I started working with computers on HP-3000 minicomputers. I really loved the way they did backups on those systems. You did backup to tape (1200 BPI reels!). The backup program actually loaded all the boot and configuration information at the start of the first tape. To do a system reload, you booted off the tape, and told it to restore. No other media was required. Unfortunately, this was the only way to defrag a disk, or to level data out if you configured a new disk pack. Fortunately I didn't have to do that often, but I've always wanted a way to do something similar on my PC. On my HP-3000s, I had an average of 20 or so tapes per system, which was time consuming, but absolutely solid from a data restoration standpoint.
If I had a blueray writer (haven't made that jump yet), I'd probably have about the same amount of media. I know I could essentially do a 'dd' to get system images, but that is rather impractical on a day to day basis.
These days, I do my best to keep a list of every program I install that's in addition to the base load, so it's a matter of executing a script to get the programs back, but I still have to look to my backups for deltas of stuff in /etc that I've modified. Backintime does a great job of backing up user data though. Restoring all of /home is painless, and I end up with my desktop exactly the way I had it before the restore. That's one of the really cool things about unix in general IMO. I've never had a successful restore on a windows system anywhere close to the degree I get, because so much stuff is hidden in the registry, and doing registry restores is problematic at best.
[[I’ve never had a successful restore on a windows system anywhere close to the degree]]
System restore on windows sucked- I began with a program called Go-Back- it was pretty good- didn’t matter if a virus or trojan or whatever hit, or if i royally messed up the computer- just did a goback and was back up and running- all programs and customizations etc intack- then they were bought by another company- and the new one was terrible, so i went with rollBackRX- Excellent program- Can keep as many snapshots as you want (Goback could only keep a certain amount)- and also worked at boot level if you wanted so that if your computer got so messed up it refused to start- the boot menu would revert to before the problem happened- I had snapshots a couple of years old- just to have icnase computer got really messed up and registry got hosed too bad- Rollback takes care of registry too- it is a complete system disk snapshot- copies everything- and it’s relatively quick too- a couple of minutes- It’s only about $50- well worth the price-
I switched to linux a year or so ago- and wanted something similar- Systemback was about the closest- but it’s not as good as RollBackRX (no boot menu rescue) But you can do a current system live CD which essentially is like a boot system rescue- probably even better as RollBackRX snapshots do have a potential of becoming corrupted (I never had it happen, but it’s possible) But like i mentioned, creating the Live CD isn’t very intuitive- but there are some tutorials online-
One thing i learned with these programs is, anytime you try a new program or software, or test something on your computer, it’s always good to do a snapshot first- that was if something goes wrong, you can go back to immediately before installing the new software- if the new software works, just delete that snapshot- Although I confess to forgetting to do this a lot and have to use an earlier snapshot and I lose any recent changes i made to computer-
Yeah, what fun it was to code in SPL! The 3000 had a stack-based architecture, reminiscent of the Burroughs mainframes of the sixties and seventies.
According to the Wikipedia, versions of the 3000 are still in use. And I see Bob Green of Qedit fame is still at it.