15
When You Lose a Different Kind of Everything
Most people today rely on our computers, whether for business, pleasure or personal use. We store family pictures, documents and dream projects. Increasingly, our computers are our lives.
What happens when your computer fails – and you lose everything? I’ll tell you, because this situation recently happened to me.
When my PC tower went on the blink last year after seven years of use, I thought I was smart to have foresight. I bought an external hard drive as my backup plan.
The external drive was perfect. It had 400 GB of space and I could install programs on it. It was portable, and if my tower died for good, I could easily plug the external drive into the laptop. Life would go on without missing a beat.
I never expected the external drive to die within a year.
Now What?
Last week, I tried to access my external drive, and it just wasn’t there. Talk about feeling as if your house had burnt down.
The external drive held numerous client files, several folders’ worth of notes on our novel, pictures of my cats when they were kittens (not even James dared to laugh at this loss). I couldn’t access our iStock images and various other files in my image library. Many of those files were not easily replaced.
Contact the Manufacturer
Contacting the manufacturer to see if they can help is always the best course of action – why not go straight to the source to get the information you need? In most cases, manufacturers have sites where you can submit help tickets or at the very least get a phone number to call for help.
When my laptop lost its power source three weeks ago (no, this hasn’t been Harry’s month for electronics), Gateway was right there with the support I needed via a live chat found right on the site. They took my order for the part I needed and shipped it off.
I expected the same level of support from my external hard drive manufacturer, but no such luck. Their site was difficult to navigate, and I had to jump through sign-up hoops just to leave a help ticket.
I still haven’t heard back from them. Thanks for nothing, Acomdata.
Calling In the Troops
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: The Geek Squad rocks. When there’s a problem with my computer, the Geek Squad is right there for me each and every time.
They were there, yes, but I can’t say that they’ve managed to recover my files yet. They attempted to access the external drive in house, knew the disc was spinning, but couldn’t get the drive to show up on their computers.
I discovered that the Geek Squad could send the external drive out to a data recovery service at their headquarters. Sometimes it pays to ask questions.
The good thing is that in-house analysis costs $150, but if the Geek Squad can’t solve the problem, they’ll refund half the money. If you do send your drive out for in-depth data recovery, it’s only a $60 deposit. They call with an estimate after they’ve had a look before they do any further work.
What’s Your Backup Plan?
Face it; no one is immune to a hard drive crash. It’s like that old biker saying: “There are two types of riders; those who have dumped their bikes and those still waiting to dump their bikes.”
Eventually, you will face a hard drive failure. You can never fully save all the files you own or protect each file from elimination no matter what you do. But there are steps you can take to have a solid backup plan to salvage what you can.
Email: If you have Gmail (and you should), you have plenty of space to store correspondence, notes and files. Email the important stuff to yourself and archive it. A quick search retrieves the file from online storage.When I send clients their final designs, I send all the pertinent files. These files include theme images and CSS as well as any Photoshop files I used to create images for that particular project.
I have a folder set up in my Gmail for each client, and I can go back through those folders to salvage missing files.
cPanel: Many of the files I had were for website designs. They had already been uploaded to our host server or to the host servers of clients to whom I am webmaster.Poking around in these cPanels, I was able to restore much of what was lost.
Seagate Free Agent: The Seagate Free Agent has 500 GB of space and allows you to program backups of specified files and folders, even to online storage sites. It runs continually in the background and stays up to date.
So far, my new Seagate drive seems to be working well. My computer runs slower when I use graphics programs and another program is running in the background, but the SFA adjusts to give certain programs priority.
This particular external hard drive also comes with a built-in fan and automatically shuts off when the computer goes into Sleep mode. The drive also goes to Sleep mode when there’s nothing new to back up. My old Acomdata ran continuously and had no cooling system.
The SFA also comes with a free 6-month trial subscription to their online storage service. Oh, and it looks slick – it’s black with amber lights. (Yeah, call me a sucker for packaging and design).
Installation is easy, with the install programs on the drive itself for plug-and-play use. I even made a copy of the install files and saved them on two other drives in case the Seagate decided to act like my old drive and deny me access.
Online Storage Sites: We’re looking into online storage services, specifically Mozy and iBackup. When subscribing to an online storage site, it’s important to make sure the site is a reputable one. You don’t want to save your valuable files to some schmoe site that looks good and then be left empty handed when they go bankrupt or shut down.
iBackup doesn’t look as slick as Mozy, but it has better reviews, notably a very strong one from PC World Magazine that pitted iBackup and Mozy against each other. iBackup also had live chat for instant support, and James tested it with a question to see whether the technicians knew their stuff. They did.
Mozy has a site that looks more professional, but there was no live chat and James had to email Mozy for some information missing on their site. It took four days to get a reply. That immediately tells us that despite the good looks, Mozy may not have our backs when we need them. The upside is that Mozy may be cheaper – but cheaper doesn’t always mean better.
SaaS: Sofware as a service is hot these days, and many businesses now offer hosted versions of popular programs so that you never lose your work. All your data is stored on safe, protected servers. Hint: Gmail is SaaS, and it rocks for retrieval, so why not check out what other online versions of your favorite programs are available?
