Don't be me with your computer files

[Mr. Wizard]

:mad::mad: I just lost all of my computer data dating back 20 years. Long story short I had it BACKED UP on a 2tb portable hard drive which I dropped. It's trashed. 2 different sysops looked at it. I can send it to the company and pray but that bill starts at $1000.00 They took it apart and its running but the arm is scratching back and forth across the disk. No light comes on and it is not recognized by any computer I plug it into. 20 years of taxes, personal files, small business files and lesson plans and lessons from my 30 years of teaching welding - gone.:mad::mad:

Truthfully I had it backed up on my computer c drive which had to be re-imaged.
My though was, it gets re-imaged, I copy everything back, now I still have two copies. :deevee:BAM god punished me.:deevee::deevee:

Don't be me, back that stuff up twice. I would do it on "the cloud" but know little about it. Mr. Wizard is wrong again!

PS is the cloud a good idea for an old dog like me?

[ModSocks]

I know a place in Delaware that might be able to have a gander...

[loochy]

Don't be me, back that stuff


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[New World Order]

That's why you have to backup your files on a floppy disk

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

Yeah, I put all my important spreadsheets and stuff on my desktop and copy my desktop from time to time on a spare usb. Which reminds me I need to do that. Sorry that happened to you. You'll find that life still goes on though.

[Shaid]

I still have a DVD burner but yeah, it's been a couple years since I did a real backup. Of course, i have taxes, etc. all printed on paper and in a filing cabinet but lots of photos could be lost over the past couple years.

[KCUnited]

e-Hoarding: Buried Alive

[htismaqe]

Dude.

Always back everything up AT LEAST twice.

I actually do hourly -> daily -> weekly -> monthly rollups to two different destinations, one of which I keep in a fireproof safe.

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

I'm worried I'll lose all my contacts stored on my phone if I drop it in the lake. How can I back that up???

[Shaid]

Yeah, I put all my important spreadsheets and stuff on my desktop and copy my desktop from time to time on a spare usb. Which reminds me I need to do that. Sorry that happened to you. You'll find that life still goes on though.

yeah, spare USB is a better idea, I've been considering a networked drive with scheduled backups but just haven't done it.

[htismaqe]

Guys,

You can buy 4TB of storage in the size of a cigarette box for less than $100.

Don't use DVD's, USB flash drives, or anything like that.

Buy two external hard drives and use them both.

[htismaqe]

yeah, spare USB is a better idea, I've been considering a networked drive with scheduled backups but just haven't done it.

I used to have a NAS when I had a lot more machines to backup but now I just use external drives.

Of course, I'm on Mac so Time Machine does the heavy lifting for me.

[htismaqe]

I'm worried I'll lose all my contacts stored on my phone if I drop it in the lake. How can I back that up???

Please tell me you don't have a flip phone still.

[Mr. Wizard]

I know a place in Delaware that might be able to have a gander...

How much would it cost. I am willing to try, just not gonna drop $1000.00 for them to start and then $50.00 per hour plus parts. I would but I got kids in college man.

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

Guys,

You can buy 4TB of storage in the size of a cigarette box for less than $100.

Don't use DVD's, USB flash drives, or anything like that.

Buy two external hard drives and use them both.

But a USB is the size of one cigarette.

[Buehler445]

If you get a subscription to office 365 it gives you a 1TB One Drive Account. It acts like a file on your computer but is stored in the cloud.

On the farm we use dropbox because we had dropbox before one drive existed.

That's where it's at my man.

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

Please tell me you don't have a flip phone still.

ROFL No but I'm not computer smart!

[htismaqe]

But a USB is the size of one cigarette.

They're also slower, more limited in both size and file system options, and wear out. Flash chips have a limited life and can fail when you least expect it, losing all of your data.

A good mechanical drive is cheap and potentially last for years of continuous writes.

[Mr. Wizard]

That's why you have to backup your files on a floppy disk

I did, thats the point

[htismaqe]

ROFL No but I'm not computer smart!

I you have an iPhone with an Apple account or an Android with a Google (or Samsung) account, you should be able to set up your contacts to backup to the cloud automatically. In fact, your phone should be setup that way by default.

[Mr. Wizard]

Dude.

Always back everything up AT LEAST twice.

I actually do hourly -> daily -> weekly -> monthly rollups to two different destinations, one of which I keep in a fireproof safe.

Is the cloud a good idea?

[htismaqe]

How much would it cost. I am willing to try, just not gonna drop $1000.00 for them to start and then $50.00 per hour plus parts. I would but I got kids in college man.

The chances of them being able to recover your data is really small.

Very few of these data restoral techniques are worth the cost.

[Deberg_1990]

Still have my trusty 250MB Iomega zip drive.

[htismaqe]

Is the cloud a good idea?

Depends on what you are looking for and what you are storing.

You can store files and photos on Microsoft's cloud if you're on Windows, it's built in but I'm not sure how much storage you get.

Some services, like Amazon only allow unlimited storage for photos.

Most cloud plans cost money per month if they're standalone, like Backblaze or iDrive.

The big benefit of cloud backup is you don't have to worry about a disaster. If your house burns down or gets wiped out by an earthquake, you won't have to worry about it.

[Hog's Gone Fishin]

If you get a subscription to office 365 it gives you a 1TB One Drive Account. It acts like a file on your computer but is stored in the cloud.

On the farm we use dropbox because we had dropbox before one drive existed.

That's where it's at my man.

I'm old fashioned in a way that feels like using that shit gives microsoft or whoever runs that cloud has access to all my info.

[htismaqe]

Still have my trusty 250MB Iomega zip drive.

ROFL

[htismaqe]

I'm old fashioned in a way that feels like using that shit gives microsoft or whoever runs that cloud has access to all my info.

Dude, your phone is connected to the internet. They already have access to that data in transit if they really want it.

Most online services encrypt your data at rest and some of them don't even have a means to decrypt it without your intervention.

[TribalElder]

That sucks

good news though you can probably re-download all that porn again

[Mr. Wizard]

Guys,

You can buy 4TB of storage in the size of a cigarette box for less than $100.

Don't use DVD's, USB flash drives, or anything like that.

