A tale of warning...

[cdcox]

Near the end of August, I was sitting at my desk, working as normal with my trusty Nissan stainless steel coffee mug at my side. I really like this mug becuase it is insulated and has a lid to minimize spills. As I was reaching for my keyboard that morning, my hand bumped the coffee mug. My lightning reflexes prevented the mug from tipping over but a few drops of coffee did splatter and landed on the keyboard of my laptop. I quickly dabbed up the drops that were between the keys and went about my day.

That evening, I took my computer home. When I turned it on I got a error message from the BIOS. Hard drive not recognized. Uh-Oh (that's not an exact quote). Took the HD out of the bay and sure enough there were a couple drops of cofffee in there. Went through the Dell trouble shooting procedures, that basically confirmed the hard drive had failed and got a new one ordered.

But what about my data? I'm not real regular about backing up my files, even though I bought an external hard drive for this very purpose. It had been several months since I had done so, and I had A LOT of work that would take weeks to redo. For example the last time that I had backed up my nfl-forecast.com code was at the end of 2005. The source code for the improvements this year was gone. I also had a 60 page document that I had submitted once, but would need to resubmit, gone. Most of the work I had done over the summer was "in progress" which means that it would have to be re done. It went on and on.

So I sent my harddrive off to a data recovery service. They ended up having to disassemble my hard drive in a clean room, attach a new controller card to the drive and extract the data. Ten days later, it appeared that I had my data back, and I started to breathe a little easier. However, over the next several days it became apparent that they had successfully recovered the directory tree, but many, many files had 0 KB of data stored in them. Many of those that showed data would not open properly. And as chance would have it, the corrupted files were the ones I needed the most. Uh-Oh, part two (that is not an exact quote).

Last week I called the data recovery company back and explained my situation and asked why they hadn't told me that so many of the "recovered" files were empty (you have to pay before you see your data files). They explained that they had no way of knowing what was on the disk, so it was up to me to tell them if there was a problem with the recovered files, and they allowed 48 hours to do this. I explained that since the tech had told me that the recovery was successful and that the files appeared, that I had assumed they were there, and that I had only realized the extent of the problem after several days of my normal work routine. They agreed to take another look at the hard drive.

I finally got the recovered data back today. The files look good. But it was really touch and go for a while. I consider myself lucky to get off with a several hundred dollar bill and more than a few sleepless nights.

There have been a million of these stories told, but until it happens to you, you don't listen. Don't make that mistake. I was an idiot. Back up your files today, if you can't afford to be without them. Go on, do it now.

[Mr. Laz]

gotta love norton Ghost :thumb:

[StcChief]

The old saying in IT stands......

Your only as good as your last successful backup.

[TrickyNicky]

Yeah, thats why I use one of those beer hats with coffee while working.

[ck_IN]

Flash drives are great for backing up files. I have on expressly for that purpose.

[cdcox]

Flash drives are great for backing up files. I have on expressly for that purpose.

LMAO

At least I hope you are joking. It's better than what I did, but only marginally.

[Fire Me Boy!]

My old employer found out the hard way that all the tapes they had been backing up the server on -- yes, old tape drives, gotta love 'em -- weren't working properly. Turns out, the tapes they bought in bulk, were default set to NOT tape over. Essentially, they had dozens of blank, basically brand new tapes, that had NEVER been recorded on.

[DaFace]

LMAO

At least I hope you are joking. It's better than what I did, but only marginally.

Eh, for basic backups, they're an inexpensive way of doing it as long as you're not backing up a huge amount of data. I have many customers who use a rotating schedule of flash drives to back up their QuickBooks data. Works great, and costs less than $100 to get started. They may not be as reliable as other backup media, but they give you redundancy at a low price.

[greg63]

...There have been a million of these stories told, but until it happens to you, you don't listen. Don't make that mistake. I was an idiot. Back up your files today, if you can't afford to be without them. Go on, do it now.