Burn, baby, burn!: Get thee a DVD burner! They’re cheap and easy to use. Go through files regularly and back up your data to DVDs. Why DVDs? Well, a DVD can store far more data and files than a CD. You can burn and store the DVD out of sight and mind for about $2 total and 15 minutes of time. A regular DVD burn of your files makes sure you’re always covered.
The good part of all this electronic mess? We haven’t skipped a beat, and we haven’t lost anything that is job related. (The kitten pictures may prove a different story). In fact, had I not written on the experience, our readers would most likely would never have known about this technical difficulty.
Make backing up your data a priority. Don’t rely on thinking, “That’ll never happen to me!” or believing you’re protected. You’re not, it can and it will.
Note: I wrote this post last week. You can imagine how unsettling it was to find out that Melissa Donovan had written on an almost identical situation a few days prior to this post’s publication. It just goes to show that losing everything is more common than we realize.
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I just signed up to and uploaded all my data through Jungle Disk Monitor and Amazon. It took a long time (transfer rate was never more than 150k so it took 4 days to upload 2.7G) but now I just need to add the folders where I work regularly.
Alex Fayle’s last blog post..Pause and Reflect
Well I’ve never heard of an external hard drive failing! Now I’m nervous. Yes, my PC crashed the other day but all my files have been rescued (and boy am I grateful!). I’ve been looking into all kinds of new ways to back up and moving forward, it’s going to be trickier for me because I think I’m going to do a split and have one computer for work and one for personal stuff.
Harry, as we’ve both learned, backing up is definitely a priority for people like us, who use our computer (and the files we create) to make a living. I just hope both our posts save someone else from going through all this trouble. I keep thinking if I’d just done a backup in the last week or even month, I wouldn’t have had to pay over $100 for the repair shop to dig out my files. What a bummer!
Melissa Donovan’s last blog post..When it All Comes Crashing Down
Harry –
This is a HUGE deal. I’ve written a few times on Freelance Folder about backup & recovery and it amazed me how many comments came from those articles.
Computer failure is a matter of if, not when. Be ready!
Dave Navarro’s last blog post..Review of SEO School – The Full Edition
@ Melissa – What was sad was that the client work was all protected. Those files were easily retrieved, because Harry knew they needed to be safe. I think that’s what people think of most: protect the work.
But he lost all his family pictures. Hearing him say, “I found that file for the Red project… but I hope they can get back those pictures of Mom from her birthday,” was really sad.
Turns out iBackup would cost us about $100 a MONTH for 125GB of storage (yes, designers have big-ass files). Mozy is looking good right now. Anyone with experience about those two, let me know right here.
@ Alex – I’m already wondering how many weeks to transfer that 125GB I just mentioned… ugh!
@ James – could be my connection. Here in Spain they severely limit the bandwidth. On anything I’ve never gotten higher than 300kb but when I was living in Toronto I’d regularly get 1MB downloads or uploads, still pretty slow for 125GB!
Alex Fayle’s last blog post..Pause and Reflect
In my computer life I lost about 7 hard drives. You’ll get used to it
Lucky me mostly had backups.
Nowadays I got two identical drives in my barebone, the second being an identical copy of the first – and no, no raid system, a manual copy I refresh every day or two using robocopy. A raid system won’t help against the most common file loss “oh, I didn’t want to trash that data”. Raid is for uptime, not against data loss.
Additionally I got two external drives where I backup everything from my local drives to. These drives are backup only, and I store them in a different location than my computer (hey, once our office burned down, and at a client of mine someone broke into the office, stole computer and backup tapes).
For me this setup is very safe. Even due to a burned down office or theft I will not lose my data. And using Robocopy to mirror the changes makes the backup a breeze, since only changed files will be copied. Additionally this way I can access all files directly without having to work through a backup software. Having more than 600GB active data this is important for me.
After watching my computer crash on the day OF a massive product launch 2 years ago….my husband built a spare computer that functions solely as a backup for our home network.
Lessons learned like that do tend to be burned into one’s memory with quite a lot of fervor, let me tell you that!
Additionally, I upload files I find of great use to my remote server. For example, whenever I help folks with their Windows usage, I tend to use Unix programs like ‘ls’ or ‘vi’ or ‘cp’ etc. I have a set of those compiled for Windows that I host remotely; I can easily download them at my friends’ house and continue to help.
Data points,
Barbara
Barbara Ling’s last blog post..Be a covert angel and help YOUR friends help THEIR causes
Harry,
I had this happen to me about a year and a half ago. I had the thing sent out, because at that time I regularly backed up client work on Zip disks (to work in multiple locations) but fool that I was, I almost never backed up personal stuff which stays at home. Bye-bye photos, bye-bye several years of genealogy work going back to the 1600s, bye-bye personal and family projects. Oh!