Buy two external hard drives and use them both.

I hate to disagree but flash drives are bulletproof. External hard drives are NOT.
They can't take any punishment at all. I dropped this one 6" and its done????
I know my job requires alot of moving around from computer to computer but Never again.

[Mr. Wizard]

Please tell me you don't have a flip phone still.

I would LOVE a flip phone like my old nokia from 2o years ago. Bulletproof

[htismaqe]

I hate to disagree but flash drives are bulletproof. External hard drives are NOT.
They can't take any punishment at all. I dropped this one 6" and its done????
I know my job requires alot of moving around from computer to computer but Never again.

Flash drives aren't bulletproof. That's just the thing. It's really easy to break the solder on the flash, making it useless. Plugging them and unplugging them over and over can actually lead to them breaking. They also have a limited number of writes before they're just worn out. Flash drives make for decent file storage but they suck for actual backups.

If dropping an external HDD is that big of a problem for you (I've personally never dropped one myself but I don't generally carry them around either, that's what flash drives are for. :)), get a protected one.

Several companies make external enclosures covered in silicone or other materials to make them drop and shock-proof.

[Mr. Wizard]

Flash drives aren't bulletproof. That's just the thing. It's really easy to break the solder on the flash, making it useless. Plugging them and unplugging them over and over can actually lead to them breaking. They also have a limited number of writes before they're just worn out. Flash drives make for decent file storage but they suck for actual backups.

If dropping an external HDD is that big of a problem for you (I've personally never dropped one myself but I don't generally carry them around either, that's what flash drives are for. :)), get a protected one.

Several companies make external enclosures covered in silicone or other materials to make them drop and shock-proof.


PLEASE post a link! My job teaching over 100 kids in a huge welding shop with CNC capabilities is hard as hell on technology.

[BigRedChief]

I finally got my old VHS tapes digitalized. Very happy seeing the kids 1st Christmas, 2nd birthday party etc.

There are several companies that will get data even off a physically broken hard drive.

I back up the most crucial files on a 500GB thumb drive. Then full backup to an external hd. Backup all photos from phone and computer to Amazon for free.

[frozenchief]

I backup via Time Machine and I have my data in a RAID. As I understand it, a RAID means that there are 2 drives that appear as one and when the computer saves to the RAID, it saves to both drives at the same time. I have them encrypted and use a VPN.

Sounds good, but .... a friend of mine had his office burn down and he said he had no off-site backup. I think about that every 6 months and resolve to do something about that but then forget about it for another 6 months or so.

[candyman]

That sucks man but I've got one even worse. I lost 20 years worth of porn because my external drive failed and I didn't back it up. 2TB worth. You ever seen a grown man cry?

[CarlosCarson27]

Don't be me with your computer files.

Sounds like the beginning of a late night infomercial.
The one right before male stamina pills

[Buehler445]

I hate to disagree but flash drives are bulletproof. External hard drives are NOT.
They can't take any punishment at all. I dropped this one 6" and its done????
I know my job requires alot of moving around from computer to computer but Never again.

I’ve broke them before. It sucks.

[Mr. Wizard]

That sucks man but I've got one even worse. I lost 20 years worth of porn because my external drive failed and I didn't back it up. 2TB worth. You ever seen a grown man cry?

:eek::eek:gross:eek::eek:

[cdcox]

I sent a mechanical hard drive off for data restoration many years ago and got it all back. A few drips of coffee shorted the hard drive. Non-heroic means we’re ineffective in recovering the data.

[Sorce]

https://www.backblaze.com/backup-pricing.html

Sent from my Pixel 3 using Tapatalk

[Pitt Gorilla]

You can probably find most of the pron you lost on the web. You'll be ok.

[BlackOp]

Use Carbon Cloner software...it can make a bootable back-up complete with your OS. If your main HD fails...you can simply plug it in and are good to go. Replace the failed drive and reverse the cloning process.

Dont like Time-machine as you cant get back up and running immediately.

I have 18TB of G-tech drives...which all have a cloned back-up.

There is nothing worse than kicking yourself for not addressing this...after it happens.

[Fish]

How much would it cost. I am willing to try, just not gonna drop $1000.00 for them to start and then $50.00 per hour plus parts. I would but I got kids in college man.

Honestly, if the read arm scratched the platter, then you're fucked. Sorry. No recovery place is going to bring back that kind of damage. They usually recover data due to failed read arm or other failure that still results in all the data platters being preserved. They can then remove the platters, and install them into a working drive. Data is scattered across multiple platters, and it's all interconnected by a bit mapping sequence. If one platter is damaged, it's just a jigsaw puzzle of corrupted bits.

My advice is to always maintain a physical backup as well as a cloud backup. External drives fail as well. Cloud backup is redundantly secure. There's lots of free services like boxdrop.com, box.com, OneDrive, etc. That usually gives you ~5GB of free cloud storage. If you pay a small ~$5 monthly fee, you can usually upgrade your cloud storage to ~50GB. Cloud services are safe and secure.

[Fish]

I hate to disagree but flash drives are bulletproof. External hard drives are NOT.
They can't take any punishment at all. I dropped this one 6" and its done????
I know my job requires alot of moving around from computer to computer but Never again.

Nah, flash drives are certainly not bulletproof. I've seen more fail than I could keep count. Not just from drops and mishandling either. Just flat failure.

Flash media tends to have an advantage, because there aren't any moving parts. So you're usually more protected against drops and bumps. But they still can fail just the same. Too much heat, overvoltage, undervoltage, and sometimes just for the fuck of it.

Double backups in different locations!

[Brooklyn]

3-2-1 principle

3 copies, 2 locations, working from 1.

1 set of files are your working files, at your primary location. Then another backup copy at that location. Then, a third copy at a different location (can be cloud). Backblaze as mentioned is the most user friendly.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Mr. Wizard]

To hell with it, this old man is headed for the cloud. I have been in the same job for 31 years, tweaked my job about 15 years ago due to burnout and been happy since. EXCEPT they are always asking us to learn something new. Nothing new in teaching, either you can teach or you cant. Well now Im gonna learn something new dammit.

