October 8, 2008
I've decided to follow JWZ's advice on backups. I have two 2.5" x 9.5mm hard drives en route from NewEgg along with enclosures to convert them to external drives.
I'll basically be running straight down the checklist due to my being on OSX 10.4. My home directory is FileVault protected, so I'm in no rush to upgrade to 10.5. (I'd have to un-encrypt a few dozen gigs of material, upgrade, then re-encrypt when I'm done.)
So the idea is that, when my hard drive fails, I merely open up the laptop and swap out the drive. This is important, because hard drives only do two things: 1) Store and retrieve data; 2) Fail. I'll even get a nice upgrade when the failure finally happens, since my old drive is 120 GB, 5400 RPM where the new ones are 320 GB, 7200 RPM.
And since, as JWZ says, the universe tends toward maximum irony, look for my hard drive to fry itself in the process of partitioning the new disks, or maybe during the first rsync session.
Edit, 10/8 9:31 AM: Don't worry, the computer's still fine. So far. Hard drives are now out for delivery, and I'd forgotten just how nice it is to get things shipped by means other than USPS. This tracking system actually, y'know, tracks. I kinda wonder why the side-trip to Richmond was necessary though, given that it came back up to Laurel, Md., before heading over to the local depot. Possibly coulda gotten them yesterday if they hadn't swung south.
