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Welcome to the Tao Of Backup guestbook. To add your own entry, just fill out the guestbook form.
united states
united states
united states
united states
Too much time on your hands. Maybe you should get a life and get a job. Like your mum.
You have to much time on your hands. Your sad.
united states
united states
united states
united states
united states
united states
united states
I like your website; I will share this with friends
united states
Just stopped by to say Hi.
united states
united states
united states
Russian Federation
Russian Federation
good information
good very good to send information please thanks
I LIKE IT A LOT ..
MASTER?!
YES MASTER!
Nice web page, with funny interpretation, best backup guide ever.
Hilarious. Loved it! You should think about writing a computer user's guide with this in mind. Many users out there do not even know what a mouse is!
Good advices for novices like me. It really helps you when making your backups.
Well done. Nothing really new to anyone who's been in the computing world for very long, but a fun read nonetheless. As advertising goes, I don't recall a product plug I've found this amusing.
8-)
Now *this* is some great advertising. Most other companies out there could learn a lot from you. Funny, nevertheless very good information and some advertising at the end. Thank you for making this site.
i dey ooooooooooooooooo
This site is AWESOME! ahahaha! reading how to back up files in a philisophical way, like what happened if confuscious made it to the era of computers...
nice site, nice topic, nice theme!
Excellent!
your site made me conceptualize my computer as a being rather than an appliance. cousin lucky
Good site. It has many useful information.
Thanks :-)
Just what I was looking for...right on time.
Thank you you saved 5 years of work.
Just what I was looking for...right on time.
Thank you you saved 5 years of work.
Very nice site. I completely revised my backup strategy after I read this.
I have been enlightened
Reminds me of honey, in the TAO OF POE.
Good work!
Thanks for the great site d00ds! I'm using what I've learned here to create backup procedures for a tech college assignment.
Keep up the good work.
kool, in its own way..............thx 4 d tips on d backup deal
c001! how about a comic version of this? that would be nice...
this is a NERD site...completely irrelvant
pretty good i actually like this site.some of the other guys under my entry are classmates being stupid
i have wasted 1 hour reading this site and got nuthing from it
i think this site is a waste of time....it has nuthing to do with anything...
ah--so
Very nice little site, a good read.
Beautifully laid out site, very informative with the assessment/audit of backup practices. Only gripe is the constant plugging of veracity, remind me once again, what is it that veracity does that most Server OS' can't? Surely DiskDoctor can verify disk integrity as well?
Obviously I am interested in making the network as tight (security, storage, recovery) as possible, but I just fail to see Veracity's advantages. Shame it was the last step ;)
I love the site though,
J
someone else's crap:
"Okay, that was cute. I normally don't like people trying to sell me things (it's kind of pointless anyway: college students never have any money)"
who cares what YOU like
"but I'm sending this link to a couple of people. I rarely do that, just as I rarely sign guestbooks."
ooh, here she goes again. shouldn't these folks feel priveleged.
"However, you have used creativity to present information on what is normally a very dry subject, even to computer geeks like myself."
and it continues - this person is extremely boring but self-assured at the same time
"Now if only I could get my dad to back up his computer when I tell him to so that my job is easier when he screws something up!"
uh, yeah!
Susan (illecebra@yahoo.com)
DeKalb, IL, Mon 31-Dec-2001 4:23am
susan, you are rubbish
Thought this a gr8, original and amusing interlude in an otherwise somewhat stuffy and frustrating tech course!!hehe
Did anyone else get the mr MIAGI voice from karatae kid happening when the master was talking??
overall, i think this site just takes up disk space on a perfectly good server, it should irradicate itself from the internet.
Love it! From both a techie and a Taoist point of view! Hope you don't mind me putting a link to your site.
All data comes from the Tao
All data is in the Tao
Therefore all data is immortal and undeleteable
Its just you can't GET at it without a decent
backup package!!!!
Rgds,
Eoin
tHIS sITE nEEDS sOME bETTER sTUFF bUT oVER aLL i gIVE iT 4.99999 oUT oF 10
this site is extremly confusing and told me nothing i didnt already know the master is a putz i am smarter than this decrepid old man and he smells like a corpse and that is not how you spell earl
Great
Great site very informative
this was xcelent 411---no TAOt
Was pleased to see the teachings still out on the web since I first discovered them in 1999.
My new staff will be indoctrinated!
The Way has no front or back, no left or right: all things are mysteriously the same, with no right and no wrong - Wen-Tzu
funny and true, my backups are now secure, thank you Tao Of Backup!!!
funny and true, my backups are now secure, thank you Tao Of Backup!!!