[Otter]

To hell with it, this old man is headed for the cloud. I have been in the same job for 31 years, tweaked my job about 15 years ago due to burnout and been happy since. EXCEPT they are always asking us to learn something new. Nothing new in teaching, either you can teach or you cant. Well now Im gonna learn something new dammit.


https://www.dropbox.com/individual?cid=301cdd000bf897eb42d98d9384c4bcb4L

You can thank me later.

[Fat Elvis]

If you get a subscription to office 365 it gives you a 1TB One Drive Account. It acts like a file on your computer but is stored in the cloud.

On the farm we use dropbox because we had dropbox before one drive existed.

That's where it's at my man.

One of the inventors of Dropbox used to be a ChiefsPlanet regular....then he became a billionaire and doesn't have time for us anymore.

[htismaqe]

PLEASE post a link! My job teaching over 100 kids in a huge welding shop with CNC capabilities is hard as hell on technology.

I have used a few Lacie drives and really like them.

https://www.amazon.com/LaCie-Rugged-External-Drive-Portable/dp/B00IRV005E/ref=sr_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=shockproof%2Bexternal%2Bhard%2Bdrive&qid=1603848902&sr=8-4&th=1

But there's tons of them out there, just look for "shock proof external HDD".

This one has almost 5000 positive reviews.

https://www.amazon.com/ADATA-Waterproof-Shockproof-Ruggedized-AHD710P-2TU31-CYL/dp/B0744NY1Y8/ref=sr_1_17_sspa?dchild=1&keywords=shockproof+external+hard+drive&qid=1603848902&sr=8-17-spons&psc=1&spLa=ZW5jcnlwdGVkUXVhbGlmaWVyPUExSjdaRzhNWEg0ODVLJmVuY3J5cHRlZElkPUEwNTQ2MDg1MzNVMEpMRUxNQkI0MiZlbmN yeXB0ZWRBZElkPUEwNDAxNDM5Rkw2VjJFQk9KQllQJndpZGdldE5hbWU9c3BfbXRmJmFjdGlvbj1jbGlja1JlZGlyZWN0JmRvTm9 0TG9nQ2xpY2s9dHJ1ZQ==

[htismaqe]

I backup via Time Machine and I have my data in a RAID. As I understand it, a RAID means that there are 2 drives that appear as one and when the computer saves to the RAID, it saves to both drives at the same time. I have them encrypted and use a VPN.

Sounds good, but .... a friend of mine had his office burn down and he said he had no off-site backup. I think about that every 6 months and resolve to do something about that but then forget about it for another 6 months or so.

Depends on the type of RAID. RAID 1 is indeed 2 drives replicated one to the other.

Keep in mind that RAID is for uptime in case a drive fails. It's not really for backup. If your RAID controller fails or something similar, you will have a hard time recovering your data because the individual disks are RAID and not in a readily-readable format.

[htismaqe]

I sent a mechanical hard drive off for data restoration many years ago and got it all back. A few drips of coffee shorted the hard drive. Non-heroic means we’re ineffective in recovering the data.

Drops of coffee is a bit different than the armature scratching the platter, which is what he described.

[htismaqe]

Dont like Time-machine as you cant get back up and running immediately.

Not true.

You can restore from an external Time Machine drive in a few minutes, depending on the amount of data, just like you can with Carbon Copy Cloner and other imaging software.

In addition, you can boot from a Time Machine backup in a pinch.

[htismaqe]

https://www.dropbox.com/individual?cid=301cdd000bf897eb42d98d9384c4bcb4L

You can thank me later.

Dropbox is not a backup solution.

[htismaqe]

To hell with it, this old man is headed for the cloud. I have been in the same job for 31 years, tweaked my job about 15 years ago due to burnout and been happy since. EXCEPT they are always asking us to learn something new. Nothing new in teaching, either you can teach or you cant. Well now Im gonna learn something new dammit.

If you go cloud, you might still want a portable drive. The cloud is great for sharing files and storing backups offsite but it's not always accessible and available in a pinch.

[Otter]

Dropbox is not a backup solution.

Why? [/donger]

[BlackOp]

Not true.

You can restore from an external Time Machine drive in a few minutes, depending on the amount of data, just like you can with Carbon Copy Cloner and other imaging software.

In addition, you can boot from a Time Machine backup in a pinch.

It takes 3 hours+ to clone my 2 TB boot drive. With a Carbon Cloned boot...its as fast as turning your computer off/on...just plug in your copied drive. That's key to me..no time lost. Once it's cloned...it just updates the new files since the previous time. I think it's a great method.

Does Time Machine clone your OS too...in case of total drive failure? If you have total drive failure...you would still have to replace the drive first. A 2nd cloned drive is plug and play...and allows you to work while finding a new drive.

I had to time machine a laptop for a friend...this was a few years back...and remember thinking this method sucks.

I buy a new drive...clone my computer...then put it back in the box in the closet.

[htismaqe]

It takes 3 hours+ to clone my 2 TB boot drive. With a Carbon Cloned boot...its as fast as turning your computer off/on...just plug in your copied drive. That's key to me..no time lost.

Does Time Machine clone your OS too...in case of total drive failure?

Yeah, Time Machine is a disk image. You can restore to a completely new drive, just like you can with Carbon or Acronis.

And no, you can't swap drive like that, although that's something you could do with Disk Utility if you really wanted to.

The benefit of Time Machine is that it's a differential backup, file history, and a disk image. And it's built in the MacOS and just works.

[htismaqe]

Why? [/donger]

It's really only for backing up or sharing files.

It doesn't do version updating/history or anything that a true backup solution does.

[Otter]

Dropbox is not a backup solution.

It's really only for backing up or sharing files.


OK

[BlackOp]

Yeah, Time Machine is a disk image. You can restore to a completely new drive, just like you can with Carbon or Acronis.

And no, you can't swap drive like that, although that's something you could do with Disk Utility if you really wanted to.

The benefit of Time Machine is that it's a differential backup, file history, and a disk image. And it's built in the MacOS and just works.

Like I was a saying...you cant run your computer FROM Time Machine. It's a good safety net...but you will be out of commission for an afternoon. That's
the benefit of having a bootable clone...probably a wise decision to do both.

