The truth is, you always need a backup of some kind or another. These tips prevent accidentally destroying your own work. However, there is no protection against broken hard drives or other unpredictable disasters. Here are a couple of things to remember that will save you a lot of misery: We strongly recommend that you keep your own backups and do not rely only on the ECEn or CAEDM backups. This is not to say that these are not reliable sources--they are. However, it is easier and faster for you if you can restore your own files. Besides, servers are not always free from hardware defects or other catastrophes. If you have space in your home directory, you can make compressed archives of files you want to keep, but do not need right away. (This would also be a good way to use the CAEDM backup service to keep older versions of your working files because you would not be changing the archives on a regular basis.)

The ECEn department computers, servers, and related file systems are backed up on a regular basis. This FAQ details what you need to know if you ever need a file restored. As far as backups are concerned, your restore needs should fall into one of two categories: your CAEDM home directory and ECEn filespace. Individual computers (including those of faculty and staff) are not backed up by default. Unless you do all of your work on ECEn shared filespace, you should talk to the SysOps about performing regular local backups (below).

You are using your CAEDM home directory by default on most ECEn lab machines. This home directory is usually a mapped network drive on a Windows machine--typically on the J:\ drive--and your home directory on the ECEn "Spice" machines.

If you aren't using your CAEDM home directory, but you are using an ECEn machine doing your work on ECEn shared filespace, you can contact the ECEn SysOps to retrieve the lost files. Please contact the ECEn SysOps with your username, the name and full path of the missing file, and the date the file was lost.

If you are a faculty or staff member and would like information on how to setup your Window's machine to do backups of your work not stored on ECEn mapped network drives, please contact the ECEn SysOps.

CAEDM makes daily backups of these home and group directories. However, they only keep the three most recent versions of a file. So, if you are working on a file daily, CAEDM will only have backups of the past three days of work. For restoring older versions of files from your home directories you are encouraged to make your own backups.

To get a file restored, contact the ECEn SysOps with your username, the name and path of the file in your home directory, and when you lost the file.