Friendly reminder to backup ALL the things / more than one drive

[Jhelms]

Short story... It was about 18 years ago when I picked up a shiny new maxtor 32gb hard drive. I was rather PC noobish at that time and when I went to transfer my files to the new drive, the unthinkable happened and during the transfer, the maxtor failed critically which lost ALL photos I had of my son being born, family photos and such. Data could not be recovered and that portion of my life was just GONE.

Since that time, I have been rather obsessed with backups. Keeping multiple drives circulating and at different locations vowing to NEVER go through that again. However, the other night, even with 4 drives, I came darn close to it all again. It was the perfect storm of WTF and a reminder how fast it can all go south (human error and hardware failure). Details....
- I have a pair of 4TB WD reds on a raid 1 setup
- I circulate a 4TB red and a old trusty Samsung 204UI between the safe and backing up in dated folders from the raid 1

The skinny of how it all almost went south:
- During a backup, the 4tb red in circulation suddenly failed. Could not be detected / just gone like someone flipped off a light switch. No biggie, did an advanced replacement with WD. The new drive came in and they sent a 5TB in its place. For whatever reason I was having HELL getting this drive to format properly. During the late night madness, I somehow clicked on my raid 1 array and formatted it thinking it was the 5tb drive I was having issues with. Oh dear lordy - just a serious mistake.
- At this point, I was down to my samsung with all photos such... Our families entire history. I was in pure panic... If that drive failed, it would be an expensive venture into data recover and prayers... Murphy's law was telling me that trusty samsung would die during the transfer back to the raid 1. Thankfully it did not!

Long story short, I went from 4 drives down to 1 in a blink. Since this mess, I have added in one more drive to the emergency backup scheme and the samsung is kept at my office in an anti-static container.

You may laugh... 5 drives of redundancy... but If your whole life of photos / videos / family things or whatever is on just one or two hard drives... Seriously consider backing up in another location, more drives or however you want to do it. Trust me when I say - even data across 2+ drives can disappear faster than you can blink. If I had not kept that old samsung around as a just in case, things would have been real bad.

My minimum recommendation:
- 2 hard drives you circulate with all of your files from your primary PC. In the backup drives, add dated folders and backup all data in those individual folders. If the drives nears capacity, start to delete the oldest folders and keep things going. Always have 1 drive unplugged and stored in a safe location

A good setup that is still affordable:
- Use a raid 1 off your primary hard drive using the folder setup above combined with an auto-backup of critical folders to the raid 1
- Still use a minimum of 2 drives in rotation and backup via dated folders
- If you can afford it, keep a 5th drive off-site from your home in a safety deposit box or just locked at your office. Bring it home and backup quarterly

I know others have some pretty wild setups WAY beyond the above - feel free to share. Also, many may use cloud backup, however when you have several TB... Cloud backups are not quite for me.

 

[R-T-B]

I had a similar incident of a very important part of my life (in photographs) being lost. It's pretty harsh, actually it's harsh to the point that I won't really say more about it. Too painful.

 

[Frick]

It was not 18 years ago.

This stuff is partly why I upload all the pictures to Onedrive. I've never been a big fan of taking photos of everything anyway.

 

[blobster21]

For all it's worth, thanks for this bump.

 

[Jhelms]

It was not 18 years ago.

This stuff is partly why I upload all the pictures to Onedrive. I've never been a big fan of taking photos of everything anyway.

Was around 98-2000 so 16-18 ago Hell, I hope my actual memory is holding to that time-frame HA! Seems to be about as reliable as that maxtor back then.

 

[Toothless]

I was looking into getting a backup drive here soon and this helped my mind into the right place.

Speaking of which

 

[erocker]

I still have a lot of music when it was all free on Napster! I always have a backup though I've luckily never needed to use it.

 

[Sasqui]

Here:

Working storage: NAS Raid 1 (2x 2TB WD Blacks)
Backup 1: 1TB WD Black Desktop (Image of NAS files)
Backup 2: 1TB USB 3.0 Portable (Image of NAS files)
Backup 3: (partial, pics, documents and some music): 1TB 2.5" Laptop OS Drive that stays with me

That's after having mostly survived a crypto virus attack.

Have also investigated fireproof backup enclosures, but they're pricey

 

[Jhelms]

Here:

Working storage: NAS Raid 1 (2x 2TB WD Blacks)
Backup 1: 1TB WD Black Desktop (Image of NAS files)
Backup 2: 1TB USB 3.0 Portable (Image of NAS files)
Backup 3: (partial, pics, documents and some music): 1TB 2.5" Laptop OS Drive that stays with me

That's after having mostly survived a crypto virus attack.

