How many of you have important data... the kind you would never want to lose? Digital photos, emails, etc.? For me, the number one irreplaceable thing I have is my hard drive.
I use a backup system that requires at least three backup drives to work. Basically, I keep two drives at home (A and B), and one at work (C). Every month, I copy all my data to drive A. I then bring drive B to work, and bring drive C back home. The next time, I copy the data to drive C, bring drive A to work, and bring back drive B (and so on). This prevents fire or burglary at one location from destroying everything.
What about data degradation? Over time, sectors on hard drives can go bad, "rotting" your data. I use a free file system (ZFS) that can detect these errors, although there are other systems, such as storing checksums for each file.
What am I not protected against? Apocalyptic scenarios, where I probably won't care about photos, emails, and financial statements anyways. An earthquake that happens to blow up my two backup sites, which are about 15 miles apart. An EMP that fries the drives (although I think an EMP that would affect both sites is likely nuclear, and would fall under the apocalyptic scenario). Accidentally deleting something important and not realizing it for 3 months.
Obviously, you can implement this with more drives, and more locations. One idea is an annual drive swap with your friend in another country. Unless you take a lot of home video, the size of your precious data is most likely no bigger than a $70 2TB drive (and likely far, far smaller). At the same time, unless you have few photos, your data is likely too big to cost-effectively store online (and online storage should be only part of your backup strategy anyways).
Some of you have guns and gold in the basement, but how do you protect your data?
Is your data safe?
@dragoncar,
Excellent question; I've found that for data protection, it's best to store data in discrete and limited chronological subfolders, so that no single folder is larger than the average storage for a CD/DVD. That way, archival copies can be burned for pennies, as many copies as you have locations to store them. For changes or additions, only the latest subfolder will change and it can be backed up with external hard drives, flash drives and CD/DVDs. At the end of the time period, it becomes permanent, unchanged archival copy.
Excellent question; I've found that for data protection, it's best to store data in discrete and limited chronological subfolders, so that no single folder is larger than the average storage for a CD/DVD. That way, archival copies can be burned for pennies, as many copies as you have locations to store them. For changes or additions, only the latest subfolder will change and it can be backed up with external hard drives, flash drives and CD/DVDs. At the end of the time period, it becomes permanent, unchanged archival copy.
My personal data isn't safe at all because, quite frankly, I don't see it as very valuable.
If I were interested in securing my data, I would take all my important financial documents, etc, encrypt them, and upload them to Amazon and maybe another cloud-based storage solution that has servers in a different country. Then I would take all of my media, pictures, music, movies, etc, and 'give them away' to family members. They get free stuff, and I get a free backup of my stuff. win-win.(This is exactly what my cousin did - and it worked out pretty well for him when his hard drive crashed.)
If I were interested in securing my data, I would take all my important financial documents, etc, encrypt them, and upload them to Amazon and maybe another cloud-based storage solution that has servers in a different country. Then I would take all of my media, pictures, music, movies, etc, and 'give them away' to family members. They get free stuff, and I get a free backup of my stuff. win-win.(This is exactly what my cousin did - and it worked out pretty well for him when his hard drive crashed.)
Oh, I forgot to mention that ZFS has a snapshot/checkpointing system which can save the state of the volume at any point in time (and subsequently stores only changes to that volume for storage efficiency).
I'm not a fan of recordable CDs and DVDs because of their failure rate. I've experienced this failure many times -- yes, you can pay more for higher quality media but this drives up cost. Also, it's a hassle to burn/store/manage each DVD and to verify the integrity of the data.
A 200 pack of 4.7 GB DVDs is around $50, which means they are actually more expensive per GB than modern hard drives.
I'm not a fan of recordable CDs and DVDs because of their failure rate. I've experienced this failure many times -- yes, you can pay more for higher quality media but this drives up cost. Also, it's a hassle to burn/store/manage each DVD and to verify the integrity of the data.
A 200 pack of 4.7 GB DVDs is around $50, which means they are actually more expensive per GB than modern hard drives.
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dot_com_vet
- Posts: 603
- Joined: Mon Jan 31, 2011 2:07 am
If you're being paranoid, your backups should protect against: human error, hardware faults, electronic security (hacking), physical security (theft), destruction of your building (fire), or a natural disaster in your area.
So your backups system should involve:
- multiple copies in case of accidental deletions
- multiple physical devices built by different manufacturers
- multiple operating systems and file systems
- multiple physical sites, at least one of which is hundreds of miles away from the others
- at least one air gap offline copy
A cloud backup service plus an unplugged external hard drive at your house can fulfill all those requirements IF you can establish that the provider uses a different OS than you and their servers are far away.
