Slashdot Mirror
Coppola Loses All His Data
Colin Smith writes in with an object lesson in backup methodology — once you have backed everything up, take it somewhere else. "Film director Francis Ford Coppola has appealed for the return of his computer backup device following a robbery at his house in Argentina on Wednesday. He told Argentine broadcaster Todo Noticias he had lost 15 years' worth of data, including writing and photographs of his family."
Don't worry, mate, It will be backed up very solid quite soon :)
You will never lose it again. It will be as safe as it could be.
(Unless you'll decide to purchase it and keep it private, of course)
Why is this news? Someone somewhere didn't back up their data and the hdd was stolen. Happens a lot people, next thing you know we're going to be hearing about how Paris Hilton bought an iPhone and an iGasm.
"Some books contain the machinery required to create and sustain universes."-Tycho
Oops. Someone missed the 3rd step in the Tao of Backup : separation
That list again in full:
Backup all your data
Backup frequently
Take some backups off-site
Keep some old backups
Test your backups
Secure your backups
Perform integrity checking
And note that it's not necessary to purchase anything to achieve backup enlightenment.
My next sig will be ready soon, but subscribers can beat the rush
This still doesn't help in the event of catastrophe: fire, flood, etc. The backup has to go off-site. Some suggestions: parents' house, the office, a friend's.
I keep an up-to-date backup in my office, and drop a DVD or two in a drawer at my parents' every year or so.
Put a Vista sticker on it.
I can't believe this was tagged with haha. Why is it funny when non-techsavvy people lose all their valuable data? It's not funny. It's terrible. As techies, we should be educating & empowering people, not isolating them.
...which was a transistor wrapped up in a newspaper, along with a note that said, "Maxtor sleeps with the fishes".
When losing the sole copy of data, everyone always laughs and says you should have backed up. People, shut up please. That is a fair criticism to an IT or development professional, but not to an average computer user. While average users do know that data loss can occur and will often backup important files to a CD or DVD, there is no standard and easy way for users to backup ALL their important data, do it at regular intervals, test it, an distribute it geographically. Much of this process must be automated. Also, either the quality of media needs to go up, or specifically designed backup-grade hard drives and media need to be developed and released, because the current crop of equipment is pretty unreliable.
Are people expected to keep a second car around if their main one fails? Are people expected to perform regular scheduled maintenance on their cars themselves? No, because it is too complex and troublesome for the average users.
I've reviewed several backup applications and services, and none of them would pass the "mom" easy of use test. I believe there is a potential market for a robust comprehensive backup system...
LS
There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
I make video DVDs for friends sometimes. Usually there's a few hundred MB free space, so I stash a backup set -- my email, and other documents mostly -- in a data folder, ignored by players (though of course visible on a PC). I use encrypted RAR archives, their encryption is quite strong and uncracked as far as I know. Also of course on my own DVDs, the latter most likely useful in case of computer failure.
A safe would be a good investment, most are fire proof which is important too.
For a USB back-up unit, get one with a K-slot on it and bolt it to your desk or wall. It will prevent theft in a robbery, a cable lock (the kind with the hoop that bonds permanently is the way to go, stronger than a K-slot). Using a lock on your home system is especially important if you use a laptop, all laptops have a K-slot.
I love my old Powermac, it has a loop for a cable lock and when the loop is in use it prevents the case from being opened too. Some PC cases have that as well, rarely as fancy, but sufficient.
“Common sense is not so common.” — Voltaire
Slashdot story quality is often low; apparently Slasdot editors don't even Google the stories. This is the real story; it was an armed robbery: Coppola Says Robbery Cost Years of Data (AP). This poorly edited story has even more detail: Thieves Steal Francis Ford Coppola's Everything.
I suspect that there is more to the story than we know. I suspect that he is more worried about release of information than loss of information. The AP article says he had a backup copy of a screenplay on which he is working.
The moral of the story is: Have proprietary data? Use TrueCrypt. Supports Windows and Linux. As all encryption software must be, it is open source, very mature, and supports both Windows and Linux. Supports encrypted devices and encrypted folders, including hidden folders.
To encrypt a file, use the free open source Gnu Privacy Guard.
in a drawer at my parents'
Upstairs isn't usually considered an "offsite" backup.
Cwm, fjord-bank glyphs vext quiz
I haven't seen any comments about online backup solutions.
They're quite cheap (~ $50-$100 per year with unlimited storage) now and they make for the (almost) perfect off-site backup solution.
I've tried Mozy.com and Amazon S3.
While not technically a dedicated backup solution, Amazon is quite cost-effective for me and has amazing bandwidth -- I can upload or download through my 24/1.2 mbit connection at full speed 99% of the time. Yes, it's not very user-friendly at first, but after setting up JungleDisk (or your choice of WebDAV interface) and any backup application the first time, you just let the scheduler work its way through your data.
Mozy is cheap at $60/year/computer with unlimited storage, but I get modest connection speeds to their servers. Yet, their Windows client is extremely simple to set up. The Mac client (still a beta) is also good, although not ready for "production" work, yet. Linux is a no-go, though.
Of course it's always best to also keep a local device for quick backups/restores of large amounts of data, but the peace of mind and convenience afforded by online solutions... It's priceless to me...