Randy Cassingham's Blog

Posted by Scott, Florida on May 12, 2009:

I have been using an external hard drive, backing up to it weekly, since an unfortunate incident several years ago when I reformatted my hard drive in my laptop.

Several months ago, the hard drive in my laptop crashed. I was not worried, as I had everything recently backed up, including papers for my Masters program. When I got my laptop back, I plugged in the external hard drive. The power came on, and then nothing.

There was a failure in the external hard drive as well, and I did not have $1500 extra to try to retrieve the data!

Posted by Kelly, Pensylvania on May 12, 2009:

I bought backup software a few years ago after my Mac HD crashed (nasty sound, that) and a Passport external drive with more than enough storage. The first time that I needed it, however, the restore function didn't work. In reading the fine print of the DOC I found a disclaimer that stated in effect, "may not always work", in which case they were not liable! So while I do backup regularly I have no illusions that it will protect me absolutely. I no longer use that program though.

Posted by Bo, Indianapolis IN on May 12, 2009:

As an accountant, I have a great deal of confidential information on my computer that I wouldn't want to re-build -- probably couldn't! I use a remote backup service (Mozy, in my case) which safely stores my data in their computers. Thus, no natural or unnatural disaster here will affect my data there! I also do a local backup (Genie) to an external hard drive here at home. When my computer died a few months ago, it made it so much easier to restore all my stuff to the new computer! I like the security of two different methods, neither of which require anything from me, as they run automatically every night.

Posted by James in BC on May 12, 2009:

I have run a computer repair shop for 11 years. Every day I see people who refuse to back up their files. They just can't seem to "get a round tuit". I've also seen the anguish of people who've lost all their stuff, and the joy of those I've been able to retrieve. This is what I know for sure.

Eventually something WILL happen to your computer to jeopardise your data.

Ninety percent of the time a "crashed hard drive" is just Windows not booting. Your data is still there and intact. Booting to a CD like Selkie Rescue will give you access to your files.

Flash memory keys are not reliable backup devices. They are fragile. So are external hard drives. Writable DVD's are the safest backup devices.

You only need to back up your data. Operating System and applications are already backed up on their own CD's. Downloaded applications should be copied to CD.

Backup every day you create new content. Period.

Posted by Thor, Atlanta on May 12, 2009:

Whoever uses NAS drives: What speed do you get out of them?

I've got GigE, but even then, backing up movies (10GB for 2 church services) gets quite a bit longwinded.

Which leads me to another question: Right now I keep everything (hey, I have space), but after "producing" the service, the space drops down to 2GB. How much value do you all place on "before" pieces of work? I don't see myself remastering it, but...?

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My backups are in the background, so I don't know -- or care -- how long it takes. A daily incremental backup only takes a minute or two. -rc

Posted by rafael, spain on May 12, 2009:

Short and to the point: welcome to hard disk hell. I use external ones in tandem (two of them) because I already had TWO crash. The really, really important ones (no porn there) goes DVD. If my house burns, losing them will be my least important problem...and a good alibi!

Posted by Ruth, Kent on May 12, 2009:

I lost my hard drive last year due to an unknown fault (it was completely dead, though). In trying to retrieve data from my backup drive, the data became inaccessible. I was still able to mount the volume from the backup drive and retrieve my data despite it showing as "unformatted". Once I'd got everything copied, I had to reformat the backup drive and set it up again, but I had no problem with reinstalling and retrieving anything. I would much rather spend a day reinstalling all my programs and data than weeks afterwards kicking myself for not backing up something.

I save all installers to my desktop and my desktop is backed up to the external hard drive - so if my hard drive gets fried (as happened), I can reinstall all my programs without needing to go and get all the disks or hunt around on the Internet for them. I save all my downloaded program keys online.

Ideally I want a backup offsite for my music and pictures and a few other odd files but I don't want them to be accessible to anyone else (including people working for backup companies), which is preventing me from backing up online.

I used to use Memeo AutoBackup. Until I figured out that it was only backing up 1 in 3 of the files in my picture folders and missing some folders entirely. Despite liaising with Memeo support, who told me to basically reset everything (didn't work), force the backups to run (didn't work) and reinstall Memeo (didn't work), Memeo refused to back up all the files. Then we had a power cut and I lost one file I'd created the previous evening that just vanished. The power cut happened early on in the day and Memeo hadn't backed up the file, so it disappeared. Luckily, my double backup system meant I'd backed it up on my flash drive the previous day and I didn't lose it completely. Needless to say, I asked for a refund after that.

Posted by Greg (Chicago) on May 13, 2009:

I, being a paranoid sort of fellow, also rely on multiple backups. However, my company is small, although in the 10 years I've been working, I have never lost anything due to HD failure. Came close when the PC was getting out of date, but the wonderful company that built my Frankenstein computer, High Performance Computers in Evanston, transferred all my old data to my new PC. So, I tend to have a secondary HD just for business files (ok, I use it for more than JUST business, but it's primarily business and larger files, like moves and music videos).

The corporate stuff is backed routinely to CD (DVD now, since it's a few gigs), and it's either monthly or anytime I make a large change to the files. I also have a Flash drive and CD of my most frequently used files, which I also transfer a lot. I am looking into a portable HD, based on the recommendation of an IT person from the corporate world I know, and will soon be looking into multiple PCs and more types of backups as more money becomes available (damn recession!).

Fortunately, the bulk of my work is already on my website, so I could always retrieve it from there if needed, and the only "real" loss would be in the multiple stock images I have saved that took some time to research, but that is why I do multi-backups. At this point, RAID arrays and NAS boxes aren't cost-efficient for me, but once I get to that point that it becomes cost-effective, I would look into it.

During my time working for others (especially my last place of employment), I have learned that most people are dumb, and will freely lose stuff thinking that the "magic restore" will just re-create everything for them, so no need to worry about exercising caution or any of those silly precautions! That stuff is for losers! Just wave Dogbert's magic wand of technology and everything will be right with the world!

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The NAS I bought was only $200 for a full terabyte (less, if you don't need that much). That's pretty cheap! -rc

Posted by Gary in Ohio on May 13, 2009:

Several posters mentioned using Carbonite for online backups. That may very well meet your needs, but be sure to verify that it backs up everything you want to protect. When I tried it, it failed to back up certain tyoes of files. Carbonite support said that was by design, and the only way around it was to specify files by name. I found that unacceptable.

Someone else said, "You only need to back up your data. Operating System and applications are already backed up on their own CD's. Downloaded applications should be copied to CD." That's certainly true as far as the applications themselves go, but operating systems and applications are often heavily customized. If you don't back up those customizations as well, you'll probably find that it takes several days to get your system back the way you want it following a loss, even if you recover your data completely.

Posted by Matt - San Jose, CA on May 14, 2009:

Re: restoring after crash & 'bare metal' backup

When I used the term 'bare metal' backup, I mean I boot from a CD and do a backup that copies everything on the disk. (I use Acronis but there are many choices.)

When my laptop disk crashed, I bought another disk, put it in, and did a 'restore' - EVERYTHING was restored in one step - operating system, all applications, settings, customizations.

Then I followed up and restored the last couple days work on my critical files from the backups on Mozy (or Carbonite or whichever online service you choose to use).

That's much easier than reloading all your software one by one -- although you miss the chance for the 'spring cleaning' of getting rid of stuff you weren't using much anyway.