Have also investigated fireproof backup enclosures, but they're pricey

A lady at work got hit by crypto or similar. She thought she was safe as she had google drive backup but the damn thing encrypted her files there too! Our IT had a fit with google as that was not supposed to happen but it did. In short, she lost all work and files.

Viruses like the above are one reason I really recommend always having a drive totally unplugged from a system and in a safe location.

 

[qubit]

@Garage1217 I'll second you about being paranoid about backups being well worth it.

My arrangement isn't anywhere near as comprehensive as yours and I've been meaning to improve it for some time. Been thinking of a third drive somewhere for a third copy.

I currently back up to a 1TB SSD that I take with me whenever I go out of the house and an old PC working as a NAS.

One thing that I stopped doing was the RAID 1 array on my main PC ie the files source. The idea was to have an "instant backup" to protect against drive failure - a laudable aim in principle. However, I actually lost more data this way through simple human error by screwing up the array by unplugging the wrong cable when fumbling round the back of the case. It didn't help that the onboard Intel RAID doesn't alert you when there's only one drive working and carries on like nothing has happened.

I then did something rather silly when I was tired late at night. I discovered that the second drive was unplugged and simply reconnected it, oblivious to synchronization issues. I then had fun and games with my array screwing up the now mismatched filing systems (especially as I'd moved and resized the partitions on the active drive) to the point that I lost all the data on the array eventually. Thank fuck for the NAS backup or I'd have lost everything. I did lose a little bit of data that day as the backup hadn't been run in a little while, but it was nothing serious.

This had been something like the second or third time that I'd screwed up the RAID like this so said sod it and went back to a single drive. Not lost a byte since.

I use the simple but effective Karen's Replicator to make mirror backups to both drives.

 

[Jetster]

I have my large drives for back up. Then I use Blu Ray disks once a year and finally a cloud storage with google

 

[Ferrum Master]

I just dumped my compromate photos to google cloud... and some other rare software document stuff too... I was really happy to delete that all from the drive... way more safe...


Actually I am not that sentimental about past... not that important than the present to me actually.

I have more be worried about my game save files being lost than that...

 

[Jhelms]

@Garage1217 I'll second you about being paranoid about backups being well worth it.

My arrangement isn't anywhere near as comprehensive as yours and I've been meaning to improve it for some time. Been thinking of a third drive somewhere for a third copy.

I currently back up to a 1TB SSD that I take with me whenever I go out of the house and an old PC working as a NAS.

One thing that I stopped doing was the RAID 1 array on my main PC ie the files source. The idea was to have an "instant backup" to protect against drive failure - a laudable aim in principle. However, I actually lost more data this way through simple human error by screwing up the array by unplugging the wrong cable when fumbling round the back of the case. It didn't help that the onboard Intel RAID doesn't alert you when there's only one drive working and carries on like nothing has happened.

I then did something rather silly when I was tired late at night. I discovered that the second drive was unplugged and simply reconnected it, oblivious to synchronization issues. I then had fun and games with my array screwing up the now mismatched filing systems (especially as I'd moved and resized the partitions on the active drive) to the point that I lost all the data on the array eventually. Thank fuck for the NAS backup or I'd have lost everything. I did lose a little bit of data that day as the backup hadn't been run in a little while, but it was nothing serious.

This had been something like the second or third time that I'd screwed up the RAID like this so said sod it and went back to a single drive. Not lost a byte since.

I use the simple but effective Karen's Replicator to make mirror backups to both drives.

Think I spot a theme... We are all screwing up our raid arrays late at night while tired

I will check out the Karens Replicator you mentioned. On a side note, my raid 1 is not internal. I use a WD My Book Duo USB in raid 1. Pretty decent but a slow little setup. Upgrade the junk power supply to a good quality meanwell and I feel it is a pretty solid product with very reliable raid software.

I have been toying with the idea of doing a NAS that I would only turn on during large backups and locate it in my safe - using the new EX2100. Speed looks quite good vs. the USB solution I use now. Also would be nice to have the NAS located in a very safe location away from the office. Cloud access is nice too.

 

[Sasqui]

She thought she was safe as she had google drive backup but the damn thing encrypted her files there too!

I mapped my NAS drive but it still requires login credentials for that very reason. I wish I could figure how to logoff using some time-out feature.

