I don’t like to leave things to chance, and I really don’t like to leave my data to chance, so I decided that I need an extra layer of security with our upcoming move. With all of my computers soon to be in the hold of a ship, what happens to my data if the ship sinks? Exactly.
I’m planning to carry my laptop onto the plane, but it has no room for my data (loaded with OGG files, you see), so I needed an alternative. A quick trip to Fry’s later and I was the proud owner of a 400Gb USB Seagate drive.
That baby has now been formatted with a single ext3 file-system and is now happily soaking up all of my CVS source code, OGG files, photos, Web site pages, home directories and what have you. There’ll be bags of room to spare when it’s finished, too. The only bummer is that my fileserver appears to have only USB 1.1 ports. It’s a good thing I’m not in a hurry, but I’ll have to fix that at some point in the future.
When we leave for Amsterdam, that drive is going with me onto the plane. I don’t want a dirty great thing like that in my hand luggage, so I’ll probably entrust it to the hold of the plane. What are the chances that our suitcases get trashed and the boat carrying our belongings sinks or suffers flooding? Never say never, I suppose, but it seems unlikely. And if the plane goes down, well then, I won’t be needing my data after all.
What’s a “dirty great thing”?