I think an OK solution with less ongoing costs is to keep one external drive unplugged at your house, one at work or a friend's house in town, and one at a friends' house hundreds of miles away, with at least two OS/filesystems in the mix.
So your backups system should involve:
- multiple copies in case of accidental deletions
- multiple physical devices built by different manufacturers
- multiple operating systems and file systems
- multiple physical sites, at least one of which is hundreds of miles away from the others
- at least one air gap offline copy
A cloud backup service plus an unplugged external hard drive at your house can fulfill all those requirements IF you can establish that the provider uses a different OS than you and their servers are far away.
I think an OK solution with less ongoing costs is to keep one external drive unplugged at your house, one at work or a friend's house in town, and one at a friends' house hundreds of miles away, with at least two OS/filesystems in the mix.
With the multiple storage formats (fs/os) you are protecting against obsolecense/inaccessibility right? This factor is more important for long term archival than active backups. For example, I use Sata drives in USB enclosures and zfs. Someday, zfs software may be unobtainable, or we might have moved away from USB hardware. But as long as I update my backup solution before this happens, it shouldn't be a problem (and this doesn't happen overnight). Oracle may pull free solaris downloads, but there are open source Linux drivers, etc.
I'm more worried that the actual file format may change. A few years ago I had to convert old documents from an old proprietary word processing format to RTF. You do have to stay on top of these things, and it helps to choose the most open format going forward.
Funny how being a digital packrat keeps me from being a physical packrat. I'll scan sentimental letters, etc. And throw away the originals. But this means it's a lot easier for one failed drive to destroy all my "memories".
I'm more worried that the actual file format may change. A few years ago I had to convert old documents from an old proprietary word processing format to RTF. You do have to stay on top of these things, and it helps to choose the most open format going forward.
Funny how being a digital packrat keeps me from being a physical packrat. I'll scan sentimental letters, etc. And throw away the originals. But this means it's a lot easier for one failed drive to destroy all my "memories".
The point of diversifying OS/FS is to protect against a debilitating software bug that breaks all your backups at the same time. Something along the lines of the Zune midnight meltdown ( http://www.informationweek.com/news/per ... /212700344 ) that caused all Zunes to crash at the same time due to a bug in their leap year handling code. It's conceivable that e.g. your ZFS implementation could have a bug like that, so it's safer to not depend completely on one software stack.
You're right that keeping multiple FSs helps with bit rot ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit_rot ) although IMO that's a separate issue.
You're right that keeping multiple FSs helps with bit rot ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bit_rot ) although IMO that's a separate issue.
My personal data isn't safe at all because, quite frankly, I don't see it as very valuable.
I agree with M. I keep a local and online copy of my photos and some goofy home movies I've put together. I just use photo/video sharing sites to store them along with a single local copy just in case.
My notes and some programs I might want in the future are zipped up and emailed to my gmail account once in a while. That's good enough for that.
Other stuff like my music/movie/video game collections I don't backup. If I lose that stuff I'll just re-download it whenever I want it.
I agree with M. I keep a local and online copy of my photos and some goofy home movies I've put together. I just use photo/video sharing sites to store them along with a single local copy just in case.
My notes and some programs I might want in the future are zipped up and emailed to my gmail account once in a while. That's good enough for that.
Other stuff like my music/movie/video game collections I don't backup. If I lose that stuff I'll just re-download it whenever I want it.
All mission critical data is recorded in plain text format in several files, then zipped into a password protected .rar file. This file is renamed to an innocent sounding .doc file. It is encrypted using hushtools and PGP, and stored in several places, online and off, including dropbox and on physical USB sticks kept in different locations, and a SD card kept on my physical person. It helps that I keep this all under 5MB. Any body who happens upon the file would assume it's an old, corrupted Word document. And because of the encryption, the file headers would never give it away as a RAR file.
While not the most secure approach available, one would have to be able to brute-force two passwords and realize it's a compressed archive to begin with.
While not the most secure approach available, one would have to be able to brute-force two passwords and realize it's a compressed archive to begin with.
Nothing critical on my computer. If it burns to the ground, it would be a matter of just getting a new one, and downloading all the stuff I would want on it. No facebook, my place or space or rat race. No problem. I asked myself what I have on my computer that would be vulnerable to my security, or devastating to me if lost? A big 'ole rolling NADA, nothing, goose egg. I would say if your very exposed by losing something on your computer, it should not be there to begin with. Someone, maybe dragoncar, mentioned an EMP. Come an EMP it is a moot issue as the 19th Century had no computer anyway.