 

[Frick]

Was around 98-2000 so 16-18 ago Hell, I hope my actual memory is holding to that time-frame HA! Seems to be about as reliable as that maxtor back then.

Read the wrong number, but it must have been expensive. An probably 2000.

 

[dorsetknob]

I still have a lot of music when it was all free on Napster! I always have a backup though I've luckily never needed to use it.

Being all MOREL it was never Free
Ps also Ex Napster client ( somewhere i still got the client installer somewhere backed up )

 

[neatfeatguy]

Every few months I burn any new family videos/photos to DVDs as well as backing them up on my second HDD. Everything else that is important (which isn't much) I also have backed up on a couple HDDs and 1 or 2 DVDs. Everything else is just trivial and can be re-installed/replaced.

A lady at work got hit by crypto or similar. She thought she was safe as she had google drive backup but the damn thing encrypted her files there too! Our IT had a fit with google as that was not supposed to happen but it did. In short, she lost all work and files.

Viruses like the above are one reason I really recommend always having a drive totally unplugged from a system and in a safe location.

I had to deal with a couple of customers at my last job that didn't back up their data very well. They had a few branch stores that would send daily sales, inventory and such to the central office server. Someone at the central office decided it was okay to use the server computer as their own personal PC. They ended up getting some kind of cryptolocker and it went through and locked down everything. To make things worse, they even managed to somehow get a couple of their branch locations mucked up with the cryptolocker as well. The ransom to unlock the data was 100 Bitcoins (was roughly $600 per Bitcoin at the time, so around $60,000) per computer.

They had to get a new server computer (my company wouldn't touch the old server) and they had to replace a bunch of computers at a couple of their locations since the cryptolocker spread across their internal network at the stores.

The company lost over half of all it's history because of the issue caused by 1 person, plus not having any kind of backup plan in place.

 

[scevism]

Pictures are so important to keep. I put mine on onedrive, usb stick, and on dvd. Lost my phone while back and lost loads of good family pics learnt my leasson now.

 

[erocker]

Being all MOREL it was never Free
Ps also Ex Napster client ( somewhere i still got the client installer somewhere backed up )

Pretty sure it was free. I remember back in '98 or '99 one of my friends is like: "Yo dude you gotta Dell?" I'm like, yeah! He's like, FREE MUSIC BRO! I'm like HMMM YEAH!

 

[Ferrum Master]

Pretty sure it was free.

 

[Jhelms]

Heck, even if you are really tight on funds, just a handful of 500gb to 1tb USB drives circulating would keep most people in the safe zone... Quite cheap on ebay. Point of the post... DO NOT PUT IT OFF!

 

[Ithanul]

Indeed, backups are a good thing to have. Plus, HDDs and USB sticks are cheap now compared to back then. Just got a 8TB HDD to add to my storage backup plan. I tend to keep a minimum of 3-4 copies of files I consider important spread about on different storage media. So far though most if not all my HDDs are still alive. My Dad still got a old 60GB HDD that still kicking. Think my oldest is my 640GB WD Black and external 1.5TB Seagate that has USB2 and FireWire connections on it.

Most of my data that eaten up has to be my pictures off my D90 and high DPI scans of my drawings. RAW picture files eat some serious space.

 

[FordGT90Concept]

I have RAID5 3 drives + 1 hot-spare (640 GB volume capacity) and monthly, format and copy all of that data to an external 1 TB drive that goes in a water/fire safe. I've had only one hard drive fail so far and never lost any data. But, there's always a first time for everything. I hope it is when I'm old and senile.

I constantly remind users of my network to get their important stuff on the server ASAP. Data is not safe on mobile devices.

I mapped my NAS drive but it still requires login credentials for that very reason. I wish I could figure how to logoff using some time-out feature.

Me too. There's probably an active directory setting somewhere I could change but...yeah...

CryptoLockers are definitely my greatest fear. I just hope I catch it before doing the monthly backup or everything would be lost. I might switch to using two external backups and swap them every month giving me a two month buffer to find the problem before losing much data.

 

[yogurt_21]

raid 10 primary, raid 1 backup, external drive firesafe backup (gets updated once a week then returned to a firesafe)

plus many photos and vid backed up on google and facebook. (both of which can be re-downloaded after the disaster is over)

now my sanity, would love to have a reloadable backup of that. With 4 kids it can't be too much longer before it goes.

 

[Caring1]

I look at it this way, if you don't die, it doesn't matter.