>>If you think I'm strict about this, just ask people at my office (well, the ones who are still alive at least) what happens when they fail to make adequate backups! ;-)
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OK Ed taking into consideration one day we might work together I choose to stay alive :)
Don't get the wrong idea...the first offense I only maim! Or worse, I make the user reinstall his own software from the original disks while I sit and watch over their shoulder and laugh.
I really, strongly believe in backing up frequently and completely - it's pulled my bacon out of the fire more times than I care to remember. A little ridicule, with the intention of getting the user to realize just how much work they'd save putting in that fresh backup tape before they go home at night if something does break pays off. And if this is a client, and they can't remember to change a tape regularly, and the cost of reentering their data is high, or worse, they have to pay me to sit in their office for an hour or two hving planned up front to get there before the start of the day since I'd have a known, clean backup to fall back one, might well convince them that something like one of the Archive or HP autoloader DAT systems that can take 5-10 tapes in a cartridge makes some sense.
At Weatherhill, we shoot the servers to DAT complete every night, and have another drive that spins through everyone's workstation at least weekly to snag their current configuration. I worked in enough big iron shops in the mid-70s to have had the idea of checkpoint/restart pounded into my head; I shoot backups before doing relatively catastrophic tasks like an EOM/EOY close, and then shoot at least a differential at several points in the close to preserve stuff that went smoothly up to that point. And then shoot a final tape on completion. Again, it minimizes the risk of the activity, and gives me the ability to fall back safely to a point where things were known to be OK. Or equally importantly, when someone forgot to do everything they were supposed to have done and don't discover it until sometime the next day. I probably have wasted a good 10-12 hours waiting for extra backups at various spots in the process. That's cheap insurance, especially if it's not me sitting there babysitting the operation myself.
I never said anything about not being vicious...