A fantastic site! - above all else, this site has taught me how badly I need to backup my files! All the situations mentioned on this site could happen to you! Without a doubt, this site provides the most comprehensive set of instructions of what to do to make sure you remain happy and peaceful when it comes to backing things up! I must say, the Backup Audit is a very neat idea - it summed up quite how poor my backup skills are! Congratulations on a most superb site!
Very Good tale1 I hope your software is right like the novel
My students are doing their thesis works about backups. I'll convince them to put the very sequence of your Pillars of Wisdom in their minds!
Rolled on floor and almost choked with laughter! After working a 70 hour week following a backup and restore disaster, this is exactly what I needed!!!
It was very interesting thank you
It gives a lot of informaton thank you.
This site is funny and it rocks
very informative, a great read.
Well done! Having spent 22 years in the computer industry and recently started studying Taoism, I am sure Lao-Tse would be proud! And probably scrabbling for a new backup tape ...
Best regards,
Eoin
Pioneers in a new informative marketing. I normally am not so patient while browsing... But this made me sit up and remember all those early days under dos and unix backup when we were never sure if the backup was really a backup.. Now my socks have been pulled up.. Thanks, I sincerely hope people change their marketing strategies. All the best...
Hilarious!!!!
Simply informative. Really needed this info to show my Boss.
(PS do you give classes on sales??).
I visited the site as part of an OTEN course i am undertaking. The site is both educational and interesting (a rare find).
What is the meaning of Tao?
We are a State government vocational education institution and we would like to place a link to your site on our learningware instruction page as we are teaching students about the importance of backup. Would you be happy for me to do that?
Louise Jones
Northern Sydney Institute
TAFE NSW
Why did you have to SPAM the Usenet UNIX admin group?
Backup is vital.
Make true your backup work well.
This avoid heartache.
i lUV tHe TAo StOrY
A cRacK uP!!!!
GOOD
I enjoy your Web Site
JOHN
somebody send us up the bomb
Very useful
Terrific! Thanks for the insight.
JUST FOUND THIS SITE. IT SHOULD PROVE TO BE USEFUL. THANKS
Thanks for a great site!!!! It helped me a great deal!!!......
Thank You!!
Peace and backups!!
^^
Gualtiero
One would think that having data meticulously distributed across 3 computers would give adequate protection.
Unfortunatley, such was not my happy experience, as 4 drives successively failed before all the data could be retrieved and redistributed.
Enlightening. Will surely mail the link to my complete address book.
Success.
Funny and instructive
Okay, that was cute. I normally don't like people trying to sell me things (it's kind of pointless anyway: college students never have any money), but I'm sending this link to a couple of people. I rarely do that, just as I rarely sign guestbooks. However, you have used creativity to present information on what is normally a very dry subject, even to computer geeks like myself. Now if only I could get my dad to back up his computer when I tell him to so that my job is easier when he screws something up!
Good site. I gather Free Veracity is not available to us win98 folks. Bummer.
I find your site useful to me being a rookie for a systems administrator position. I hope i can get more information on this site in the near future.
I must admit this is the first time I've ever been moved also to sign a guest book. A very innovative & interesting way of 'enlightening' someone.
Excellent site. However, I still have one question - If a backup runs by itself, in a forest, and nobody is there to restore, is the data still on the tape?
This is the first time I have ever felt moved to sign a guestbook - I thought the site made a dull subject very entertaining (as well as being informative). I look forward to implementing our own version of the Parrot/Frog system very soon!
You explained the topic so clearly that even my manager will understand it. Great site.
interesting?? but also looking for methods and how too!! back up
thank you very much
vern
if only enlightenment reached me 4 hours ago
I guess I always knew that I had a long way to go to enlightenment - now I am certain!!
And the king said:
I've read the "tao of backup" and i was really amused.
Student: Master, you do not mention how much the Free Veracity costs?
Master: My young padawan learner, you have not understood the teachings. Please clear you mind of terestrial thoughts, and concentrate on the now.
Clay is formed to make a pot
but it is where there is nothing that the usefullness of a pot lies
without the tao of backup
nothing is what you will have
Excellent koans! Nothing like looking for a backup you never made.
An extremely useful site for explaining the Tao of Backup. Beautiful and simple, as all sites should be.
Hilarious!!! Loved the Parrot and Frog section; but informative also
That was enligtening and fun and serious!
Ross, thank you for this. It was sufficiently delightful that I didn't even mind that it was a shill. ;-) Not to mention sadly but profoundly true.
Just testing the guestbook form after
moving this web to taobackup.com.
