one to the other, (filesystem layouts -- the
way the operating system actually puts the information on the disk --
differ from OS to OS), so it\'s best to stick to one platform or another
for backup and retrieval of data.

And, of course, a hard drive is subject to all the reliability concerns
of the original system you\'re backing up: to be safe, turn on the
external drive **only** when you\'re backing up or retrieving from it,
keep it in a safe, dust-free place, and avoid jostling it too much (i.e.
keeping it in the trunk of your four-wheel drive jeep is **not**
recommended). And above, all, use it as a backup device only -- that
means **nothing** should be on there that is not available, under normal
circumstances, somewhere else.

External drives, although becoming more economical, are still relatively
expensive. Because of this, the IT group cannot supply external drives
to every research group or CDC member who would like to backup data.
External drives must be bought through individual research grants only.

## d. Comparison of available backup technologies

In summary, here are the main attributes of the various backup
technologies available at CDC:

  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
                    DVD               TAPE                   External Drive
  ----------------- ----------------- ------------ --------- -----------------
                                      DLT          LTO2      

  Capacity          4.3 gBytes        35 gBytes    200\      80 gBytes -- 1
  (uncompressed)                                   gBytes    tByte

  Cost              \$0.75            \$50.00      \$60.00   \$120-\$900

  Cost/gigabyte     \$0.17            \$1.40       \$0.30    \$1.50-\$1.10

  Typical transfer  10 mBytes/sec     5 mBytes/sec 60        250 mBytes/sec -
  rates                                            mBytes/   500 mBytes/sec
                                                   sec       

  CDC supplies      Yes               Yes          Yes       No
  media?                                                     

  OS\'s supported   Mac, Linux,       Solaris      Solaris   Mac, Linux,
                    Windows                                  Windows
  ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

Blank tape media are generally available from the main CDC office --
blank DVD and CD media are available from the IT group.

# III. Detailed Instructions

Detailed instructions for each technology are included in the following
sections.

## a. Backing up to tape

### 1. How to back up to tape (Solaris)

CDC has a number of tape drives available for your use:

  ------------------------------------------------------------------------
  Room           Machine              Drive (s)
  -------------- -------------------- ------------------------------------
  1D-601         tape-601             2 DLT

                                      1 LTO2

  1D-611         tape-611             1 DLT

                                      1 L280 DLT stacker

  1D-701         tape-701             2 DLT

  GD-403         tape-403             1 DLT

                                      1 L280 DLT stacker

                                      1 LT02
  ------------------------------------------------------------------------

The L280 stackers provide the same tape technology (a single DLT 7000
drive) as the standalone drives, but they can hold up to 8 tapes at a
time and will sequence through the tapes as needed.

All of the tape machines run the Sun Solaris OS. On Solaris, we have a
suite of local tools available for dealing with tapes and for protecting
the contents of your tape from being overwritten by other users.

The tools display_tape and assign_tape have man pages for the details.
In general, display_tape shows you who is using the tape drives on the
local system (tape-601, tape-611, tape-701). Assign_tape is used to give
you temporary ownership of a drive. In addition, there are few more
commands developed locally that use these two commands.

First, there is unassign_tape, which should be self-explanatory. Also,
there is eject_tape, which offlines (explained below) a tape drive and
unassigns it so others may use that drive. Finally, the command
avail_tape will check each of the tape hosts for available drives. By
default, it does both DLT and 8mm (not described) here, but can be
limited to DLT drives by specifying either "dlt" or "DLT" as an
argument. Unfortunately, due to technical limitations, you will be
required to type your password multiple times.

The general tape operations command "mt" has a man page showing many
possible uses, two of which are useful for backing up data. First, to
check if the tape (assumed to be device 0 for this example) is ready for
use, try:

mt -f /dev/rmt/0bn stat

(This parenthetical note is for those who need details; others may skip
it. The "b" suffix after the drive number specifies Berkeley EOF
semantics, which won't be a factor in most backup scenarios, while the
"n" suffix indicates no-rewind mode. Again, this shouldn't be needed in
most backup scenarios, but it's probably best to be in the habit of
always using both suffix flags to avoid problems, and they never hurt.)