$250 or so later, I had much of the work back. (Only half the photos were recovered, which in my case were sometimes photos of ancestors found at research libraries, gravesites, relatives I’ve met… mainly irreplaceable. Some personal writing was lost, too.) I have a nice MacBook, vintage Jan 2007, for my pain, and I back everything onto four flash drives. Everything gets backed up, and I don’t keep it all on one stick.
Sometimes I go looking for a bit of work and realize it must have been lost. I guess it is the electronic version of a fire or a flood. You get a pang now and then, even long after the event.
I love the Geek Squad, too. They’ve helped my Dad recover stuff from his ailing laptop and they were ultra-nice about it, too.
Sorry to hear about it, Harry.
Regards,
Kelly
Kelly’s last blog post..Summer Is a Great Time to… Smile for the Birdie
I usually try to keep online back ups as well as external backups….That and keep my important documents to a minimum.
nick’s last blog post..Affordable education and learning new skills
My computer crashed 4 weeks before my college graduation. I had my group’s semester-long PR project on it. Luckily we had hard copies of that.
Definitely one of the worst feelings ever. A punch in the gut.
I’m using the gmail route these days with all my communication and have a 500g external hard drive. I’m a little nervous about that now after your story though. I employed it as a way to not only back-up, but de-clutter by getting rid of all the DVDs and CDs filled with files.
Kristen’s last blog post..Books to Bring out the Creative Writer in You
Here’s my backup system:
I keep everything on my PC. I back up everything to my external drive. That gives me two backups. The chances of both failing on the same day are slim to none.
What happened to Harry was that he only had one backup. I think many people do the same. “I’ve backed it up, so I’m safe.” But if you only have one set of files, you are definitely screwed.
Here’s my personal overload part: I also keep some stuff on flash drives (but I don’t trust flash drives and end up having two flash drives with the same stuff). I do have some stuff on DVD. I also have Gmail, which helps.
Like you, Kristen, I think there is such a thing as backup clutter
I need to clean up!
James Chartrand – Men with Pens’s last blog post..When You Lose a Different Kind of Everything
James has got it right, having one set of files, even if it’s on an external drive isn’t a backup. That’s a mistake that a lot of people make.
Google did some research on hard drives and they’re not as robust as many seem to think. I hope Solid State Drives will be better in this regard.
To recover data or prevent data loss I’ve heard good things about something called SpinRite http://www.grc.com/spinrite.htm
Scott’s last blog post..Drive-By
Oh Harry, the Kittens….that’s so sad.. I have the picture of *Buddha* do you need that one back?
My husband and were just talking about this last night. My son owns a DJ and entertainment company and he backs up his stuff on two external drives every day. Yesterday when I was writing my post for the day it just up and vanished right as I was ready to post it and I had to start all over..reminding me that computers can be persnickity any darn time they want. I need to get a good system for backing things up. I haven’t been taking it seriously enough. Even with my son warning me all the time.
I do have Gmail though and I do e-mail a bunch of my stuff to myself there. I love that idea.
Thanks Harry.
Wendi Kelly’s last blog post..Finding Friends
Hi Harry – What bad luck. It sounds like Geek Squad offer a pretty impressive service though – especially if they’re willing to refund you if they can’t fix the problem.
Cath Lawson’s last blog post..Did You Make A Mistake?
iBackup is very good, I can strongly recommend them, but they are quite expensive if you need to back up a large amount of data. I have their 10 gig plan, which is $10 a month, which lets me use rsync, ftp, and their web client for backup. You can also install their software if you’re on Mac or Windows for continuous backup.
External drives are good, but external RAID is better. RAID is several disks in one box which back each other up so that if one disk fails, you don’t lose all your data.
Buffalo Terastation is once such device geared toward the home office user. It offers the capability of backing up your data in multiple versions — every time you save your file it will store both the new and the old version. Very neat trick. You’re probably looking at $1000 to $2000 for one of these, but you can get cheaper solutions of you look around.
Any way you do it, you should always have at least one on-site backup, and at least one off-site backup. On-site backups do not protect you from house fires, water damage (toilet upstairs leaks through the ceiling, for instance), or lightning damage. (no, your UPS will not protect you from a direct lightning strike. You do have a UPS, don’t you?)
A cheap and simple on/off site solution would be to have two or more external drives and switch them out weekly. It’s the way we used to use backup tapes, but adapted for the 21st century.
Whatever you do, do it now. You’ll forget if you put it off.
Thank you Harry! It never even occurred to me to back up personal stuff on something secondary to my external 250GB MyBook. How strange. It seems we all take more steps to back up work than personal stuff, and when it all comes crashing down what are we going to miss the most? Surely not that spreadsheet on the 2004 budget. No, it’ll be that stupid, blurry cameraphone photo of Mum rapping wearing a backwards baseball cap. Time to burn some DVDs this weekend.
Nicole Brunet’s last blog post..What would you do if you knew you could not fail?
Even if you have a backup hard drive or burn your data to DVDs, keep an extra backup copy of your data someplace other than your home. Store a backup copy online, or copy the data to an extra set of DVDs or a spare hard drive you store at the office or in a safe deposit box at a bank. A fire, flood, tornado, or hurricane can wipe out your home and everything in it, including your computer and all your backup devices. An insurance company can reimburse the cost to replace your ruined furniture and clothing but nobody can help you recover the lost data from a melted computer.