"An Arrow Released Will Not Return"
A Very Concise set of lessons masters. When I can joyfully erase my hard drives I know I will have learned.
Una pgina muy completa y de gran utilidad. Saludos... y gracias
Well done!
Backup? Isn't that something your manager gets when you try to discuss recovery, and costs.
Excellent piece. I might even look at Veracity.
Very helpful.
Thank you for this site which I visit for enlightenment every month or two!!!
Enlightening and entertaining!
Backup is never a 'hot', 'sexy', or 'attractive' topic, but your
site makes it approachable for those who dislike maintenance. I'm
still not sure if it isn't preaching to the choir that makes some
of us 'laugh with tears' at the stories, but it sure did rekindle
that little Jimminy Cricket voice when I read about off-site
distribution...because I realized I had moved from the choir to the pew and
haven't been religious in packing 'em up and moving 'em out.
Well done, well done.
This is one of the best system admin sites I've ever seen! I'm featuring your site as a recommended resource in the next issue of my CodeCraft newsletter for programmers (follow the link to see it next week!).
don't know how many times I was able to say:
been there, done that....
Oh Wise One, this has been truely enlightening.
I have just been ask to assist in a backup review
and now I have a better understanding of what is
needed. My humble thanks for a truely entertaining
and informative site. Even the plug at the end
was witty.
So, now we now.
The truth is out there and I found it on this site. I have mailed the link to all the backup no-no's that I know.
Personally, I enjoyed reading every single letter of it. Thanks for creating this site.
Eric.
I am researching backup strategies and I
found your site to be most informative and
enlightening. Hopefully by company will
find the importance of backup strategy very
enlightening, when I propose my research
findings.
Thanks
Love the information. I was doing research and go lots of useful info.
Excellent pages; clear and informative,
funny and readable. Going to tell all my friends
and possibly buy a tape drive (one day :-/ !)
Brilliant, true, entertaining.
I've been in the software business over 30 years.
In the days of removable disk packs (remember those??), I once saw the operator of a bank's IBM mainframe mount a disk pack on a drive, get an I/O error, switch the pack to another drive, get another I/O error, mount a different pack on the first drive, get another I/O error, switch the second pack to another drive, etc.
Turned out, the first pack had been crashed, and it crashed the first drive, then the second. The second pack was then crashed by the first drive, etc. Before he decided that "something must be wrong," he'd destroyed 4 disk packs and 6 disk drives. Innocent, but devasting. The disk drive head replacements cost nearly a year's pay (pre-inflation)!
Data was being backup up on packs, without tape backup. Everything was lost!
The Tao might say that while we've learned a great deal and have marvelously improved technology, we risk becoming increasingly primitive.
Thanks again!
Sound advice + Great humour = Brilliant site!
Thank you oh wise and awesome perveyor or wisdom to humble novices. Now I shall go forth and practice the lesson well learnt.
Anthony Foxcroft
Auckland 25.1.99
Great site. Although we have a department that looks after this, it is always nice to see that people without this luxury have well thought out and easy to read websites to help them along the way with backups... (Touch wood, never had to restore yet!)
And never shall you forget to have a copy of your
harddisk tools and backup software on a bootable
floppy that you check every day, for else you will
find that the only disk that you can still boot
from contains a very old version of a diskmonitor
and it shall take you a night and a day to recreate
your disk structure so you can get a working copy
of your backup software :-)
One who lost the source of his early Amiga years.
Good read! Gave a novice a few clues.
Great Info. Will pass on URL to colleagues.
I have been mildly obsessed with backup from early
crashing CP/M machines to Windows 98. All personal
computers, no networks. I used to backup *all* of
W9x including applications, but I don't anymore
because (1.) it's just too effing huge and (2.) does
anybody know any way to actually restore w9x? The
whole thing? Say (a.) wipe disk (b.) install w9x
(c.) install restore program, (d.) restore system
-- oops you can't do that, all those DLLs are
running at this moment! Etc.
I had a system where I'd backup the Windows
directory and system and subdirectories via a
"naked DOS" backup program, and have actually
recovered using this after evil installations --
but that's the best I could think of.
Tao shmao....
Best wishes...
j.g.o.
P.S. Oh yes many of the tape systems for PCs
don't work, in my experience. I've switched to
Zip and SparQ drives, which so far seem *much*
more reliable.
Well I know of a case where the backup was being
done, several disks to a tape. However the rewind
switch was not off, so although each disks was
backed up, all but the last one was overwritten.
In another case when backing up loads of VAX disks
to 2400 foot 9 track mag tape, it took eight tapes
for a certain disk. Requesting a restore we found
the backup was four tapes from one disk and four
from another, so you could have some of your files
back.