I have all my important busy-ness at the bank, so computer security is their problem. (And it certainly could turn out to be a problem). I am one of the guns and roses types. I keep my gold in my teeth (just kidding), and my cash under the house in a coffee can (humor again). No freakin' hackers are gonna make me frown. I am so old fashioned that I place my orders on (like for instance "Amazon"), and then telephone a human being with my payment information. At the cafe, if the waiter takes my CC to the "register/processor", I go along as well.
I am like that. Yes I get a few looks now and then, but that's life with HSpencer, and it is up to me to please me and operate as I see fit!
As I look back on my postings here, I have probably put more about myself up on line that I ever have anywhere. I have a nephew who has a website, or maybe it is a special page, where he puts hundreds of photos of his family, their full activities, vacations, photos of everything they do, photos of their home, schools, awards, etc. Well, that is totally insane in my opinion. A predator might as well just have a personally mailed letter showing everything, and an invitation to "come and get me and my family". Stupid to the absolute max.
Anyway, I have spent my nickle here.
I have all my important busy-ness at the bank, so computer security is their problem. (And it certainly could turn out to be a problem). I am one of the guns and roses types. I keep my gold in my teeth (just kidding), and my cash under the house in a coffee can (humor again). No freakin' hackers are gonna make me frown. I am so old fashioned that I place my orders on (like for instance "Amazon"), and then telephone a human being with my payment information. At the cafe, if the waiter takes my CC to the "register/processor", I go along as well.
I am like that. Yes I get a few looks now and then, but that's life with HSpencer, and it is up to me to please me and operate as I see fit!
As I look back on my postings here, I have probably put more about myself up on line that I ever have anywhere. I have a nephew who has a website, or maybe it is a special page, where he puts hundreds of photos of his family, their full activities, vacations, photos of everything they do, photos of their home, schools, awards, etc. Well, that is totally insane in my opinion. A predator might as well just have a personally mailed letter showing everything, and an invitation to "come and get me and my family". Stupid to the absolute max.
Anyway, I have spent my nickle here.
My backup plan is implemented with TrueCrypt and Cobian backup 10. Full + Differential with a window of 31 days.
The plan:
1) Backup directories daily into a TrueCrypt volume.
2) Copy the volume file into my linux box (FTP).
3) Copy the volume file into one of my web servers (FTP).
I also store two copies for the first day of the current month/year just in case. Any holes or suggestions?
The plan:
1) Backup directories daily into a TrueCrypt volume.
2) Copy the volume file into my linux box (FTP).
3) Copy the volume file into one of my web servers (FTP).
I also store two copies for the first day of the current month/year just in case. Any holes or suggestions?
Hallo @Spence,
How're you? I'm good.
> I am so old fashioned that I place my orders on (like
> for instance "Amazon"), and then telephone a human
> being with my payment information.
I didn't know you could do that! There ought to be a name for that:
(O)nline (T)ransaction (E)xtreme aka OTE!
Remember folks, you heard it first in the ERE forums!
> At the cafe, if the waiter takes my CC to the
> "register/processor", I go along as well.
> I am like that
I am like that too. And everyone ought to be like that as well, but that's my opinion anyway!
---
How're you? I'm good.
> I am so old fashioned that I place my orders on (like
> for instance "Amazon"), and then telephone a human
> being with my payment information.
I didn't know you could do that! There ought to be a name for that:
(O)nline (T)ransaction (E)xtreme aka OTE!
Remember folks, you heard it first in the ERE forums!> At the cafe, if the waiter takes my CC to the
> "register/processor", I go along as well.
> I am like that
I am like that too. And everyone ought to be like that as well, but that's my opinion anyway!
---
I kind of do what dragoncar does, but I use my parents house as the storage area. It's a few hundred miles away, so I figure given the area of the U.S. we live in any event large enough to hit us both is an even large enough to make my data worthless whether it survives or not.
I don't worry about my credit cards at all. I had one stolen a few years ago and there was $1,500 charged on it the next day. I didn't know it was stolen until the credit card company called and asked if the transactions outside my normal geographic area were from me. The credit card company was very easy to deal with and didn't even make me pay the $50 the law says we, as the consumer, is responsible for.
I am concerned with my social security number. I wish we didn't have to use it so much.
I don't worry about my credit cards at all. I had one stolen a few years ago and there was $1,500 charged on it the next day. I didn't know it was stolen until the credit card company called and asked if the transactions outside my normal geographic area were from me. The credit card company was very easy to deal with and didn't even make me pay the $50 the law says we, as the consumer, is responsible for.
I am concerned with my social security number. I wish we didn't have to use it so much.