It's World Backup Day

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Posted by timothy on Thursday March 31, 2011 @09:21AM from the before-things-get-wonky dept.

1sockchuck writes "Today is World Backup Day, an occasion to back up your personal data and financial information and check your restores. For those needing motivation — a group that apparently includes 15 percent of data centers — the Slashdot archives bear witness to date disasters at providers small (Ma.gnolia) and large (Microsoft). The World Backup Day initiative grew out of a thread at Reddit, and invites online backup services to observe the occasion by offering discounts."

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Good for the next disaster. by nitehawk214 · 2011-03-31 09:22 · Score: 5, Funny

We can just restore the world from the backup.

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I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
1. Re:Good for the next disaster. by Nerdfest · 2011-03-31 09:29 · Score: 2
  
  ... and lose all my work since?
2. Re:Good for the next disaster. by mindwhip · 2011-03-31 10:36 · Score: 2
  
  Stop squirming and die like an adult, or I'm going to delete your backup stop! Okay, enough, I deleted it. No matter what happens now, you're dead. You're still shuffling around a little, but believe me, you're dead.
  
  --
  [The Universe] has gone offline.
So we all backup over the people we hit today? by line-bundle · 2011-03-31 09:23 · Score: 3, Funny

To make sure the tire treads really stick?
Also! by Hatta · 2011-03-31 09:25 · Score: 4, Informative

It's also National Cleavage Day. How are you celebrating?

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Give me Classic Slashdot or give me death!
1. Re:Also! by snspdaarf · 2011-03-31 09:46 · Score: 2
  
  It's also National Cleavage Day. How are you celebrating?
  With a standing ovation!
  
  --
  Why, without your clothes, you're naked, Miss Dudley!
2. Re:Also! by blair1q · 2011-03-31 10:17 · Score: 2
  
  By pulling the back of my pants down a little more.
Security risk by Anonymous Coward · 2011-03-31 09:25 · Score: 2, Funny

Security risk blocked for your protection
Reason:
This Websense category is filtered: Potentially Damaging Content. Sites in this category may pose a security threat to network resources or private information, and are blocked by your organization.
URL:
http://www.worldbackupday.net/
Right sentiment, wrong execution by nlawalker · 2011-03-31 09:26 · Score: 2

Today shouldn't be a day to back up your data, it should be a day to set up automated backups. This is where people need education - even laypeople understand the concept of a backup copy of something, they just don't know about modern tools that can be set up to do it for you automatically.
There's no excuse anymore to not have an automated backup system in place.
Re:No, I have not read the story... by MozeeToby · 2011-03-31 09:36 · Score: 2

You obviously don't maintain a computer for your mom, dad, grandma, crazy aunt Judy, annoying cousin Steve, next door neighbor Bob, and clueless manager boss. If you did you'd realize that just because the interest is self serving doesn't mean that doesn't serve others too.
Every day should be world backup day by PolygamousRanchKid+ · 2011-03-31 09:39 · Score: 3, Insightful

I constantly get calls from folks I don't know like this:
Them: "Hi, you don't know me, but I'm a friend of your milkman's, newspaper boy's, dogsitter . . . they all told me that you are, like real smart with computers. Mine won't start . . . it seems to start, but then the disk screams, and nothing happens.
Me: "Ok, when did you make your last backup?"
Them: "What's a backup?"
Me: "Ok, do you know your administrator password?"
Them: "There is no one here named administrator."
The sad fact, is that I cave in, and go over to help them out.

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Schroedinger's Brexit: The UK is both in and out of the EU at the same time!
1. Re:Every day should be world backup day by Midnight+Thunder · 2011-03-31 10:04 · Score: 2
  
  Next time, offer to do it in exchange for breakfast. :)
  
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  Jumpstart the tartan drive.
2. Re:Every day should be world backup day by syousef · 2011-03-31 10:34 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  If you don't know them, you should be charging an hourly rate, even if it is a token one. If you don't need/want the work, or responsibility that goes with accepting money, or can't due to other employment arrangements, just plain refuse.
  
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  These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
3. Re:Every day should be world backup day by syousef · 2011-03-31 17:07 · Score: 2
  
  I think Anonymous Coward needs to be replaced with Anonymous patronising idiot.
  It's really this simple. If you want to contribute, contribute to those less fortunate. Not every random cheapskate that decides to phone you up from out of nowhere or because you have nothing better to do with your life and need to do work for random strangers for validation.
  
