* and then Jon LaBadie declared....
> > to allocate to AMANDA. Here is the output of df -h
> > 
> > Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
> > /dev/hdb1             187G   18G  169G  10% /
> > /dev/hda3              37G  5.8G   31G  16% /opt
> > none                  506M     0  506M   0% /dev/shm
> > /dev/sda1             187G   33M  187G   1% /mnt/extDrive
> > 
> > 
> > Ideally, i'd like some of the ext drive set aside for other stuff.. 
> > 
> 
> how much data do you have to backup?

The entire contents of /dev/hda3 and /dev/hdb1 (see above) I just want a
complete restorable backup done of the entire system.

> how frequently will you backup?

Nightly, at 3am

> how many full dumps vs. incrementals will you want to keep?

Probably overwrite the backups each night. (incremental?)

> will you compress or no?

Sure, why not...

> where will you have a holding disk if any?

Not sure what you mean? - I have an ext. drive that I want to use for
this purpose (200gb)

> is this the only system you will backup?

Yes.

> mixing virtual tape, holding disk, and data being backed up
> on the same HD spindle is a sure performance hit.

Yeah, but im planning on having it do its stuff while I sleep, i dont
run any public services from this machine, it's just my work/play box
;-)

Thanks very much for the help, i can see my original question really
wasnt very good so thanks for helping me get the relevant facts out!

-- 
Nick W