The other mt operation useful for backup work is the offline command:

mt -f /dev/rmt/0bn offl

Which makes the tape ready for removal from the tape drive. The tape
will be rewound, as it is not possible (without disassembly) to remove a
tape from one of our drives that is not rewound.

For single volume backups, a very simple tar command line will do the

job:

tar -cvf /dev/rmt/0ubn \<directory_to_backup\> \|& tee \<tape_log_file\>

A couple of notes about the above command:

1\) The "u" suffix after the drive number specifies compression, which
will maximize the capacity of a DLT; you might get more than 35 gBytes
on one with this flag.

2\) \<directory_to_backup\> should be either the current directory or
below the current directory. If you want to back up the current
directory, use "." for this argument.

3)The \|& is csh/tcsh for "pipe standard output and error output to this
command". On other shells, it might be 2\>&1 \| .

4)The tee command and it's \<tape_log_file argument\> (which should
**NOT** be under \<directory_to_backup\> provide a list of what files
are on the tape you make. With the tee command (rather than just
redirecting the output to a file), you can see the progress of your tape
job as well as have a record. Also, when you restore from this tape, you
will need to specify paths **exactly** as in this listing (assuming you
don't want to restore the whole tape, which would take a lot longer than
it took to write it).

So, a typical scenario would be:

> A\) login to a tape host, possibly after using avail_tape to select
> it.
>
> B\) cd to a directory containing the stuff to back up.
>
> C\) display_tape to see what drives are open.
>
> D\) assign_tape to grab a drive.
>
> E\) Physically insert the tape into the drive.
>
> \*F) Use mt -f /dev/rmt/0bn stat to verify tape is loaded and ready.
>
> \*G) tar command as above.
>
> \*H) eject_tape /dev/rmt/0bn
>
> I\) Physically retrieve your tape from the drive.

The letters with asterisks preceding them indicate where the drive
number used in the command will need to be changed to that of the drive
you assigned.

### 2. For advanced users: multi-volume backups

Sometimes you may need to back up significantly more than 35 gBytes.
It's recommended that you avoid this by breaking things up into smaller
backups, and backing up as you add chunks \<= 35 gBytes. However, if you
want to try this, here's a gtar command that might help:

gtar -M -cvf /dev/rmt/0ubn \<directory_to_backup\>

This command will prompt you to change the tape when one is full. You
have to manually offline and change the tape (mt's offline operation can
be used from another window, of course). The L280 stackers on both
tape-611 and tape-403 are useful in such an effort. After each tape
change, it's good to use mt's stat command to verify readiness again
from another window.

## b. Backing up to DVDs:

This section will be broken down into three subgroups depending upon
which type of machine you have chosen to write your DVDs on: Linux, Mac
OS X, or Windows 2000. All three hardware platforms suffer the same
problem, DVDs are only capable of holding 4.3GB of data (not the
advertised 4.7GB!). New technology has emerged however, not truly
available yet, that offers capacities of 8.3GB and 27GB -- still vapor
ware. So, the problem resides in your ability to break your data into
groups of 4.3GB or less. One strategy is to put your data into a
directory and run du --sk \<directoryname\> to see how much you have in
there, then add or remove files until you are close to the current 4.3
gByte limitation. Depending upon your file sizes, it might be possible
to partition your data into a number of directories, each of which is
less than 4.3 gBytes, each of which can then be backed up on it\'s own
DVD.

### 1. How to backup to DVD (Linux):

The Linux system in room 611 (called, appropriately enough, linux611)
has a DVD burner capable of burning the most common DVD formats: DVD+R,
DVD-R, DVD+RW, and DVD-RW. Blank DVD\'s can be obtained from the CDC IT
group.

It takes approximately 30mins just to burn a full DVD (\~4 gBytes) (not
including the time it takes to copy the files via the network).

Also, the DVD burner can burn CD-R and CD-RWs. Since CD\'s hold
considerably less data (about 650 mBytes) than DVD\'s, burning DVD\'s is
probably preferable. However, if you have \< 650 mBytes of data to
backup, or want to use up some blank CD media you have, the steps below
will work the same for DVD\'s and CD\'s.

