For key servers, we've been known to clone the entire drive and put the clone in service. This helped us with several problems: Backup system didn't record t

For key servers, we've been known to clone the entire drive and put the clone in service. This helped us with several problems: Backup system didn't record the permissions. Backup didn't get 'resource forks' or 'alternate data streams' Backup wasn't complete enough to satisfy copy protection for software that was no longer supported. Backup process didn't see deep into the folder because there was a hardlink/symlink loop that caused it to stop Backup didn't get a coherent copy of a bunch of files that was acting like a database Drive had a CRC error that let it keep running but stopped the backup system from reading the file Windows program stored vale in the case of the file name while the Unix backup command assumed it could squish the Windows files to lowercase.