>>We've had more than one customer that didn't realize that it's not a good idea to keep backups on the same physical drive as the software. Even had more than one irate IT manager that DEMANDED that we "FIX the OBVIOUS BUG" in our software because he was unable to restore the backup of the data that was stored on the crashed harddisk... Had to fight really hard the temptation to call the guy an idiot.
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>That's a good point and not a simple thing to address. If I ask myself, "How many of my clients' IT operational staff can give me a clear, succinct and accurate explanation of the differences between physical disks, volumes, and drive letters?" - the answer is, not very many.
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>If your irate IT manager was backing up to the same drive letter, then yes, that's incompetence. But, if he was careful to back up to a different drive letter - not realizing it pointed to another volume on the same physical disk, or that it merely pointed to a network share on the same volume - that's an easy, easy mistake to make.

In most of the cases when I ran into the situation it was the same drive letter. Also frequently run into IT managers that almost always point out the numerous certifications they've earned, but then ask me walk them through basic processes like setting up a network share and setting up access rights on a folder. I know I'm in for a long phone call when they ask me on what drive they'd installed a software (and he was the person that performed the install). I tend to cringe whenever I've got an IT guy who hasn't a clue about setting up groups and insist setting up each user individually "because it's easier that way" (not just a handful but 20 or more users on file servers as well as SQL).

>In a perfect world, backup software wouldn't let you store backups on the same physical hardware, or at least give multiple severe warnings if you insist on doing so.