Note: Linux systems often come with different windowing systems, the
most popular being "KDE" and "Gnome." Linux611 supports both of these
systems. The steps listed below assume you are using the Gnome windowing
system -- for KDE user\'s, the steps will be similar, but may differ in
the details.

If this is your first time using linux611, there a steps you can take to
insure you login under the Gnome window manager. If it is not, and you
have accomplished the steps below previously, you should automatically
come up under the GNOME window manager (if there\'s a "Foot" icon in the
bottom left hand corner of the screen, your using Gnome.)

#### Switching to GNOME for first time users, or for KDE users wanting to switch to Gnome: 

> **1.** On the login screen, click on Session at the bottom of the
> screen, and select GNOME from the list. Click OK.
>
> **2.** Login on the console with your Solaris (UNIX) username and
> password.
>
> **3.** When the login completes, you should see a foot icon in the
> lower left of the screen, click on that, and select System Tools -\>
> Terminal from the menu.
>
> **4.** When the terminal window appears, type:
>
> switchdesk-helper GNOME
>
> and hit return. It should respond with:
>
> Desktop now set up to run GNOME.

5.  Click on the foot icon in the lower left of the screen again, and
    select Logout. In the window that appears, select Logout and click
    OK. This will return you back to the original login screen. Please
    continue with the instructions below to burn a DVD.

#### Creating a DVD or CD under Gnome on Linux 

> **1.** Login on the console with your Solaris (UNIX) username and
> password.
>
> **2.** When the login process completes, place a blank DVD or CD into
> the DVD burner and close the tray. A window titled CD/DVD Creator
> should appear shortly. Drag this window over to the upper right side
> of the screen, as you\'ll need this again later.
>
> **3.** Double click on the Home icon on the desktop. A window will
> appear with a graphical inventory of your home directory.
>
> This is where you will choose the files and directories that you want
> burned onto a DVD or CD. (If you have CD or DVD disk image, often
> referred to as a ISO file, that you wish to burn onto a disk, then
> skip to the addendum at the end of this file.)
>
> To add files to be copied, just drag and drop them into the CD/DVD
> Creator window. This physically copies the files into a special place
> for creating the DVD and may take a few minutes depending up on the
> sizes and number of files. Alternatively, the CD/DVD Creator software
> understands links, so you can select files, then select Make Link from
> the File menu of the same window. This will create a file with the
> name Link to \<file or directoryname\>. Copying that link file into
> the CD/DVD Creator window has the same affect as copying the entire
> file, and might be considerably quicker.
>
> If you wish to make multiple directories on the disk, click
> File-\>Create Folder in the CD/DVD Creator window.
>
> If you wish to copy files from filesystems other than your home
> directory, then click on the drop down box next to your username in
> the lower left hand corner of the window, and scroll up to the /
> directory. Another window showing a listing of / will appear, and you
> can double click into the directory structure that you want to copy
> files from (/data, /nas, /scratchXXd, etc.)
>
> Note: because all of your filesystems are likely mounted via the
> network, dragging and dropping them into the CD/DVD Creator window
> will be a slow process, so please be patient.
>
> Once you have the files and directories in the CD/DVD Creator window
> appearing as you want them to on the disk, click File-\>Write to Disc.
>
> **4.** In the window that appears, edit the Disc name field to your
> liking. You also might want to consider decreasing the write speed
> because the slower you write the disc, the better the chance that a
> regular DVD-ROM or CDROM drive will be able to read the disc,
> particularly on older models. The obvious trade off is that it takes
> longer to write the disc.
>
> Select Eject disc in the dialog for actions to take after burning.
>
> Click on Write. This will take a long time, so you can click on the
> foot icon, select Lock Screen and leave the workstation. The disc will
> eject when it is finished, so be sure to wait until that happens. When
> that happens, it\'s best to insert the disc back into the machine, and
> when the disc appears on the desktop, browse through it to make sure
> everything looks as it should. Right click on the disc icon and select
> Eject to eject the disk.
>
> Make sure to logout when finished burning a CD or DVD.
>
> **Addendum:** Burning a Disk Image to a CD or DVD
>
> (This is only relevant if you have a file with .iso extension or that
> you
>
> know is a disk image. In this case, the file represents exactly what
> should be written to the disk with no formatting or translation
> necessary. If you do not have a .iso file or a file you are sure is a
> disk image, skip this section).