I’ve learned the importance of this the hard way. A few years ago a freak storm hit our neighborhood and an old pine tree fell on our house. The tree managed to land directly on my home office, crushing my computer and my external hard drive at the same time. The tree also opened an enormous hole in the roof on its way into the house, so anything that hadn’t already been demolished by the tree got soaked in the rain instead. Fortunately, I had backed up most of my data on DVDs that were stored elsewhere.
My brother-in-law and his wife recently lost everything when a fire started in their apartment building and their place burned down. It’s amazing how quickly you can lose an entire home to a fire.
After seeing how easy it is to lose everything in an instant, I now take an extra precaution and copy our data not just to DVDs but also to an external hard drive we keep in our safe deposit box. We only bring the drive home long enough to copy files to it.
Kristen’s last blog post..Bizarre Dreams & Nightmares Due to Prescription Medications
Harry: When I read your first sentence, I took it to mean that most people relied on your (MwP) computers! And you know what? As funny as that may sound, in reality I’m certain there are a LOT of clients who do rely on your computers. This gave me pause. I never back up anything. [ducks and runs]. I know. Moronic.
I’ve lost papers and other things I’ve written before and it takes me days to get over it. I totally understand that helpless feeling of loss. We have hundreds of family photos on our computer I’ll be putting on CD. I really am sorry you’ve lost yours. And I understand your grief over your kitten ones.
Thanks for the post and for the helpful tips. Also, great title.
steph’s last blog post..Fantasy Freak
I’m so sorry about the crash, Harry! But want to Thank You for the reminder on how important it is to backup your files!
What’s absolutely crazy is that including you, I now know at least 4 people whose computers have crashed (or started going somewhat crazy) within the last few days.
So I read your post this morning and Immediately did a backup to my 500GB external drive. Which I thought was “IT” but looking at your story, I realize I’m WAY overdue on backing up to DVD drive as well.
Like James, I keep a copy of everything on my local drive, so I do see the external as a secondary backup (which I only do about monthly… I MUST change this to at least a weekly backup, if not daily!). I’m a big slacker when it comes to backing up to DVD (maybe 2x a year?). I think a better system is External weekly / DVD monthly or something?
I also need to look into the online backups, too. At the very least Gmail (and I’ve heard of using Gspace or something similar to help with backups to Gmail). I was thinking about Mozy, but after reading your experience (Thank You again!), I will check out iBackup, too.
As for the backup clutter… goodness do I have TONS of it! I’ve got a TON of old CD’s from years ago – don’t even know what’s on them! (A good catalog program would be helpful here, LOL). I’m constantly quickly saving stuff onto my desktop… then a screenful of miscellaneous icons later, I get tired of staring at the mess, and throw them into a “FILE THIS” folder. I now have 5 of those sitting and waiting to be organized. Now’s a good a time as any….
Anyway, seriously thank you for the reminder! You literally made me jump into action this morning (and I’ll be running a set of DVD’s to burn today as well).
Selene M. Bowlby’s last blog post..Get Clients Now! Filling the Pipeline, Week 4
Hi Harry,
It blows my mind that people are worried about illegal wiretaps, IP tracking, people in the CIA reading your email — and then they upload all their personal files to a third-party storage server. Even Google has all-but-admitted to searching the data stored on their servers for something like aggregate data research purposes. (Though, it should be pointed out, they absolutely do have the power to read your email, your Google Docs, and your website Analytics if they chose too, with nobody being the wiser…)
Now I personally don’t think there is a very high risk that your files will be stolen and/or looked at by the government, Google, or anyone else for that matter. But it is a possibility that needs to be considered, and I think it should be pointed out whenever third-party storage backup is discussed.
I have all my files on my computer, and then backed up to an external hard drive. If you are concerned about losing both, I would lean more towards getting an second external rather than going to a third-party off-site solution. You still have to worry about fire and theft, but depending on where your computer is, this may be less of a data risk.
~Graham
Graham Strong’s last blog post..The Writing Tip I Learned from Paris Hilton (True Story)
@Kristen – that’s an excellent point about having backups somewhere else, too. I don’t do this for my client work (but should…) – anyway, twice a year I burn a DVD of all our family photos, and give a copy to my parents who live out of state.
Pictures of my daughter are by far my most prized treasure – and are priceless and irreplaceable – so I am quite careful with these. I know a few people who have gone through the heartache of loosing most (if not all) of their childrens baby photos. Something I never want to go through, so at least Grandma and Grandpa are a secondary backup for us.
Selene M. Bowlby’s last blog post..Get Clients Now! Filling the Pipeline, Week 4
Excellent comments, thank you everyone.
So far the Seagate is working well. I already had an extra hard drive installed on the tower which I did have some archived documents on there (all of them pre-kitten, so all the bike pics, family pics and first cat’s kitten pictures) but I had stopped using it when I got the first external.
