At Sun, 14 Dec 2008 12:26:37 -0400 Jim Diamond <zsd@...> wrote:

> On Sun, Dec 14, 2008 at 11:14 (-0500), Allan Gottlieb wrote:
>
>> I agree. At home every morning I do a backup (dump) from the laptop to
>> a desktop and via the internet to New York University, where I teach.
>> Those days when I go to work, I do an additional backup to NYU and often
>> a third to both sites when I come home. All these are performed
>> partition to partition on the laptop in single user mode and then the
>> directory containing the dumps is rsync'ed to the desktop(s) in
>> multiuser mode. Plus I have a cron job that does an rsync of the
>> live filesystem.
>
>> I find it very convenient to have all my data with me at both sites.
>
> Have you considered Unison? I've been using that for a while, with
> good success. On the days when I go in to my university (Acadia), I
> often work from my desktop, which means my updates need to be done
> bi-directionally, which Unison handles nicely.

I don't see much different. I plug my monitor and keyboard/mouse into
the laptop; every hour my files are rsync'ed to the desktop and I have
the single user dumps one or more times a day that are also on desktops

> And when at home, I "backup" to another laptop there with Unison.
>
> Ardell's comment that "having all of your valuable data only on your
> laptop is dangerous" (which was part of what I snipped out) is quite
> valid, it is too bad that he chose to phrase it in the way he did.
> Regardless of how the message was delivered, at the risk of sounding
> preachy, I encourage all of you to realize that it is not "if" your
> disk goes bad, it is "when".

I agree and *when* my laptop disk went bad a year ago, nyu loaned me
another laptop while I ordered a replacement. My dumps were valid and I
lost no data.

I am not arguing against keeping the master copy on a desktop or server,
just that the "primary laptop" is viable as well.

allan