1)  The process for burning disk images is similar, however, because the
    file is a disk image you don\'t need to collect files to burn to the
    CD/DVD as they are already contained within the disk image (or ISO
    file). To burn the image to a disc, right click on the image file,
    and select Write to Disc. Then follow the instructions in Step 4
    above.

### 2. How to backup to DVD (Windows):

The Windows system in room 601 (called, appropriately enough, 601_PC)
has a DVD burner capable of burning the most common DVD formats: DVD+R,
DVD-R, DVD+RW, and DVD-RW. Blank DVD\'s can be obtained from the CDC IT
group.

To backup files from your Unix home directory, you will need to have
your Unix home mounted (i.e. made available) on the Windows machine. CDC
IT runs special software on the Unix machines, called "Samba" to allow
this to happen. The default within CDC is to mount home directories on
Windows machines under the drive letter G.

If you don\'t have a drive letter G: showing up in the Windows Explorer
with your Unix files in it, you\'ll need to mount your Unix home
directory:

#### Mounting a Unix home directory on Windows:

1.  right click My Computer and from the menu select:\
    Mount network drive.

2.  In the resulting pop up window, select:

> drive letter G: for drive\
> your **samba home mount point** for Folder\
> \
> *Aside: How to find your **samba home mount point:\
> **All Unix home directories are mounted as part of the home1 or home2
> filesystems on Unix. To find out whether you are on home1 or the home2
> filesystem, in a Solaris terminal (note, from 601_PC you can bring up
> a "command line window" and ssh to any of the Solaris machines, int1,
> int2, etc.), execute the command:*
>
> *grep \<username\> /etc/auto_home**\
> ***
>
> *Once you\'ve found out which filesystem your on, the samba home mount
> point is as follows:\
> **\
> **for users on home1:
> [\\\\home1\\username](../../../../../../../../username)\
> for users on home2:
> [\\\\home2\\username](../../../../../../../../username)*

3.  Select the "Reconnect at login" option and click "Finish"

#### Creating a DVD or CD under Windows:

1)  Login to the PC.

2)  Run Veritas RecordNow DX by selecting, from the Start menu:\
    Start \
    Programs \
    Veritas Software \
    RecordNow DX \
    RecordNow DX

3)  When the program is finished opening, click Make Data Disc.

4)  The Veritas RecordNow GUI will then guide you through the remaining
    steps:\
    \
    a) insert blank DVD/CD\
    b) selecting files to write to the DVD/CD. Note the Space Remaining
    tally in the window.\
    c) Burning/Writing your DVD/CD

5\) Don\'t forget to eject your disk, take it with you, and log out of
the PC when done.

###  

### 3. How to backup to DVD (Macintosh OS X)

The Macintosh system in room 601 (called, for absolutely no good reason
we can think of Mac22) has a DVD burner attached to (on the table, not
physically in the box itself). capable of burning the most common DVD
formats: DVD+R, DVD-R, DVD+RW, and DVD-RW. Blank DVD\'s can be obtained
from the CDC IT group.

#### Creating a DVD or CD under Macintosh OS X

1\. Login to the Macintosh and place a blank DVD in the DVD drive.

Depending on selections you've made (or not made) in the past, the Mac
may bring up a variety of software packages to write your DVD. We
recommend Roxio Toast 6 Titanium over the built in Macintosh OSX DVD
burner, although either will work. If you are already familiar with
using the system supplied software, by all means continue to do so. For
others, this tutorial will explain how to use the Roxio Toast
application.

2.  If the Macintosh system-default DVD burner came up upon placing a
    DVD in the drive, close the application.

3.  If Roxio Toast 6 Titanium didn't come up for you automatically,
    start it manually: From your finder navigate your way: Mac OSX 
    Applications  Roxio 6 Toast Titanium  Roxio Toast.