My C drive is totally dedicated to programs. Graphics programs are hogs and I’m seriously considering building a secondary computer just to run them. The F drive now serves as my main file drive, and the Seagate is strictly for backup.
I made a mistake of using the first external for *everything*. Create a file, save right to the external. So in effect, it wasn’t really a back up.
I do like the way the Seagate can automatically back up to multiple sources, it’s really a no brainer.
You know what’s funny? Several years ago my room mate got a DVD burner, it only cost $150 and of course, since then, the prices have come down considerably. I kept putting off getting one myself, thinking “Oh, next payday I’ll splurge and get one…”
Wrong, wrong, wrong…now I’ve spent nearly twice as much trying to get everything back and updating the system so I don’t lose stuff again.
@Wendi: thank you for the offer of sending the photo of Lakota I sent you. That’s one that I had saved in several places. The ones I’m missing are the ones the breeder sent me very early on, although my favorite one I still have posted on the cat blog. I’m sure my roomie has some too, since his mom and aunt are animal lovers too and he’s sent them a few.
Keep up the suggestions people, I’ll be doing a followup to all this.
I mourn for the loss of your kitten pictures–because I know how devastated I would be if I lost my puppy-Chappy pictures…
That said, I have an external drive as backup but have to manually copy things over there (for the moment), so that it only gets backups about once every couple weeks–which is better than nothing. And when I got my new computer a couple weeks ago, I burned DVDs of my My Documents folder from the old computer, just as additional backup for the move. (It took 3 DVDs to do it, too–did I mention I have a LOT of pictures?)
I also use Mozy’s personal service–the one that costs about $5 a month for unlimited storage. It took about 4 DAYS to do the initial backup, but after that everything went smoothly. I’m stalled at the moment, though, because since I did get a new computer, I have to figure out how to let Mozy know that it’s still me and that it doesn’t have to re-backup everything in that folder–just the stuff that’s new for the last couple weeks. I emailed Support to ask and have a response in my inbox that I just haven’t had a chance to really concentrate on yet.
Good luck with your pictures! (I mean, the other stuff, too, but mostly the pictures!) One of the advantages to using Flickr for posting pictures to my personal blog is that most of my best pictures from the last few years are on there–worst-case-scenario backup, though the resolution would be lousy if I had nothing BUT those and needed fresh prints. Like, if my photo albums were ever destroyed (heaven forbid!)
–Deb’s last blog post..MM: Email–a Memo or a Letter?
Harry!!!!!
How did I NOT know about this?!!!! You have a Cat blog????
Oh!!!…subscribed!!!!!
Wendi Kelly’s last blog post..Finding Friends
@Deb: Another thing we lost was our extensive iStock library. We still have copies of the pics in our blog’s image folder on the server, but like you said, they’re smaller than the originals.
However, Alien Skin has a plug in for Photoshop that will enlarge images and convert them so they don’t lose any resolution.
On another note, I also had several files like premium theme templates and programs like Alien Skin I had ordered recently. When I contacted Brian Gardner and Alien Skin, and explained the situation to them, they were more than happy to send me replacement files.
@Wendi: Yes, although I haven’t had time for it lately. I will revive it and I still answer anyone who comments on there.
Penmen,
Sage words of wisdom. I have been using MOZY and offsite CD storage.
All great info. Found you through Michael Martine, and now I see why he recommends you.
Stumbled, Dugg, Del.icio.us & Technoratied!
Looking forward to more and with thanks.
Rich Hill
http://LinkMoney.org
Rich Hill’s last blog post..How to Become a Domainer
I just can’t believe you Men. Are you for real? Harry, just checking out your cat blog. You guys, is there anything you don’t do? Does James have a knitting blog? How on earth do you find the time for everything else with such a successful biz?
My God, Kings with Pens, never mind men! Or gods with pens?
steph’s last blog post..Fantasy Freak
@Steph–Good question! James really SHOULD have a knitting blog! (Doesn’t everyone?)
–Deb’s last blog post..MM: Email–a Memo or a Letter?
@ Graham – I think that it’s good to protect personally identifying information, but I also think that the paranoia surrounding Big Brother is a little too much. I don’t think anyone should shun third-party storage because of fear of what people might see – hell, we rent post office boxes and safety deposit boxes at banks, don’t we?
@ Kristen – Very good point. No one is protected against disastrous events, and you bring up a good point on how easy it is to lose something. A tree, of all things. Thanks for mentioning that one.
@ Selene – LOL, yeah. I just went through watching Harry scramble for his photos, and I didn’t do anything until this morning. My teen will be backing up to DVD today as an extra protection to my external drive. And maybe help reduce that clutter I mentioned earlier.
@ Steph/Deb – I have many other ventures out there, but no. No knitting blog. I haven’t found the right… *cough*… image for that yet. But the God one gave me an idea… I’d look good in a halo, don’t you think?
@ Greg – Thanks for that most excellent information. That’s valuable!
@Steph: I’m sure there are a few things we don’t do (washing windows for one). If you all like the cat blog, I may just revive it sooner than expected. Go ahead and comment over there – show me the love!
