If you don't mind paying for it, there's Microlite BackupEDGE http://www.microlite.com/ They automate a self-booting recovery process, and it's seems very configurable. It worked very well for a SCO box I had to admin. Sprint ESSSG, IBM RS/6000 Systems Support Group. 913-534-4475 michael.d.hoskins@mail.sprint.com   -----Original Message----- From: madengr [mailto:madengr@swbell.net] Sent: Thursday, March 30, 2000 7:46 PM To: kclug Cc: madengr Subject: kclug - Backup strategies While the subject of tape backup is discussed, what is the best strategy for quick recovery? It seems that most of these tape programs are good for automated backup, but what about restoration. Who wants to do a full installation just to get the backup program working again, then do a restore over an installation (sounds like a messy windoze solution). I would think the following strategy would be ok: 1) Make multiple partitions on you drive, for example: / /home /usr /usr/local /usr/src /boot 2) Use plain old "tar -cf /dev/st0 ?" where ? is each of your partitions. If they are all under 2 GB then you can fit each on a single 2 GB tape. 3) Keep an emergency floppy, such as TomsRootBoot with the SCSI tape, and any additional drivers, compiled in the kernel. Boot the system off floppy, create the new partitions, and un-tar from the tape. Any comments? What are your solutions? Lou