4.  In the Roxio Toast window, click on "Data"

5.  Drag Files/Folders to Toast (your Unix home should be auto-mounted
    on the desktop for you).

6.  When done, Click the Red circle at the lower right corner of Roxio
    Toast window.

7.  On the pop-up window click Record

8.  After recording is complete a pop-up window will give you the
    opportunity to skip verification and eject, if you do nothing, it
    will "verify" the disc (takes almost as long as the actual burn, and
    as of today, in the many DVD's/CD's I've burnt in this manner --
    none have failed verification.)

9.  If you chose to verify and not eject in step 5, when the
    verification is complete the DVD will appear on your desktop. To
    eject drag it to the trash can, this will not delete it but, eject
    it.

10\. Don\'t forget to take your newly minted DVD with you and logout of
the Macintosh before leaving.

## c. Backing up to an external Fire Wire Hard Drive:

This section will be broken down into three sections, depending upon
which type of machine you have chosen to connect your fire wire hard
drive to: Linux, Mac OSX or Windows 2000/XP.

Since these drives are currently available in capacities ranging up to 1
TB this will be the easiest method to backup your data. NOTE: once you
have decided on a platform, you are somewhat married to it, unless you
are willing to reformat the drive (losing all the data previously put on
it) for use on a different platform. This is because to be useful for
holding data a drive has to be formatted using a particular *filesystem*
(a standard way laying out the bits on the drive so the operating system
can later tell what\'s where and how to get the information back off).
Unfortunately, different operating systems use different filesystems,
and are more, or less, able to read each others.

The Windows XP/2000/NT4.0 preferred filesystem, NTFS, can be read (not
written to) from Linux, and FAT (DOS file format) and FAT32 (DOS
extended file format) can be read and written to in both Linux and
Windows.

Nevertheless, CDC IT does not recommend trying to use external hard
drives across platforms -- choose a platform to read/write from, and
stick with it. Note that this doesn\'t mean you can\'t back up your Unix
home directory from, for instance, a Macintosh -- network protocols
allow us to mount filesystems from certain machines onto other machines
running different OS\'s -- in this case, however, the "native" OS is
actually reading the bits as a favor to the client OS and sending the
bits to the other OS across the network. This is what allows you to
mount your Unix home directory on a Windows machine, on a Linux machine,
and on an Macintosh.

The following file formats are recommended for your use (depending again
on the chosen platform):

  -----------------------------------------------------------------------
  **Platform**            **recommended file format**
  ----------------------- -----------------------------------------------
  Mac OS X                Mac OSX extended

  Windows (2000/XP)       NTFS

  Linux                   ext3
  -----------------------------------------------------------------------

A word of caution: However tempting it might be to take this hard drive
traveling or home with you, remember, **this is your backup!** The
safest place for it is in your desk drawer or on a shelf. Every
bump/vibration the drive encounters could damage it and the data on it.
As well, if you take it off site and use it with another machine, you
may inadvertently acquire a virus/worm and bring that back to CDC or
lose or damage the drive. So, given that you won't be doing that
(right?)... the choice is simplified by which platform appears to be the
simplest to use and which you are most familiar with. If your unfamiliar
with all 3, or don\'t have much of a preference, the Macintosh might be
a good place to start.

For all platforms the first step will be to partition and format the
drive. This only needs to be done the first time you used the drive.
Next you will mount the drive (automatic in Mac OSX and Windows). Then
finally, you can begin copying your data to the drive. The subgroups
below will describe each platform in detail.

### 1. How to backup to an external drive (Macintosh OS X)

#### Preparing the disk for use (partitioning and formatting)

Connect your fire wire hard drive to the machine and power it up.

Some manufacturers who aim primarily at the Macintosh market and thus
sell their already formatted in Mac OS X extended format, If you have
purchased a LaCie external fire wire drive, it is ready to use after you
plug in the power and fire wire connections -- nothing more needs to be
done. If the drive has already been formatted (in a Macintosh OSX format
-- like OSX extended) it will appear in the Finder - the Mac\'s
filesystem browser and desktop GUI - and is ready to use.