(yes, shameless plug)
James does not have a knitting blog, but I have been entertaining the idea of an iaido/martial arts blog. I know, I know, lots of ideas, but will Harry actually *do* it?
Hm…I think I just hit on another blog topic. Thanks Steph!
*glances at Harry*… yeah, but my marketing blog? My branding blog? My equestrian blog? My ADD blog?
Oh, wait, yes. ADD… that’s what gets us into these visionary do-it-all bright shiny new toy problems to begin with, doesn’t it
Harry,
Maybe just make it a hobby blog..in general…and we can post or read about all the different things you/we all like since there are so many.
James can knit…you can tell us all about the mighty swords..and the cats can come too! I am sure there are more hobbies then just those!
Wendi Kelly’s last blog post..Finding Friends
@James: that’s the thing, it’s the thrill of starting something new and shiny. I guess that’s why I like customizing themes because I get to make something new without the responsibility of everything that comes after that.
@Wendi: Hmmm…like one, huge Way Off Topic category….
Harry,
Start ‘em and leave ‘em….
you have an Aries hiding somewhere in your chart??
James, huh? topic?? What topic..did we have a topic??? I think I fell down a rabbit hole. I have ADHD and I take meds for it every day…lot of good it does…
I have to go..I should be at ER…refreshing the unread screen every five minutes…
Wendi Kelly’s last blog post..Finding Friends
@ Wendi – Ahh, so you know my world. No meds in my case, as mine is mild, but we (I) do have to have some coping strategies and my family and loved ones have had to find a few workarounds for my quirks.
Harry – My condolences for the loss of your kitten pictures!!
I have all the old pictures of my kitties up on Facebook. Does it make me look like a crazy cat lady? A little. But at least I know they’re saved somewhere else in case my computer dies.
I have been emailing myself stuff for years now. Gmail is a godsend. In fact, I think if anybody was going to be using Gmail as a portable HD, they might as well make a new gmail account and only use it for that purpose. Then it wouldn’t get regular email, just backups.
Geek’s Dream Girl’s last blog post..If you had to fit your life in the back of a Pontiac GrandAm? what would you bring?
I too have been under the illusion that the hard drive will not crash. This post is a lesson well learned. Thank you.
Nicole Price’s last blog post..Camcorders: Deals and Discounts
Actually, that reminds me. I have Wordpress email regular backups of my blog (weekly, I think) to a gmail account I set up solely for that purpose. I so rarely ever sign in with that account though, I tend to forget it’s there!
–Deb’s last blog post..MM: Email–a Memo or a Letter?
Harry, have you considered amazon’s S3 storage system ever?
Personally, if I were adding a new drive to my current setup, I would go with Seagate brand drives. From what I’ve seen, they are pretty high quality, and tend to work well. I am also interested in the idea of offsite storage (through google, amazon, or someplace else that I trust), particularly to prevent against the disasters where you really lose everything.
Currently, most of my files are limited to just a variety of machines in my home, since none of them are work-critical. I know they can survive any one of my machines failing, but if I were to lose all my computers, I would be up a creek.
Online backups and local RAID are the way to go. One more thing you need: UPS. Not the shipping company, but uninterruptable power supply, so that you have time to back up when there’s power outage.
Michael Martine’s last blog post..How to Ask for Diggs and Actually Get Them
@Michael: I do have a UPS (but the Brown Trucks are nice too, they bring me things!) and it’s saved my ass on a few occasions – especially now that monsoon season is here and thunderstorms are frequent in the afternoon.
Late to the party, I am.
Good is the post, Harry.
I’ve had to retrieve data from my wife’s laptop twice in the past two years (failure to boot due to dropping of the laptop whilst running…) – Linux live CD’s are very powerful tools indeed, combined with a networked server.
For myself – I do several things. Media files (music mostly) are on an older machine. The hard disk inside of it is new, though. This I do not back up – why bother, I have all of the media on CD’s or DVD’s already.
My old game PC is now a fileserver of sorts, used for “deep storage”. I back up to this on my own schedule – about once a week (I’m like an elephant, I don’t forget – but I also don’t want to be interrupted mid-sentence while writing).
My main work happens on my MacBook Pro, and I do daily backups to an external hard drive using Time Machine (built-in).
I also send some stuff out into the “cloud” via my Gmail account.
I’ve been lucky to not have had any hard drive failures myself for many years. But I’m not betting on luck…
Brett Legree’s last blog post..the greatest thing since sliced vikings.
I love Geek Squad, they’ve been my new best friend on a few occasions. This post serves as a reminder that I need to back up a few files to my Seagate today!
I’ve always taken a tiered approach to backing up data:
1.) If your application makes backups, use that feature. An example is Microsoft Word.
2.) Save to more than one location. Options include a second hard drive (internal or external), USB key, DVD (as mentioned above for its capacity; blu-ray will make this even better) or CD, or even a second machine if possible.
3.) If you backup to removable media (DVD, for ex.), take it to an off-site location. I always like to think “What if the house burned down?” (maybe ‘like’ isn’t the best word there). Options include a bank safe deposit box or a secondary work location if possible. Just make sure it’s a secure location, assuming your data is sensitive.