[htismaqe]

OK

LOL

Sorry about that.

Dropbox is for STORING and sharing files. It keeps a copy of a single file at a single point in time.

A good backup solution can keep a version history and a change log of individual files, allowing for point-in-time restoral.

Also, a good backup solution backs up more than just productivity and media files, allowing you to truly "pick up where you left off".

[htismaqe]

Like I was a saying...you cant run your computer FROM Time Machine. It's a good safety net...but you will be out of commission for an afternoon. That's
the benefit of having a bootable clone...probably a wise decision to do both.

I have two machines (4 actually, 2 Macs and 2 PC's) so being able to restore instantly really isn't really a big deal for me.

But yeah, for most people having both would be ideal. The image for instant restoral and the Time Machine for files and stuff.

[Rain Man]

I don't back up my travel photos because if I lose them then I have an excuse to go back.

[Fish]

Like I was a saying...you cant run your computer FROM Time Machine. It's a good safety net...but you will be out of commission for an afternoon. That's
the benefit of having a bootable clone...probably a wise decision to do both.

That's stupid and pointless though. You don't want to run your computer from your backup copy. I mean, you could absolutely make a bootable clone from a Time Machine backup. At that point it's not a backup copy though. You've now got duplicate images that don't sync.

You can take a Time Machine backup and clone it to an external drive if you want, and then boot from that. But your criticism doesn't make a lick of sense on its own.

[Fish]

LOL

Sorry about that.

Dropbox is for STORING and sharing files. It keeps a copy of a single file at a single point in time.

A good backup solution can keep a version history and a change log of individual files, allowing for point-in-time restoral.

Also, a good backup solution backs up more than just productivity and media files, allowing you to truly "pick up where you left off".

You're definitely correct. But I don't get the sense that the OP needs versioning of files. Maybe I'm wrong, but I wanted to make sure he knew the difference.

For what it's worth, you can absolutely leverage dropbox to do automated Windows system backups of whatever desired folders/data you choose: https://help.dropbox.com/installs-integrations/sync-uploads/computer-backup

Dropbox Business even allows for versioning with a 10yr retention policy...

[Hammock Parties]

I recently sent a hard drive off to get everything recovered, including my entire music collection. It cost me a thousand bucks.

For that price I could have just not been a dipshit and had iDrive backing everything up to the cloud for TWENTY YEARS ($50/year for 5 TB).

Don't be a moron. I won't be going forward.

[Chief_For_Life58]

doesnt everything just back up on the cloud if you use a microsoft laptop? automatically?

[BlackOp]

That's stupid and pointless though. You don't want to run your computer from your backup copy. I mean, you could absolutely make a bootable clone from a Time Machine backup. At that point it's not a backup copy though. You've now got duplicate images that don't sync.

You can take a Time Machine backup and clone it to an external drive if you want, and then boot from that. But your criticism doesn't make a lick of sense on its own.

Man...you just cant help yourself trying to make everything a personal attack.

Some of us dont want to wait an afternoon while we clone from TM...I will never have a down computer for more than 3 minutes due to drive issues.

I also wont be sending all my personal information to a 3rd party cloud vendor...people can trust them if they want but I dont like signing off on a corporation having a clone of my computer.

If Biden had my method...he wouldn't have had his computer compromised.

Also having a bootable external drive means I can run my computer set-up in different locations...

I havent run a Mac desktop from it's internal drive in 8 years...I use G-tech externals.

[Ebolapox]

Google drive bruh

[Fish]

Man...you just cant help yourself trying to make everything a personal attack.

Some of us dont want to wait an afternoon while we clone from TM...I will never have a down computer for more than 3 minutes due to drive issues.

I also wont be sending all my personal information to a 3rd party cloud vendor...people can trust them if they want but I dont like signing off on a corporation having a clone of my computer.

You are not actually doing a backup though. You're simply running your OS from an external drive. That's why your strategy doesn't make any sense. You can't do a Time Machine backup to an active boot drive. That's a fact.

Regardless, a 200GB Time Machine backup on SSD takes about 30-45 minutes to restore. I know because I've done hundreds of them on every different model of Mac available.

Also, the idea of 3rd party cloud vendors accessing your private data is laughably dumb. If you knew the first thing about how the encryption worked, you'd realize how silly you sound.

[Fish]

Google drive bruh

Yeah, Google Drive should also give you 10GB free, and you can configure Google Drive to do automated OS/select data backups as well.

https://fossbytes.com/backup-hard-drive-using-backup-and-sync-tool/

I'd still recommend getting an external like the one htis referenced above for local backups regardless....

[BlackOp]

You are not actually doing a backup though. You're simply running your OS from an external drive. That's why your strategy doesn't make any sense. You can't do a Time Machine backup to an active boot drive. That's a fact.

Regardless, a 200GB Time Machine backup on SSD takes about 30-45 minutes to restore. I know because I've done hundreds of them on every different model of Mac available.

Also, the idea of 3rd party cloud vendors accessing your private data is laughably dumb. If you knew the first thing about how the encryption worked, you'd realize how silly you sound.

Yeah...just like Mac programmed a back-door into their OS.

I have a 2 TB boot...so that makes your 30 minutes retrieval about 5 hours in my case. I back up every few weeks...unless I'm in the studio. That's why I said TM would be good to use in conjunction.

If your internal computer drive tanks...and you dont have a bootable OS external...youre shit out of luck. Many times the conflict could be resolved...

[Fish]

Yeah...just like Mac programmed a back-door into their OS.

I have a 2 TB boot...so that makes your 30 minutes retrieval about 5 hours in my case..

Back door into their OS? LMAO... OK, bud.

[Fish]

If your internal computer drive tanks...and you dont have a bootable OS external...your shit out of luck. Many times the conflict could be resolved...

No, you're completely wrong. But we're way off topic now, and this is the last I'm commenting on your goofy ass. Good day.

[BlackOp]

No, you're completely wrong. But we're way off topic now, and this is the last I'm commenting on your goofy ass. Good day.

Maybe I should rephrase...you're shit out of luck for the next few hours...and that's if your internal drive was just corrupted and hasn't failed.

[Fish]

Another option for comparison...