  --
  These posts express my own personal views, not those of my employer
4. Re:Every day should be world backup day by Osty · 2011-03-31 18:26 · Score: 2
  
  Them: "Hi, you don't know me, but I'm a friend of your milkman's, newspaper boy's, dogsitter . . . they all told me that you are, like real smart with computers. Mine won't start . . . it seems to start, but then the disk screams, and nothing happens
  You're doing it wrong. Right there, you should've hung up the phone. You can tell them they got the wrong number if you like, but fuck that. Personally, I'd tell them to go fuck themselves before hanging up the phone, so just hanging up is civil in my book.
  These are people who would never dream of asking a mechanic to fix their car for free or a plumber to fix their pipes for free, so why is it okay for them to ask you to fix their computers for free? And if you're like me, you're not actually in the computer repair business, so I wouldn't even accept money for it. But then I learned from a very young age that you have to be able to say "No" and mean it, or you'll just get walked on by people like this. I weaned my family off of using me for tech support over 15 years ago, I'm sure as hell not going to do it for a complete stranger.
  Grow a pair and stop being a doormat.
My company already has a backup day, by TejWC · 2011-03-31 09:41 · Score: 5, Insightful

its called "Friday".
I would think that by geekoid · 2011-03-31 09:48 · Score: 2

Groundhog day would be a better(or funnier) day for Backup day.
G

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The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect
Date disasters by randizzle3000 · 2011-03-31 09:54 · Score: 3, Funny

"the Slashdot archives bear witness to date disasters"
Of course the they do. This is slashdot.
Re:bearing witness by morgaen · 2011-03-31 10:07 · Score: 2

Isn't that why they now have the dupe system in place?
Product review by subreality · 2011-03-31 11:29 · Score: 2

I'm a satisfied Crashplan user. I subscribe to the Crashplan Central service (They're calling it Crashplan+ Family Unlimited now), which means I get unlimited (Which appears to be *actually* unlimited, not Comcast-unlimited) backups to their disk farm in a bank vault in Minnesota. I get to back up all my computers - laptops, desktops, and even my personal VPS - all automatically, with staged version retention, and no hassles of running out of disk or other typical backups shenanigans. Totally does what it says.
I picked it because it: has unlimited seats so I can back up all my computers; it works on Linux, OSX, and Windows; and it has several security models, including "manually generate and install encryption keys on a per-machine basis, and make damn sure you back them up somewhere safe because we only have your encrypted data", which I use because it's compatible with my tinfoil hat.
One complaint: On my VPS, it creates some sort of cache that gradually grows to gigs in size. I suspect it's due to indexing the very large number of files that maildirs create. If it runs out of disk, the process starts consuming 100% CPU. Lame. So I have a cron job that shuts it down, blows away the cache, and restarts it periodically.
On the whole: Completely worth 600 pennies a month.
Review 2: My previous solution was BackupPC. I arrived at it after using similar but less refined backups like rsnapshot and dirvish. BackupPC was the best - you just have to throw lots of disk at it, and it does what it promises. If you can do cross-site backups, it's pretty damn good. The downsides were that you have to plan ahead to have enough disk, and the disk IO during backups was unexpectedly high.
I still occasionally make a manual copy of everything and leave it in a safe deposit box. Defense in Depth is a good thing.
Linus Torvalds said by inode_buddha · 2011-03-31 11:36 · Score: 2

Linus Torvalds said "Real men don't make backups, they just upload it to some FTP site and let everyone else mirror it"

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C|N>K
Date disaster by AkkarAnadyr · 2011-03-31 11:45 · Score: 2

I'm spending it sulking over a glass of good Scotch, contemplating that date so many years ago - why did I mention her cleavage just then?...

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I bought this house and you know I'm boss
Ain't no h'aint gonna run me off
Backup vs Archive by joeyadams · 2011-03-31 13:00 · Score: 2

I've said it once, and I'll say it again: the fundamental theorem of backups is:
Backups != Archives
When you create a backup (as opposed to an archive), do not rely on the backup to hold files you don't currently need. If you do, you'll amass several "backups" that you can't get rid of because they contain files you might need. Instead, put files you're tired of looking at in an *archive*.
This definition of "backup" implies that it is almost completely safe to destroy an old backup to make room for a new one. Or, better yet:
(cd "$HOME"; rsync -av --exclude-from="$HOME/list-of-huge-files" "$HOME" "/media/backup-disk/homedir")
All wrong by mysidia · 2011-03-31 13:09 · Score: 2

"Today is World Backup Day, an occasion to back up your PORN and check on your significant other (for the first time in six months) [while you wait all day for the backup to finish].
There, fixed it for you.
Leafycaust! by sp1nl0ck · 2011-03-31 13:49 · Score: 3, Interesting

A cautionary tale from Ars Technica. It's a long thread, but the "fun" begins about 2/3 of the way through (page 60-something, IIRC).

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War is God's way of teaching Americans geography
april fool's by bruthasj · 2011-03-31 14:37 · Score: 2

Convenient. Day before the pranksters come out. Wonder what cmdrtaco has prepared.
Re:Let's see...backups... by Remloc · 2011-03-31 15:37 · Score: 2

When I was sysadmin/programming manager/lead programmer for a mid-sized company in Glendale (suburb of L,A,), I implemented a backup plan with 3 level incrementals and multiple media. I even went in on Sundays to do the weekly full, non-incremental backup. Then, the Northridge quake happened and every disk in house survived without a hickup. What a waste!