PAROAT Run No. 3

This Saturday P.A.R.O.A.T. (Portland Area Remote Offsite Archive Team) did a partial backup of files for Sarah Meadows. The backup was of essential files as opposed to complete because of the vast amount of data she has. This was a good exercise for us to determine the best way to back up people with more data than can be easily backed up on a typical visit (usually an hour or two).

Our solution is to encourage the purchase of additional storage, which P.A.R.O.A.T. will manage in our offsite facility, for the exclusive use of backups. Even with the price of data storage dropping, the initial cost can be too much for some (especially those with a lot of data). So we're working on a special no-interest loan for P.A.R.O.A.T. users where they can purchase harddrives now and pay later.

Using additional harddrives means we can stop in for a visit, plan the backup process, and then leave the transfer (overnight if need be). This means we need to have a user-proof solution for the transfer of data (is Carbon Copy the best solution?).

While at the Boathouse on Friday I met another possible P.A.R.O.A.T. candidate. It's funny how talking about it seems to incredibly bore some people and get others pretty excited. My guess is those that get excited have experienced lost data.

Also the inclement weather is making transport by moped/scooter difficult, but Flexcar has proven to be a reliable back up.