Box.com gives you 100GB of cloud storage for $5/month: https://www.box.com/pricing

They also offer Cloud backup of whatever data you want: https://www.box.com/cloud-backup

And also offer file versioning for an additional fee if you need that: https://support.box.com/hc/en-us/articles/360043697054-Accessing-Version-History

I have accounts with Dropbox, Box.com, OneDrive, and GoogleDrive. I probably use Box.com the most because I have an unlimited quota with them via work and can use that from any location or device. But their throughput is kinda lousy sometimes. Especially with large files. Dropbox is probably the best in terms of performance from all devices, but they are the most expensive for storage, and I only have a free account. GoogleDrive has crazy good performance for me, but mostly because I have Gigabit GoogleFiber at home. Which includes a free TB of online storage which is crazy fast for everthing, but only available to GoogleFiber customers. Without GF it wouldn't be worth the price. MS OneDrive is meh.

[BlackOp]

Another option for comparison...

Box.com gives you 100GB of cloud storage for $5/month: https://www.box.com/pricing

They also offer Cloud backup of whatever data you want: https://www.box.com/cloud-backup

And also offer file versioning for an additional fee if you need that: https://support.box.com/hc/en-us/articles/360043697054-Accessing-Version-History

I have accounts with Dropbox, Box.com, OneDrive, and GoogleDrive. I probably use Box.com the most because I have an unlimited quota with them via work and can use that from any location or device. But their throughput is kinda lousy sometimes. Especially with large files. Dropbox is probably the best in terms of performance from all devices, but they are the most expensive for storage, and I only have a free account. GoogleDrive has crazy good performance for me, but mostly because I have Gigabit GoogleFiber at home. Which includes a free TB of online storage which is crazy fast for everthing, but only available to GoogleFiber customers. Without GF it wouldn't be worth the price. MS OneDrive is meh.

Always remember...nothing is free.

[ChiefsFanatic]

I don't know if anyone said this yet, but redundancy, redundancy, redundancy.

Sent from my GM1915 using Tapatalk

[cooper barrett]

Has anyone insulted/er, consulted Clay on this. He spoke of reclaiming data off a customer's HDD

[BlackOp]

Has anyone insulted/er, consulted Clay on this. He spoke of reclaiming data off a customer's HDD

That's another benefit of having a bootable external...you can use it to wipe your internal drive in case of it needing repairs.

At this point you can get a Seagate portable for $50 bucks..and a Carbon Cloner trial is free...duplicate your drive and put it on the shelf...set a calendar alert to update.

[L.A. Chieffan]

What do you guys need all that crap for? 20 years? WTH

[MeaTy The Pimp]

I hate to disagree but flash drives are bulletproof. External hard drives are NOT.
They can't take any punishment at all. I dropped this one 6" and its done????
I know my job requires alot of moving around from computer to computer but Never again.


And flash drives are crazy cheap, so you can just keep multiple copies.

I have a quick local copy that I keep on hand here at the house and a copy that I keep in my Credit Union safety deposit box (mine is Free for having an account with them(yours may differ)) with some papers that I don't have digital copies of. (Original copy of my Will, DNR, etc...)

Monthly, when I update my local copy of my flash drive, I take it to the credit union and swap it with the one in the safety deposit box.

[htismaqe]

And flash drives are crazy cheap, so you can just keep multiple copies.

I have a quick local copy that I keep on hand here at the house and a copy that I keep in my Credit Union safety deposit box (mine is Free for having an account with them(yours may differ)) with some papers that I don't have digital copies of. (Original copy of my Will, DNR, etc...)

Monthly, when I update my local copy of my flash drive, I take it to the credit union and swap it with the one in the safety deposit box.

External hard drives are actually cheaper than flash drives.

You can get a 4TB name-brand external HDD for $100.

A high-end 512GB USB3 flash drive will cost you $75 easy and it is:

1. not as fast as a HDD
2. not as reliable as a HDD
3. not as efficient as a HDD

For all of you using USB flash drives to backup important material - the USB connector is PHYSICALLY attached to the flash chip.

Simply inserting it into a USB port can break the drive and destroy your data forever.

I'm not trying to be a dick but I simply cannot stress enough not to use USB flash drives for backup. They're for convenience and portability but I've seen too many people burned using USB flash drives. USB flash drives always seem like a good idea until the first time you plug them in and they're not recognized because they broke.

[htismaqe]

What do you guys need all that crap for? 20 years? WTH

You don't have family pictures and movies that you want to keep forever?

You don't have documents that you might need to keep for many years, like resumes, wills, and other legal documents?

You should be keeping copies of any financial documents for 7 years.

[htismaqe]

I don't know if anyone said this yet, but redundancy, redundancy, redundancy.

Sent from my GM1915 using Tapatalk

Backup, image, archive. Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly.

It's the 3-2-1 strategy or whatever people want to call it.

[Saulbadguy]

Cloud is certainly the way to go.

[ChiefsFanatic]

Backup, image, archive. Daily, weekly, monthly, yearly.



It's the 3-2-1 strategy or whatever people want to call it.Last year my company lost 18 months worth of data, and I lost almost 90 days worth of reporting that had to be redone because it had not yet been sent to the clients for various reasons.

Why? Well, because 1, the connection between the server and the physical backup didn't get plugged back in after the server was moved when the offices were cleaned, and 2, because during a nightly cloud backup, one file was somehow corrupted, and the cloud server rejected every backup file, every night for 18 months, and that rejection NEVER triggered a warning dialog box or an error report.

So, now we have a direct backup from the server nightly, just like before, and that physical backup uses different software that generates a report at the end of every single backup. And then we have a secondary physical backup that creates the backup on two separate swappable drives, that are each taken home by the owners every night. We have 4 swappable drives in total, so there is always two drives in the backup at all times. The dual backups are for redundancy, and they are taken home by separate mangers to prevent data loss in case of a fire at the office, or some other disaster at the office or damage to one of the drives the owners take home.

And to top it off, we still have an off site cloud backup each night, with the same report generated at the end of each backup.