Yup! Kids don't let this happen to you.

[JBucc]

cdcox needs a sippy cup

[cdcox]

cdcox needs a sippy cup

That's basically what I have:

http://altura.speedera.net/ccimg.catalogcity.com/210000/213000/213050/Products/9196402.jpg

[ck_IN]

<i>At least I hope you are joking.</i>

Not at all. I wouldn't put enterprise database backups on them but for my home computer I backup word docs, my Microsoft Money, excel spreadsheets and my Turbo tax forms. I restore random files every now and then. I've never had any problem.

[Kyle401]

Heh,

We hired a newly minted technician (fresh out of school) a few months ago who somehow managed to delete the entire portfolio for one of our clients. No problem, I say to myself as I will just restore it from the backup. Unfortunately, that was the day that I found out that the backup procedure was screwed up somehow and all of our backup files were corrupted.

Needless to say, that day is one of my (and the newly minted technician's) most memorable days at work. Strangely, the technician found a different job a few weeks ago??? :shrug:

[HC_Chief]

Hard drives are cheap these days. If you have a desktop system, buy an extra hdd that matches your current, and configure a mirroring RAID. If one drive fails, the mirror takes over.

If you have a laptop, buy an external USB or Firewire drive... copy all of your files to it on a regular basis.

[ZepSinger]

I back up all important data and programs to DVD. Heck, they're like 35 cents apiece now.

[cdcox]

<i>At least I hope you are joking.</i>

Not at all. I wouldn't put enterprise database backups on them but for my home computer I backup word docs, my Microsoft Money, excel spreadsheets and my Turbo tax forms. I restore random files every now and then. I've never had any problem.

I've owed two flash drives and both have gone bad, one for no apparent reason. One of the problems with them is that they are small enough to get lost or accidently exposed to environmental conditions detremental to their performance (i.e., the laundry machine). I think they are fine for transfering files.

I've started using my external hard drive for daily backups and DVDs once a month for long term back up (shelf life 10 years).

[KC-TBB]

[SIZE=5]IT SUCKS WHEN YOUR FLASH DRIVE GOES BLANK! HATE IT WHEN THAT HAPPENS.

[ck_IN]

Interesting. I've never had a problem with my flash drive going blank, or just stopping or anything else.

If you have a dvd burner then that is a better backup medium, I'm just saying I use my flash drive as a cheap, simple backup method. I also put it immediately back in the drawer when I'm done with it.

[onescrewleftuntwisted]

damn dell

[Calcountry]

Eh, for basic backups, they're an inexpensive way of doing it as long as you're not backing up a huge amount of data. I have many customers who use a rotating schedule of flash drives to back up their QuickBooks data. Works great, and costs less than $100 to get started. They may not be as reliable as other backup media, but they give you redundancy at a low price.There is stuff I give a chit about, like Qbooks data, and my favorites list, and some spread sheets that I built.

I had my Laptop and flash drive back up my main computer, so when it started to fart, I seemlessly transferred over to the laptop.

Now, I have to grab another computer before this one starts to take a shit. They last about 3-5 years with average use.

I have consumed 2 desktops since I opened the store in 1999. Fortunately, the 2nd one, my friend and I constructed from spare parts, and puters are dirt cheap now. For what I need them for, any entry level box will do.

Things are changing in puter land.

[Floridafan]

Buy a Mac.......

[DaFace]

Buy a Mac.......