4.) Another option already mentioned is cloud storage, provided by, for ex., Amazon S3. I believe Firefox even has an add-on that makes copying files to S3 very simple.
Backing up data can be (and is) a pain, but so is losing your data.
For that matter, my family uses each others’ computers as additional backup–not for everything, but for the God-Forbid-We-Should-Lose-THAT kind of files. Because, the odds of losing all three computers at once is pretty small. (And, darn it, I’m not risking my novel mss disappearing into the ethernet!)
–Deb’s last blog post..MM: Email–a Memo or a Letter?
Back on topic, I see. Well, I won’t mess THAT up, although I felt the sudden rush of creativity there. Such a shame to let that go.
And yes. Crown or halo would do, I’d say.
All hail.
steph’s last blog post..Fantasy Freak
James, those other blogs you mentioned…where??
steph’s last blog post..Fantasy Freak
@James – On the issue of security — I agree, the chances are slim. But think of what you might be backing up: confidential client information and projects, invoices and accounting information, passwords and account numbers, even Internet banking receipts… These are all things that we shouldn’t leave in our garbage, so why post them on someone else’s server?
Perhaps I sound paranoid. But I do know that all medical companies in the US must have something called HIPAA compliance to protect medical records and other patient information. Would your run-of-the-mill backup service be HIPAA-compliant? If it isn’t, then you do run the risk of compromising your data.
Bottom line: no matter how slight the risk, I believe people should at least be made aware of the possibility to make their own informed decisions.
~Graham
Graham Strong’s last blog post..The Writing Tip I Learned from Paris Hilton (True Story)
@James, I don’t really worry about client work because I can get almost all of it from email. I send that stuff to myself and of course to the clients all the time. But photos? That would be difficult. I was worried that I might lose the last year’s worth of photos but it sounds like the guy at the shop got them out.
My understanding of the external hard drive is that we shouldn’t use it as the primary file storage. In other words, you keep all your files on your computer’s hard drive (C) and then regularly drag them to the external for backup. I’m just learning all this because in the past all I’ve used are CDs and DVDs. Last time I backed up on DVD it took almost two days and 20 DVDs.
I really need to downsize. Heh.
Melissa Donovan’s last blog post..When it All Comes Crashing Down
@Wendi “You have an Aries hiding somewhere in your chart?? Start ‘em and leave ‘em”
That’s an Aries thing?? I’ve been excused by the stars, woot!!
Nicole Brunet’s last blog post..What would you do if you knew you could not fail?
@Wendi: No Aries in the chart, but I am a Sagittarian and that’s still a Fire sign. Cancer also figures prominently in my chart, so if I’m not skittering sideways around a project, I’m analyzing both sides of pros and cons to death and never get anywhere.
Harry, I’m so sorry to hear about this!
I use Gmail to send myself documents, upload my pictures to flickr, and back-up everything to either Amazon S3 or our own servers or both.
Oh, and I also have an external hard drive.
I think my system is in pretty good shape, now the only other thing I have to do is actually remember to back everything up.
Thanks for the reminder… I’ll go do that now.
Allison’s last blog post..Bulgogi Roll
I can’t imagine losing precious data. From losing blog entries and ideas, to a novel you’ve been working on for years… It’s unthinkable.
Bamboo Forest’s last blog post..Flying LlamaFish’s 7 Fun Words
On the subject of file backup, sharing and storage …
Online backup is becoming common these days. It is estimated that 70-75% of all PC’s will be connected to online backup services with in the next decade.
Thousands of online backup companies exist, from one guy operating in his apartment to fortune 500 companies.
Choosing the best online backup company will be very confusing and difficult. One website I find very helpful in making a decision to pick an online backup company is:
http://www.BackupReview.info
This site lists more than 400 online backup companies in its directory and ranks the top 25 on a monthly basis.
I feel faint… I’ve been placing waaaaay too much trust in my external hard drive. Downright smug about it. Thanks for offering some viable solutions, like email storage.
Sara at On Simplicity’s last blog post..Dreaming Big in a Small Town
Important advice from James and co. Lessons I’ve learned:
* Backup regularly from PC to external drive. I use SyncToy, which comes with Windows.
* Use Gmail. I still have a local email client (Thunderbird), but I’ve added Gmail to it as an IMAP app and easily move emails into it (just like you would move email from one folder to another).
* Find an online backup system. I’ve tried several and they were awful. 400 to look through per Jennifer’s recommendation… ay yi yi.