If it hasn't already been formatted in a Macintosh format, it will not
appear in the Finder. If this is the case you will need to run the
Macintosh disk utility to partition it and then format it.

> 1\) From the Finder, navigate to:
>
> MacX 
>
> Applications 
>
> Utilities 
>
> Disk Utility

2)  From the Disk Utility program click on the new disk, possibly
    labeled untitled (**[NOTE BENE: Not "MacX" or "Backup" - these are
    the system disks]{.underline}**).

3)  Use the pull down menu in the Disk Utility program under "Volume
    Scheme" to select "1 partition".

4)  On the right side under Volume information in the name field enter a
    name that you would like disk labeled as -- this is the way it will
    appear in the Finder from here on out. One recommendation is to give
    it your name or userID -- that way if you forget and walk away
    leaving the disk mounted one day we\'ll will know who it belongs to.

5)  Use the pull down menu under Format to select Mac OSX Extended.

6)  Click Partition in the main Disk Utility window.

7)  A pop up window will ask you to confirm your selection -- double
    check that your partitioning the right disk and not any of the
    system disks, then click partition again.

8)  The drive will now be partitioned and formatted for use and should
    appear as an icon on both the Macintosh desktop and the Finder
    windows.

#### Backing up to an external drive under Macintosh OSX

There are several ways to copy your data to the fire wire drive, the
simplest is drag and drop. If you want to create an exact mirror of your
data that will be easily appendable to this drive you may wish to use
psync. The advantage to using psync is that it will compare what is
already on the fire wire drive to what you are mirroring and only copy
over what has changed or what it doesn't already have on it -- much
faster than recopying all of your data (provided it already has some of
it on there -- if it's a new drive with nothing on it, the drag and drop
method will probably be faster.)

For example if you run (from a terminal window on the Macintosh):

psync -q \<dir1\> \<dir2\>

This will copy over all new files from \<dir1\> to \<dir2\> (note it
won't copy the files you already have ;) and not give you any feedback.

psync -d \<dir1\> \<dir2\>

This will copy over all new files from \<dir1\> to \<dir2\> and
**DELETE** files from \<dir2\> that don't exist in \<dir1\>.

### 2. How to backup to an external drive (Windows 2000/XP)

The Windows system in room 601 (called, appropriately enough, 601_PC)
has firewire and USB ports available on the (actual) desktop.

#### Preparing the disk for use (partitioning and formatting)

Under the Windows operating system, formatting a hard drive
unfortunately requires Administrator privileges. Luckily, you only have
do this once - please bring it to a member of the IT group and we\'ll
get it formatted for you.

#### Mounting a Unix home directory on Windows:

To backup files from your Unix home directory, you will need to have
your Unix home mounted (i.e. made available) on the Windows machine. CDC
IT runs special software on the Unix machines, called "Samba" to allow
this to happen. The default within CDC is to mount home directories on
Windows machines under the drive letter G.

If you don\'t have a drive letter G: showing up in the Windows Explorer
with your Unix files in it, you\'ll need to mount your Unix home
directory:

1.  right click My Computer and from the menu select:\
    Mount network drive.

2.  In the resulting pop up window, select:

> drive letter G: for drive\
> your **samba home mount point** for Folder\
> \
> *Aside: How to find your **samba home mount point:\
> **All Unix home directories are mounted as part of the home1 or home2
> filesystems on Unix. To find out whether you are on home1 or the home2
> filesystem, in a Solaris terminal (note, from 601_PC you can bring up
> a "command line window" and ssh to any of the Solaris machines, int1,
> int2, etc.), execute the command:*
>
> *grep \<username\> /etc/auto_home**\
> ***
>
> *Once you\'ve found out which filesystem your on, the samba home mount
> point is as follows:\
> **\
> **for users on home1:
> [\\\\home1\\username](../../../../../../../../username)\
> for users on home2:
> [\\\\home2\\username](../../../../../../../../username)\
> *
>
> 3\. Select the "Reconnect at login" option and click "Finish"

