Protecting Your Data

Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics




	Protecting Your Data Beware of Time Destroy Time destroy is no longer the scourge it once was, but files can still disappear if you have not accessed them for awhile. The R&G machines allow AIPS files to remain on disk for either 90 or 365 days. The AIPS command free will tell you which it is for your particular machine. Disk Failure and Data Corruption Over the years, we have lost entire AIPS disks and data files spread randomly over several AIPS disks. An AIPS file is knit together from a number of unix extensions (each one a disk file) by the AIPS software, so if one of these unix extensions becomes unreadable, the whole AIPS file is compromised. To avoid unpleasant surprises, please back up your data regularly. Tape Backups Instructions for backing up your data to tape are given here.