Disk Partitions and Backups 231A similar problem happened four years later to Michael Travers at the
Media Lab’s music and cognition group. Here’s a message that he for-
warded to UNIX-HATERS from one of his system administrators (a posi-
tion now filled by three full-time staff members):
Date: Mon, 13 Nov 89 22:06 EST
From: [email protected]
Subject: File Systems
To: [email protected]Mike,I made an error when I constructed the file systems /bflat and
/valis. The file systems overlapped and each one totally smashed the
other. Unfortunately, I could find no way to reconstruct the file sys-
tems.I have repaired the problem, but that doesn’t help you, I’m afraid.
The stuff that was there is gone for good. I feel bad about it and I'm
sorry but there’s nothing I can do about it now.If the stuff you had on /bflat was not terribly recent we may be able
to get it back from tapes. I’ll check to see what the latest tape we
have is.Down and Backups
Disk-based file systems are backed up regularly to tape to avoid data loss
when a disk crashes. Typically, all the files on the disk are copied to tape
once a week, or at least once a month. Backups are also normally per-
formed each night for any files that have changed during the day. Unfortu-
nately, there’s no guarantee that Unix backups will save your bacon.
From: [email protected] (Keith Bostic)
Subject: V1.95 (Lost bug reports)
Date: 18 Feb 92 20:13:51 GMT
Newsgroups: comp.bugs.4bsd.ucb-fixes
Organization: University of California at BerkeleyWe recently had problems with the disk used to store 4BSD system
bug reports and have lost approximately one year’s worth. We would
very much appreciate the resubmission of any bug reports sent to us
since January of 1991.The Computer Systems Research Group.^1