New Backup Server - Preamble

OK, so it's been about a month since I installed the new drive in the file server, and things have been working great since. The next task is to put the other new 250GB drive in the backup server so that I can backup all of the data on the file server - rather than excluding half of it. My goal is to be able to restore the entire system if needed.

I didn't really mention before that the old Compaq machine that I assigned to the backup role has always given me trouble. At power up, I had about a 50% chance of a successful boot. A couple of weeks ago, I installed the new drive, and it wouldn't boot for anything. It wouldn't even POST. I disconnected the new drive, and it booted once, but never again. After monkeying with it for an evening, I removed the new drive, and chucked the rest of it in the trash! If I can't get it to boot without lots of TLC, I probably shouldn't rely on it for my backups.

So, now it's time to start over. I've got another machine, which was once my daughter's Xubuntu machine, but she's moved on to my old desktop, so that box is now available.

I'll start with Part 1.