The Tao rings so true - from UNIX to VAX, PC to
PDA the moral of backu is too often missed. Users
seem even to forget the disasters all too quickly.
Great!
It's a very nice surprise to visit this WebSite... A Very serious topic treated with a great sense of humur... Congratulations!
Very entertaining, and frighteningly accurate.
Very interesting. I thoroughly enjoyed it. We are doing most of what the master suggests. Probably should include the items we aren't.
But the second version of anything is always better, no? In my experience, enlightenment will come to many only after the first total loss.
I liked your site. The best kind of web selling,
or any selling for that matter. It involved me,
it was humorous, it informed me, and it
made me think about how bad I am about backup.
Good job.
I was once working OEM helpdesk for Gateway 2000. A woman called that had her machine fdisked by a previous Technician. It seemed her boyfriend had a problem installing Doom while she was at school and he called tech support. They Had him fdisk and reformat to reinstall windows95. When she came home and he told her what happened she threw him out. Her Masters thesis was on this machine. When I asked her when her last backup was she got real quiet...
The only person I ever felt sorry for was a Doctorial candidate whose house burned down shortly before her thesis was due. That mound of melted plastic that had been her backup floppies sitting beside her charred computer didn't leave much to restore. If I had been able to refer her to your site maybe she would not have forgotten step 3, Separation.
That's the way how to make my mondey morning nicer`
than others. Keep going on this way.
The smartest, funniest sales pitch I've come across in a very long time. Godamn, I want your product!
This was the best advertisement I've read for
a long time. I would just like to add another
point to your excellent collection: Never let
the backup manager or system administrator
be the only person being responsible for all
your data. Everybody should backup his own
work independent of any general backup services.
I found your Tao of Backup very enlightening.
At one site I was prohibited from making backups. Incredible, you say? My time was budgeted by two different departments and neither wanted me working on "non-essential" tasks. I came in on weekends to do an image backup of the Vax I was managing--and all "reliable" drives as well. Two months into my new job there was a crash and I had the only usable tapes. Amazing.
Excellent Site. I have preached the message of some
of the seven heads to my consulting clients; but my
home site doesn't pass the audit. I will be pointing
others to the TAO and perhaps my journey will end
in Enlightenment also.
good site. I liked the Tao of backup story.
Data is like every thing you ever wanted,
you don't know what you had until you lost it.
This is very very very very very very good. I's a pleasure to read good writing, and this is done in the best of quiet Zen style with just a soupçon of Socratic method.
I've reposted your note to system administrators at our site; I suspect that the people teaching the Jr. System Administration course will love it too.
I was truly enlightened. Thanks.
Ouch!!!
Great job!! This was a _hoot_, and unfortunately, quite too accurate a picture of 'real life in Corporate America'. Thanks for the great story! :)
Enjoyed the site - even managed to pass the audit...
I had to learn the hard way 25 years ago, hardware
fault in a tapedrive, the read after write test
was fixed as OK!
Last major problem was over 5 years ago, tapedrive
head alignment drift. I'd warned about the repair
history 9 months before the crash. But management
refused to act...
Colleagues perceive my backup strategies as near
paranoid - until they loose their data, then
they agree!
As I learned from flying - don't make the same
mistake once, it could be your last.
Very good!. I printed out all 7 pages and gave to my
partner for her boss. He's been using the same two Travan tapes for 2
years and never checks the data. Also, its only since I firmly
advised my lady that she's started defying him and taking the latest
tape home each night. Before that they were left in the office, next
to the server. (It's a store in xxx xxxx, right in the hooker
and druggie belt. If he had a break-in and lost his data he'd very
likely lose his business).
Nice example how these nasty and boring backup
advices can be made really interesting!
Well done! ;-)
Thank you for providing my morning's entertainment. The information was valuable as well and I will look at your product.
All too close to home.
Interesting reading! Very enjoyable.
I sent mail to Ross telling him that the Tao of Backup was "so good, it scares me". He thwacked me over the back of the head with the URL of this guestbook. I was thus Enlightened.
Beautiful. And practical backup advice.
Now, if only I could backup
my family, my friends, my car, my house, etc.,
to make them easy
to restore in case they get damaged.
I just love the design of the Tao. The words make good sense too. I have made it required reading for my Systems Analysis class.
Well done! I think I will take out shares in oven-mitts and hand-puppets and then point a lot of people at this site! (and now... to stuff my own parrot -squawk!)
Very nice piece of work. I even think I passed
the Audit!
Copyright © Ross Williams 1997. All rights reserved. |