#### Backing up to an external drive under Windows 2000/XP

1.  Login to Windows on 601_PC

2.  After the login is finished, plug your formatted drive into the
    firewire or USB port on the desk.

3.  Within a few seconds the drive should appear under My Computer, when
    it does, it is ready for read/write access.

4.  Copy the files you want backed up to the external drive mounted on
    the Windows system.

5.  Logout of the Windows system.

6.  Power off your drive, disconnect it, and store it in safe place.

There are several ways to copy your data to the fire wire drive, the
simplest is drag and drop. Assuming you have your UNIX home mounted on
the 601_PC as drive G: (see above), the easiest way to get to your
/data, /nas, or\
/\<whatever_you_want \> is to make a link out of your UNIX home (from a
Solaris terminal or, ssh\'ing to a Solaris box from a Command Line
window on the PC) pointing at your desired data. IE:

ln --s /nas/\<username\> /home/\<username\>/nas

Will create a pointer to /nas/\<username\> from the users UNIX home.
Then, from windows, it is possible to navigate to drive G: and dbl click
the nas directory, leading to the /nas/\<username\> directory and
contents.

Another option is to run rsync on windows, which allows remote copying
and mirroring of directories from one filesytem to another. The
advantages of rsync over drag and drop is that rsync will figure out the
details for you, and only copy over the files that have been changed
since the last time the two filesystems were rsync\'ed. Since this
involves some detailed set up on both the Unix and Windows sie, please
see someone in the IT group for instructions.

### 3. How to backup to an external drive (Linux)

The linux system in room 611 (called, appropriately enough, linux611)
has a firewire port available on the (actual) desk.

#### Preparing the disk for use (partitioning and formatting)

Under Linux partitioning and formatting are root commands so, you won't
be able to do that yourself on our Linux machines. Luckily, this is a
one-time operation, so just bring it to one of the IT group and we'll
partition/format for you. Once setup on linux611 we can make the device
automount once plugged in.

#### Backing up to an external drive (Linux)

Copying from Linux611 to your firewire drive can be accomplished in a
multitude of ways. The most popular window mangers, Gnome and KDE, both
provide file managers that allow drag and drop copying of files from one
filesystem to the other.

Another option is to use the rsync command from a shell, which allows
remote copying and mirroring of directories from one filesystem to
another. The advantages of rsync over drag and drop is that rsync will
figure out the details for you, and only copy over the files that have
been changed since the last time the two filesystems were rsync\'ed.

rsync is a powerful tool with a large number of options, many of which
are overkill for the purposes of this document. To get a full
explanation of the rsync command, please see the system man pages (type
man rsync from a shell prompt). A few very simple things you can do:

rsync -r \<dir1\>/ \<dir2\>

Will copy (recursively) the contents of dir1 into dir2. Note the
trailing slash after \<dir1\>/ without it, rsync will reproduce the
source directory into the target, instead of just the files contained
therein. I.E., if you had:

dir1/frank

dir1/fred

dir2

After rsync -r \<dir1\>/ \<dir2\>, you would have

dir1/frank

dir1/fred

dir2/frank

dir2/fred

While after rsync -r \<dir1\> \<dir2\>, you would have

dir1/frank

dir1/fred

dir2/dir1/frank

dir2/dir1/fred

Another option of interest is the \--delete option:

rsync -r \--delete \<dir1\>/ \<dir2\>

Copies everything from \<dir1\> into \<dir2\>, and DELETES everything in
\<dir2\> not in \<dir1\>. Note that this is a very powerful, but
dangerous, command. Make sure you understand in which direction the copy
is proceeeding before inadvertently deleting all your files newly
created since your last backup. The prudent thing to do is to use the
"dry run" (-n) option first, to see what will happen prior to actually
executing the command.

rsync -r -n \--delete \<dir1\>/ \<dir2\>

Will not actually execute the command, but will give you a listing of
what would happen if you executed the command without the dry-run
option.

After copying your date to you new hard drive, the best thing to do is
unmount your new drive from the Linux machine:

umount \<drivename\>

Then, logoff the linux machine, unplug your hard drive, and store it in
a safe place.