How similar is the data on different computers? I assume that backing up a slew of corporate PCs would require very little space, because most of the machines are very similar... identical OS, software installs, etc. Mostly just config files and user data are different.
But how similar are regular PCs belonging to the average Joe? There don't seem to be that many possible OS versions, and really that much software that's unique. Any data to back up the claim is much appreciated.
2006-09-19 06:44:17 · 4 answers · asked by Neal 2 in Computers & Internet ➔ Software
Actually, I'm thinking more about "single instance storage", a technique that keeps just one copy of a file on the server even if two or more users have the same file. With single instance storage, backing up 10 PCs might only take the room to store 4 PCs because a lot of files are similar (like Windows, Office, Firefox, etc.).
I'm trying to get an idea for how similar or dissimilar files on PCs may be. Any hard data is appreciated.
2006-09-21 07:02:13 · update #1
Every PC, including corporate and personal is going to be slightly different but it depends on what you are planning on backing up which decides how much space and time to backup each. If you simple are backing up user data but not the applications that go along with it then possibly not much space and time at all.
But if you plan on backing up every change and restoring a PC to is original state before there was a problem, then much more space and time will be needed to backup a single PC.
For corporate world the philosophy is do not save anything to your local hard drive that you wish to be saved, simply save it on a network drive that is backup each evening.
For personal computers its recommended to save important data to a common location and backing it up either with another hard drive or tape, CDR, etc.
But if you wish to included backing up the whole hard drive, OS, application and all data then it doesn't really matter how similar the PCs are you will have to back up each PC regardless.
2006-09-19 06:59:17 · answer #1 · answered by OurWullie 3 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Data is always said to be similar irrespective of the Platform people use. If other wise there is any conflict, then The XML plays the role here.
Onlly difference occurs when the data is getting transfered through the packets. Here there could be the difference
Otherwise data are always similar.
2006-09-19 06:50:03 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 1⤋
They can be VERY different. There is so much software out there it's mind-boggling. I'm sure there are millions of software titles people can have installed on their PCs. It also depends what OS they go with (Windows, Mac, Linux)...there are many different versions of Linux...there are also quite a few versions each of Windows and Mac. Each PC for the average Joe is very different from each other.
2006-09-19 06:48:46 · answer #3 · answered by Yoi_55 7 · 0⤊ 1⤋
data is data. its all ones and zeros. Any computer can process any data, unless its too large or too taxing of an executable for the system.
2006-09-19 06:47:08 · answer #4 · answered by martin h 6 · 0⤊ 1⤋