Working with Paramter files

My best practice and always prefer the following when working with the parameter files,since it will always eliminate the accidental overwriting of init.ora file,

sunbolt01:
.........

$/optware/product/oracle/10.2.0.2/dbs/initnamaste.ora

the content of the initnamaste.ora is,

$cat initnamaste.ora
pfile=/nutsnbolts/oradata/namaste/spfilenamaste.ora


(I always keep the spfile along with the database datafiles)

now when I want to edit the parameter file for changing or adding a parameter,will do as follows,
$sqlplus "/ as sysdba"
SQL>create pfile='editnamaste.ora' from spfile;
SQL>shutdown immediate;
SQL>exit

now I will work with the editnamaste.ora and change or add the new paramter to editnamaste.ora
after that I'll create the spfile from editnamaste.ora, so no hassle of missing backup of existing init.ora and spfiles and
overwriting of parameter file etc.,
SQL>sqlplus "/ as sysdba"

SQL>create spfile='/nutsnbolts/oradata/namaste/spfilenamaste.ora' from pfile='editnamaste.ora';
SQL>startup
SQL>exit