I don't know you well enough to tell if this is sarcasm, so I'll answer both ways:

Sincere:
Yeah, because Mac hard drives (made by companies like IBM, Fujitsu, and Seagate) are more reliable than their PC conterparts (made by companies like IBM, Fujitsu, and Seagate). :rolleyes:

Sarcasm:
Yeah, cuz the cool guy in the commercial never crashes like the nerd in the suit! :clap:

[Fishpicker]

I don't know you well enough to tell if this is sarcasm, so I'll answer both ways:

Sincere:
Yeah, because Mac hard drives (made by companies like IBM, Fujitsu, and Seagate) are more reliable than their PC conterparts (made by companies like IBM, Fujitsu, and Seagate). :rolleyes:

Sarcasm:
Yeah, cuz the cool guy in the commercial never crashes like the nerd in the suit! :clap:

not to mention that; Mac is switching chipsets from Motorola to whatever crap they put in generic PCs

[patteeu]

Bump to remind cdcox (and anyone else with critical data) to do a backup.

[The Rick]

I'm a Mac guy. Picked up this sweet little device a few weeks ago and haven't thought much about it since:

http://www.apple.com/timecapsule/

It just works it's magic in the background, and does it wirelessly to boot. Awesome product for those of you with Macs...especially Mac laptops.

[DaFace]

I've recently become a fan of the online backup services available. I started using mozy (http://www.mozy.com) a couple weeks ago and definitely feel much safer with it. Carbonite (http://www.carbonite.com) is also a very good option, especially for those who aren't especially computer savvy. However, it skips a couple types of files like videos and .exe's, so I went for mozy instead.

Carbonite costs $50 per year for unlimited storage; mozy is $5 per month.

[DaFace]

I'm a Mac guy. Picked up this sweet little device a few weeks ago and haven't thought much about it since:

http://www.apple.com/timecapsule/

It just works it's magic in the background, and does it wirelessly to boot. Awesome product for those of you with Macs...especially Mac laptops.

Definitely a sweet product. However, if someone breaks in your house and steals all your electronics (including your computer and your time capsule), you're still screwed.

[Fish]

http://img406.imageshack.us/img406/8548/timemachineicon20071016dq2.png

[Demonpenz]

a tip I found out recently is you can back up your stuff on CD using a cd burner. it holds alot more than your floppy disk and can be transported

[DaFace]

While true, you have to remember to actually do it. That's the key I think. I've had wedding pictures on my computer for nearly six months now, and I kept thinking, "Man, I really need to back these up." But I never did.

Maybe I just don't have the patience to actually do it, but I like the automated systems that you can just set up and forget about.

[Iowanian]

I had a mini-reminder of this issue 2 weeks ago when I lost some data after my laptop crashed. I realized how screwed I'd be if I lost the laptop or the data on it.

That day on spoofee, I found a nice, 750gig backup hard drive. I'm a dumbass, because I now realize that its still in the box, 3' away because I've been "too busy" to do the backup.

I should remedy that problem today. Thanks for the reminder.

[chasedude]

While true, you have to remember to actually do it. That's the key I think. I've had wedding pictures on my computer for nearly six months now, and I kept thinking, "Man, I really need to back these up." But I never did.

Maybe I just don't have the patience to actually do it, but I like the automated systems that you can just set up and forget about.

I've been having problems with my Veritas Backup Exec on my server. I'm about to look for a better solution than tapes.

[Vegas_Dave]

While true, you have to remember to actually do it. That's the key I think. I've had wedding pictures on my computer for nearly six months now, and I kept thinking, "Man, I really need to back these up." But I never did.

Maybe I just don't have the patience to actually do it, but I like the automated systems that you can just set up and forget about.

This is the primary reason why I converted an older desktop to a Windows Home Server. It performs automatic backups every night of both mine & my wife's laptops.

It will even wake the laptop up from sleep to perform the backup.

The recovery worked flawless for me as well. I had decided to tinker with my wife's laptop (backed up the important info) and decided to do a network system restore.

Popped in the WHS Network Restore CD, the laptop boots from the CD. Enter the network password, select which computer to perform the restore and viola! Took about 1.5 hours to restore her entire laptop using the network.

Awesome. Granted, WHS still has its bugs but for the backup service, it is fantastic.

[The Franchise]

I've been thinking about buying an external hard drive for this purpose. I think you just convinced me to pick one up.