Meryl K. Evans’s last blog post..Business Client Gift Ideas
Harry,
Sorry to hear of your data loss. I have been fortunate to not experience such a loss but I have some experience/success with other people’s computers. Over ten years ago a local ski resort owner lost access to his hard drive. I examined his system and their was nothing I could do to access the files on his hard drive. It turned out the hardware inside the hard drive was malfunctioning and was unable to access the data on the discs. No software could retrieve the data. There are basically two types of failures – the hard drive spins and the arms, motors, etc. are able to accept commands from software such as SpinRite to access files on the disc or the hard drive does not respond to the special emergency software. If the hard drive can not be accessed, it can be sent out to the experts whom I consider to be Kroll Ontrack (20 years in the business) – http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.ca/ . They have the equipment and expertise to dismantle the hard drive and extract the data from the individual discs on special equipment if it’s possible (there are cases where they can’t retrieve the data even in this manner). Also worth mentioning is software available that can monitor the health of your hard drive through it’s built in SMART firmware. One software I found to be fairly comprehensive is HD Inspector (Windows program) – http://www.altrixsoft.com/en/hddinsp/ . The Ontrack service is worth looking at but the price tag may be a bit steep. Good luck.
Mark
Harry,
I included a link to Ontrack for their Canadian customers. Customers in the US can access their site at http://www.ontrackdatarecovery.com/ .
Mark
I had an external drive crash on me last year. I know the sinking feeling you get when you find our your drive is dead and you dont have a copy of the data anywhere else.
Since then I have been using ElephantDrive (www.elephantdrive.com). Very happy with the service. Unlimited storage – I have over 300 G stored there now. Very helpful tech support. And it was the fastest from the different services that I tried.
My day job is with a company that has data recovery software for the Mac and we here this kind of thing all the time. The biggest reason you lose data is because a hard drive fails. This could be a software/OS problem, which means software can fix it like ours does. Or it could be hardware problem and software might be able to get some of it back or nothing.
Apple has the right idea with Time Machine, make it simple and people don’t have to think about it. I just bought a Time Capsule for my home network and set all our computers to use it. Of course it isn’t near big enough for my pictures and video. I’m not sure there is a drive big enough to backup original video files. That’s one reason to love tape.
A tip on buying drives. The biggest killer of hard drives is heat. Only by external drives that have a fan, or at least a heat sink. The only drives I’d recommend are from G-Tech. They are what I have.
Ron’s last blog post..01 Vlog: Tony Robbins Giveaway Announcement
I’ve been a professional genealogist, and I’ve done a lot of background research for a book on emergency preparedness. I’ve read the standards various national archives use, and I’ve tried some things myself, including some of your ideas. You have the right general idea, but you’ve got a few things wrong.
No data recovery service can guarantee to recover every file – but when your data means more than money to you, contact CONVAR Data Recovery, even though they’re in Europe. I have no connection with them, but look at their record, then search their web site for rough pricing guidelines. Not that much more than the Geek Squad. Enough said. If I ever lose any of my kitten pictures, pictures of my beloved cat who died of kidney failure 6 years ago, or any of my manuscripts – these are the guys I’m contacting, unless I just don’t have the cash.
Second, do not trust optical discs for backups! I studied all the factors that could lead to damage in optical discs. I thought I had a great system set up – including printing a date on the jewel case label to remind me to burn a new copy before the old one could fail. I shut off most of the lights in my office when handling discs, to reduce UV exposure. You get the idea… So I moved all my paper files onto optical discs – and lost the lot, beyond recovery, when the discs went completely bad unexpectedly. Rewritable discs are just as unreliable, for different technical reasons. CDs and DVDs you burn yourself (which use a different technology than commercially reproduced ones) just are not suitable for preserving files.
Solid state hard drives are the most stable currently know method of storing data. Get USB sticks, or larger portable solid state drives. Keep one set of data at home, and store another in a safe deposit box. For 125 GB of data, two solid state drives will cost an awful lot – but the price is dropping. In the meantime, keep one solid state drive in a safe deposit box with the bulk of your files, and a USB stick you switch back and forth weekly or so with altered files on it. Then, you could rely somewhat on optical discs, since you do have a fallback. Keep a set of optical discs at home, but burn new copies of this set at least every six months, do not affix sticky labels, and do not expose them to water, moisture, high humidity, direct sunlight, heat over 75 F or chemical fumes of any variety. As soon as the price falls far enough, get a second solid state drive instead. If you can afford it, get a third drive, and store that one with a relative or friend – or in a distant bank’s safe deposit vault – at least two hundred miles away. Use USB keys to build up incremental backups that can be added to the third whenever possible.
Never trust online backup services too far. There are too many factors that need to be considered (a staffer at the LDS Family History Library wrote a paper on this, covering only some of the issues, and no company would answer all her questions…). Yes, for a small number of files you may alter often, as an extra backup, they may be OK (and Mozy is not too bad – you might wait a short while, but they are as reliable as anyone else) – but don’t use them as part of your regular backup.
the Wandering Author’s last blog post..City
@ Wandering – I appreciate the time and effort that went into that post. Thank you for the clear warnings and suggestions for a proper method. Considering your experience preserving history, it kind of makes one sit up and take notice.
Thanks again. Great comment.
As far as I’m concerned, the two most important factors for a backup are that it should be automatic, and that it should be off-site. If it isn’t automatic, then the chances are that it won’t happen at all. And if it isn’t off-site, then you’re just asking to have your backup trashed by the same event that trashes your original; be it a fire, flood, lightning strike, virus, burglary or whatever.
Online backup fulfills both these requirements, and in my opinion it is all the backup you need.