In my industry, data loss is an absolute no-no. We are required to keep 7 years of reporting, but because there is nothing in the requirements that state hard copies must kept, we started keeping just the initial data collection on hard copies, and the finished reports in digital format. We have saved a ton of paper, and storage space by keeping the reports in digital format.

And to just go back and explain how devastating the data loss was for my company, but especially for me, it had been 14 months since the server crash, and I am just now only 2 months behind, instead of the initial 3 months behind.

TL;DR - Server crashed, data was lost. Now we have 4 separate backups each night.

Sent from my GM1915 using Tapatalk

[htismaqe]

Last year my company lost 18 months worth of data, and I lost almost 90 days worth of reporting that had to be redone because it had not yet been sent to the clients for various reasons.

Why? Well, because 1, the connection between the server and the physical backup didn't get plugged back in after the server was moved when the offices were cleaned, and 2, because during a nightly cloud backup, one file was somehow corrupted, and the cloud server rejected every backup file, every night for 18 months, and that rejection NEVER triggered a warning dialog box or an error report.

So, now we have a direct backup from the server nightly, just like before, and that physical backup uses different software that generates a report at the end of every single backup. And then we have a secondary physical backup that creates the backup on two separate swappable drives, that are each taken home by the owners every night. We have 4 swappable drives in total, so there is always two drives in the backup at all times. The dual backups are for redundancy, and they are taken home by separate mangers to prevent data loss in case of a fire at the office, or some other disaster at the office or damage to one of the drives the owners take home.

And to top it off, we still have an off site cloud backup each night, with the same report generated at the end of each backup.

In my industry, data loss is an absolute no-no. We are required to keep 7 years of reporting, but because there is nothing in the requirements that state hard copies must kept, we started keeping just the initial data collection on hard copies, and the finished reports in digital format. We have saved a ton of paper, and storage space by keeping the reports in digital format.

And to just go back and explain how devastating the data loss was for my company, but especially for me, it had been 14 months since the server crash, and I am just now only 2 months behind, instead of the initial 3 months behind.

TL;DR - Server crashed, data was lost. Now we have 4 separate backups each night.

Sent from my GM1915 using Tapatalk

:eek:

I have so many horror stories from work. Just so you know, I work in IT operations now (used to be an engineer and then an architect).

In EVERY industry, data loss is a no-no. The amount of data-related regulations is staggering. Data retention and backup is not only a requirement, it's a separate practice in most companies now. It's simply too important.

[Saulbadguy]

:eek:

I have so many horror stories from work. Just so you know, I work in IT operations now (used to be an engineer and then an architect).

In EVERY industry, data loss is a no-no. The amount of data-related regulations is staggering. Data retention and backup is not only a requirement, it's a separate practice in most companies now. It's simply too important.

Yeah, that is why the must junior of the IT guys is always assigned to the role of "backup bitch"

;)

[RedRaider56]

I have/had redundant external drives hooked to my PC to back everything up to and damn glad I do. One is a 1TB, the second is a 2TB

About a month ago, the hard disk in my desktop gave up the ghost, but it didn't bother me at all as all of my photos etc are backed up on the 2 external disks. I probably paid $300 total for the two of them.

[Mr. Plow]

What are the best recommendations for cloud backup?

[ChiefsFanatic]

:eek:



I have so many horror stories from work. Just so you know, I work in IT operations now (used to be an engineer and then an architect).



In EVERY industry, data loss is a no-no. The amount of data-related regulations is staggering. Data retention and backup is not only a requirement, it's a separate practice in most companies now. It's simply too important.Yeah, I know that data loss is a no-no in most industries. We can be audited by more than one government agency at any time, and our clients can initiate an audit at any time. Thankfully, we have only undergone one audit in the last 5 years.

We have actually been thinking about creating a new company that focuses just on data and file management & storage. It's not uncommon for us to receive around 100 requests a month for archived reports, because our clients had turnover and none of the new people know where their reports are, or they themselves experienced huge data loss.

We work with drug manufacturers, hospitals, laboratories, and compounding pharmacies that mostly make chemotherapy drugs. It's mind-boggling how many doctors, pharmacists, and chemicals engineers that are just terrible at simple administrative tasks like filing and storing documents properly.

My ex-wife works at a big architecture company, and they offer computer aided facility management for large companies, using CAD. She had a client that had several hundred employees, and they were spread out over something like 14 floors, along with a shit-ton of computers, monitors, printers, etc. So, when the company wants to know which floor and which desk John Smith works at/on, they call her. If they want to know how many extra monitors they have, they call her. When employees or equipment gets moved, they generate a report and send the changes to her, and she updates the CAD file.

And her company makes a lot of money for that service.

Sent from my GM1915 using Tapatalk

[htismaqe]

Yeah, I know that data loss is a no-no in most industries. We can be audited by more than one government agency at any time, and our clients can initiate an audit at any time. Thankfully, we have only undergone one audit in the last 5 years.

We have actually been thinking about creating a new company that focuses just on data and file management & storage. It's not uncommon for us to receive around 100 requests a month for archived reports, because our clients had turnover and none of the new people know where their reports are, or they themselves experienced huge data loss.

We work with drug manufacturers, hospitals, laboratories, and compounding pharmacies that mostly make chemotherapy drugs. It's mind-boggling how many doctors, pharmacists, and chemicals engineers that are just terrible at simple administrative tasks like filing and storing documents properly.

My ex-wife works at a big architecture company, and they offer computer aided facility management for large companies, using CAD. She had a client that had several hundred employees, and they were spread out over something like 14 floors, along with a shit-ton of computers, monitors, printers, etc. So, when the company wants to know which floor and which desk John Smith works at/on, they call her. If they want to know how many extra monitors they have, they call her. When employees or equipment gets moved, they generate a report and send the changes to her, and she updates the CAD file.

And her company makes a lot of money for that service.

Sent from my GM1915 using Tapatalk

It's a new age in computing/IT.

You won't find many industries that aren't only storing massive amounts of data but using that data to make business decisions. Data science and analysis is HUGE business, one of the foundational disciplines in IT today.

[Buehler445]

What are the best recommendations for cloud backup?

There are some recs in here. I pay for Office 365 for my business. It comes with 1TB Onedrive.

[htismaqe]

What are the best recommendations for cloud backup?

