Archive backups

[Dave2002]

I have some limited experience of backups for systems such as macos X. I use tools such as Super Duper and CCC. However, one "snag" is that by doing a backup to hard drive, once the hard drive is loaded (booted) the backup files can actually change. The computer is likely to connect to the internet, the OS checks versions against remote databases, and then - wham - some or much of the software may actually be updated - which might be the very thing a user wished to avoid.

Also, if backups were made to give a virus free base to work from, this very volatility would allow viruses to creep back into an archive.

Presumably there's really not much that can be done about this, unless non volatile storage is used, and most of us don't have access to large amounts of usable non volatile storage (e.g CDs, DVDs, Blu Rays etc.). Most forms of affordable non volatile storage are nowadays not big enough to do large scale backups.

Perhaps for many people and organisations this is not an issue. I'm not sure.

[Bryn]

Unfortunately, of course, there is no such thing as truly non-volatile storage. There's no getting round the second law of thermodynamics. However, supposed 100 year life optical data storage discs do exist, and 50GB on each double layer Blu-ray would suit most needs, surely. Also, though I have not tried it myself, it seems that it may be possible to make hard disc partitions "read only", see, for instance, http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/...make-read-only

[Dave2002]

Unfortunately, of course, there is no such thing as truly non-volatile storage. There's no getting round the second law of thermodynamics. However, supposed 100 year life optical data storage discs do exist, and 50GB on each double layer Blu-ray would suit most needs, surely. Also, though I have not tried it myself, it seems that it may be possible to make hard disc partitions "read only", see, for instance, http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/...make-read-only

I have a drive with a 200 GByte bootable system installed. That would fit onto 4+ Blu Rays. To make a workable bootable system would require more resources and more time and effort than most of us would be prepared to allocate, though some businesses might find that an essential part of their operations. If I were to adopt this approach I'd probably have to separate out the system files from the data files etc. and store them on different media. There could indeed be advantages in that, but perhaps many of us don't bother with such distinctions nowadays. Possibly many users have smaller storage requirements than I do, but I'd wager that many businesses have data which is orders of magnitude greater than mine. Don't even mention experimental kit such as the Stanford Linear Collider or the new CERN installations.

[Dave2002]

Following the link from msg 2 gets eventually through to this http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/...make-read-only
In that page there is little indication of which software is being controlled and within which system. Is it drive software controlled from within a Windows OS?

At least the article does suggest it might be possible to lock a part of a hard drive - but how to do that if the software and OS are not specified is unclear.
It's probably an article aimed at Windows users, but surely the locking or unlocking of the whole or part of a drive should be below the OS level, and therefore (apart from the controlling software) independent of the OS.