I personally like Backblaze but I would just do some internet research and see what works for you.

[Al Bundy]

External hard drives are actually cheaper than flash drives.

You can get a 4TB name-brand external HDD for $100.

A high-end 512GB USB3 flash drive will cost you $75 easy and it is:

1. not as fast as a HDD
2. not as reliable as a HDD
3. not as efficient as a HDD

For all of you using USB flash drives to backup important material - the USB connector is PHYSICALLY attached to the flash chip.

Simply inserting it into a USB port can break the drive and destroy your data forever.

I'm not trying to be a dick but I simply cannot stress enough not to use USB flash drives for backup. They're for convenience and portability but I've seen too many people burned using USB flash drives. USB flash drives always seem like a good idea until the first time you plug them in and they're not recognized because they broke.

I had a flashdrive break on me, luckily I had all that info on other flashdrives, but thank you for posting those links from amazon. Which one do you think I should order between the LaCie or ADATA?

[ModSocks]

There are some recs in here. I pay for Office 365 for my business. It comes with 1TB Onedrive.

That's what we use here too. Im still a little old school in that my mind just wants to save everything to the HD so im still adjusting to saving to the cloud.

We're starting up a motorcycle centric side business and i'm currently building a Shopify store for it and the cloud based stuff has been really convenient. What use to involve transferring of files via USB looks more like this now:

Go to shop, take picture with cell phone

Upload pictures directly to cloud via app

Go back to office, open cloud, edit pictures in Adobe and save to adobe cloud

Go home, open Adobe Cloud and finish edits. Save to Adobe Cloud, save to OneDrive Cloud.

Gone are the days of plugging your phone in, drag and drop pictures, save work to USB stick, forget USB stick at work/home :facepalm:

[htismaqe]

That's what we use here too. Im still a little old school in that my mind just wants to save everything to the HD so im still adjusting to saving to the cloud.

We're starting up a motorcycle centric side business and i'm currently building a Shopify store for it and the cloud based stuff has been really convenient. What use to involve transferring of files via USB looks more like this now:

Go to shop, take picture with cell phone

Upload pictures directly to cloud via app

Go back to office, open cloud, edit pictures in Adobe and save to adobe cloud

Go home, open Adobe Cloud and finish edits. Save to Adobe Cloud, save to OneDrive Cloud.

Gone are the days of plugging your phone in, drag and drop pictures, save work to USB stick, forget USB stick at work/home :facepalm:

OneDrive you should be able to map as a folder/drive within Windows so you can use it just like a location on your local hard drive.

If you're dealing with pictures, that's the best part of cloud, especially if all your devices are on the same cloud ecosystem. There's no "moving" to it, they're just there.

[htismaqe]

I had a flashdrive break on me, luckily I had all that info on other flashdrives, but thank you for posting those links from amazon. Which one do you think I should order between the LaCie or ADATA?

Personally, I would go with the Lacie because that's my personal preference.

However, looking at the reviews and the cost, I would tell YOU to go ADATA.

[ModSocks]

OneDrive you should be able to map as a folder/drive within Windows so you can use it just like a location on your local hard drive.

If you're dealing with pictures, that's the best part of cloud, especially if all your devices are on the same cloud ecosystem. There's no "moving" to it, they're just there.

It is, that's how i use it.

But i have this habit of opening the file folders in my HD and saving there (as ive been doing for years) instead of opening/saving the SAME EXACT files i transferred over to the OneDrive.

I need to get into the habit of using the OneDrive folder every time.

[Al Bundy]

Personally, I would go with the Lacie because that's my personal preference.

However, looking at the reviews and the cost, I would tell YOU to go ADATA.

I just ordered the ADATA, thank you.

[Demonpenz]

You can't be as dumb as me. When I worked at a photo shop some kids gave me a USB to make pictures of their recently deceased grandma. I took the usb stick and threw it in the river. Fuck kids

[DaFace]

It's really only for backing up or sharing files.

It doesn't do version updating/history or anything that a true backup solution does.

Not QUITE true. It does 30-day versioning and up to a year if you pay extra for it. The problem is that if you delete something and don't realize it for 30 days (or a year), you're screwed.

I do a hybrid. I use Dropbox for day-to-day stuff and then just manually back it all up to a different drive once in a while.

[Shiver Me Timbers]

:mad::mad: I just lost all of my computer data dating back 20 years. Long story short I had it BACKED UP on a 2tb portable hard drive which I dropped. It's trashed. 2 different sysops looked at it. I can send it to the company and pray but that bill starts at $1000.00 They took it apart and its running but the arm is scratching back and forth across the disk. No light comes on and it is not recognized by any computer I plug it into. 20 years of taxes, personal files, small business files and lesson plans and lessons from my 30 years of teaching welding - gone.:mad::mad:

Truthfully I had it backed up on my computer c drive which had to be re-imaged.
My though was, it gets re-imaged, I copy everything back, now I still have two copies. :deevee:BAM god punished me.:deevee::deevee:

Don't be me, back that stuff up twice. I would do it on "the cloud" but know little about it. Mr. Wizard is wrong again!

PS is the cloud a good idea for an old dog like me?

Wizard thanks for the post. I just checked my back up settings and found it was only backing up once a week. Changed it to 11 pm every day.
Sorry for your "loss" but you might have helped me save some bacon

[htismaqe]

Not QUITE true. It does 30-day versioning and up to a year if you pay extra for it. The problem is that if you delete something and don't realize it for 30 days (or a year), you're screwed.

I do a hybrid. I use Dropbox for day-to-day stuff and then just manually back it all up to a different drive once in a while.

It's not part of the base package. I would strongly recommend anybody that wants to use DropBox frequently go ahead and pay for it. So many extra features and so much more storage.

The free service would be a lot more useful if it weren't so limited. In a way, that's Apple's problem - I use iCloud to sync/save my contacts and stuff but I have to backup my own photos because I have well over 50GB of pics and movies and don't want to pay extra when I could spend that money on an actual cloud backup service like Backblaze.

[DaFace]

It's not part of the base package. I would strongly recommend anybody that wants to use DropBox frequently go ahead and pay for it. So many extra features and so much more storage.

The free service would be a lot more useful if it weren't so limited. In a way, that's Apple's problem - I use iCloud to sync/save my contacts and stuff but I have to backup my own photos because I have well over 50GB of pics and movies and don't want to pay extra when I could spend that money on an actual cloud backup service like Backblaze.

Not sure what you mean. The 30-day versioning is included in all Dropbox accounts (even free ones).

[htismaqe]

Not sure what you mean. The 30-day versioning is included in all Dropbox accounts (even free ones).

Interesting. Been a while since I've used DB.

[scho63]

I have a Samsung solid state plug in extra HARD DRIVE of 2TB.

Cost me $179 on sale a few years ago. Showing $249 on Samsung but you can get it cheaper.

Best investment you can make and takes 1 minute to back up everything.

LINK TO WEBSITE (https://www.samsung.com/us/computing/memory-storage/solid-state-drives/ssd-860-evo-2-5--sata-iii-2tb-mz-76e2t0b-am/?cid=pla-ecomm-pfs-mms-us-google-na-02122020-169921-&ds_e=GOOGLE-cr:0-pl:267548417-&ds_c=FF~%5BCE_Memory%5D+_CN~memory_PH~on_MK~us_BS~ec_PR~memcross_SB~msmul_PK~roas_FS~loe_CA~pla_MD~h _KS~ba_MT~na-&ds_ag=AG_%5BMemory%5D+SSD_MK~us_AT~sa_MD~h_PB~goss_AI~no-&ds_k=PRODUCT_GROUP&gclid=Cj0KCQjwreT8BRDTARIsAJLI0KKVooF4ApflvrOiN22_co3q-V1XaQANL6Hf95sVGZnG4dw5SvQ815IaAv4GEALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds)

[BigRedChief]

Last year my company lost 18 months worth of dataI've restored the data of 6 fortune 50 companies that got ransomwared. All lost serious amounts of data. Not a single one have announced a damn thing about it publicly.

[scho63]

I've restored the data of 6 fortune 50 companies that got ransomwared. All lost serious amounts of data. Not a single one have announced a damn thing about it publicly.

Sounds like you got some good inside information for trading stocks or black mailing them!!! ROFL

[ChiefsFanatic]

I've restored the data of 6 fortune 50 companies that got ransomwared. All lost serious amounts of data. Not a single one have announced a damn thing about it publicly.I honestly thought most companies just paid the ransom.

This isn't exactly the same thing, but I used manage a Best Buy up north. One early Monday morning I got a call at home from the regional manager. He said I needed to send x amount of computers, televisions, video games, etc. to the store at 40 and Noland.

This is when it was tucked back away, and and not really close to Noland road. Every store in the 32 store region had to send product to that Independence store.

Sunday night the store closed early like always, and when it was dark, I guess a couple of 18 wheelers rolled up to the back dock, and someone with knowledge of the alarm disabled it, and the stole every high dollar item in the store. They had to have had 40-50 people somehow, because the store was wiped out. They even used the heavy equipment to steal all the washers and Dryers that were stored in racks around the outer wall of the store.

All 32 stores in our region restocked that store, and Best Buy never said a word about it publicly. They obviously reported it, but they did d everything they could to make sure no one found out what happened, because they were afraid if would spawn a lot of similar attempts around the country.

Sent from my GM1915 using Tapatalk

[BigRedChief]

Sounds like you got some good inside information for trading stocks or black mailing them!!! ROFLThe NDA had something in there about stocks. Can’t disclose for 75 years. Did it for about a year. You had to sign before you even knew who the company was. Now I have a gap in my resume that’s on the resume but can’t provide references. But, I’ve done that work for decades so it doesn’t really matter about 1 year.

I interviewed for a contract with a company a couple of months ago. They said yeah, I can’t understand why some companies don’t take security more seriously. One of those companies I helped restore was his ****ing company and he’s a VP and didn’t even know. These huge conglomerates are damn good at keeping secrets.

[BigRedChief]

I honestly thought most companies just paid the ransom.not the big boys. Unless they dont have a good and current off network and off site backup. They’ll just do a restore. It’s cheaper and safer.

[eDave]

I got cloud stuff going on and I email all important files to myself.

[htismaqe]

I've restored the data of 6 fortune 50 companies that got ransomwared. All lost serious amounts of data. Not a single one have announced a damn thing about it publicly.

Unless it's required by law (like customer personal information was compromised) most companies don't disclose.

All it does is freak out shareholders and drive stock prices down. ;)

[BigRedChief]

Unless it's required by law (like customer personal information was compromised) most companies don't disclose.

All it does is freak out shareholders and drive stock prices down. ;)yep. As far as I know, no customers info was lost at any of the jobs. So they don’t have to report it. Which is exactly the reason the ransomware gangs chose that part of their operation. It’s handled on the down low and no publicity.

Why take the stock hit? I’d bet real money that 75% of the top fortune 50 companies have had this happen to them.

[htismaqe]

yep. As far as I know, no customers info was lost at any of the jobs. So they don’t have to report it. Why take the stock hit? I’d bet real money that 75% of the top fortune 50 companies have had this happen to them.

All I can say is that you're pretty much correct. ;)

[Hammock Parties]

What do you guys need all that crap for? 20 years? WTH

I'd rather not lose my entire music collection...

[Lzen]

Mods, perhaps a name change is in order?

Mr. ID10T

[Hammock Parties]

7 bucks for the first year for a 5 TB cloud backup.

https://www.idrive.com/

Renews at standard rate.

My Google Fiber pipe is flowing right now!

[GloryDayz]

Don't worry, the NSA, Russia, and the Chinese have all your data.

[htismaqe]

7 bucks for the first year for a 5 TB cloud backup.

https://www.idrive.com/

Renews at standard rate.

My Google Fiber pipe is flowing right now!

iDrive is pretty good. They have a couple of drawbacks that the average user might not consider.

1. Storage is a little more expensive, no unlimited option.
2. No de-dupe so be sure you're not duplicating files.
3. When you hit your data cap, it doesn't stop. It backs up everything and then you get a bill.
4. You have to setup 2-factor and your personal encryption, it doesn't default to it.