I know data redundancy and keeping back-ups are already in practice with most of the adult/mature users here at Cemetech but I want to go over it for those who are less aware.
Back in 2009 I suffered a hard drive failure. I was devastated. It held all the photos I took for my school classes, there was no back up. At first the drive seemed okay, it clicked but I could still access my data. Didn't really click - pun not intended - in 19 year old me that I should take action ASAP. Well, at some point the drive stopped mounting and I never backed that data up. I held on to that hard drive ever since. I made attempts over the years to recover it myself by putting it in the freezer and even purchasing data recovery software. Nothing helped. From that point on I kept a back up of select photos - and eventually transitioning to full system & photo back ups a few years later.
I knew sending it in would be expensive, online places were advertising $500 to recover your data. That wasn't a lot but it wasn't something I could reasonably afford. Now, let's jump to 2015. I got a new job that pays considerably more and I figured I have nothing to lose, it's $500 to get my data back. Right?
I couldn't have been more wrong. The quote to recover my photos was USD$2400. That wasn't even the whole, 500GB hard drive. That was about 6 days of photos to be recovered. Would the price have gone up if I wanted more? I have no idea. But I learned that $500 was for a simple recovery, such as if a hard drive won't mount or was formatted, which the $100 software application accomplishes and I've used on a two instances (saving ~$1000 between myself and a friend it seems!). The plus side is, if they recovered 50% of the photos I pay 50% of the quote. I don't know if that's industry standard but it seemed reasonable.
I decided to mull over it for a while between some friends online, my family and, my former classmates. Here's some points we covered:
There were a few others but what ultimately led me to my decision was that I could go on vacation to Maine (where the school resides) and take photos around there again and purchase a new lens all for about the same price as recovering the hard drive. I also have the photos I "graduated" with in an online shop and I have the same photos printed out and hanging on the walls around my residence, which were printed by me in Maine. I did not go through with retrieving my data.
How do I back up my data now?
Each person has a different methodology but in practice you should have a cold local back up, an off-site back up and, an online back up. That way if you lose your immediate copy, you have a back-up within your residence. If your residence burns down you have a copy at a friends, in a banks safety deposit box, or wherever. If there's an earthquake or a more broad disaster, you still have the online back-up.
Not sure if this is a universal definition here but: Cold meaning not connected to a computer, off/unplugged until needed. Hot meaning readily available, always on.
What you do at each back-up point is up to you. For my important work, like my photos, I keep on a RAIDed NAS which backs up to a single hot HDD once a week. From there I back that up to a cold HDD. I don't back up to an online service yet but will likely do so soon. For less important files, like my computer system and documents I have a 200GB iCloud Subscription as well as standard/Free Dropbox and Google Drive subscriptions.
As far as my non-work files stored on my computer, I keep my internal disk space small at 128GB so I can keep a full back up of all my documents on iCloud and can easily access anything from another Mac or iOS device from iCloud. I upload the important documents to both Dropbox and Drive so I can access them anywhere from any device. In my case it's mostly photography contracts but other critical documents are uploaded as well. I use Google Drive to create and edit word documents so those are rarely stored on my computer to begin with. I also back up my computer system with regular back-ups as well.
For those of you who back up your stuff, how do you do it?
For those of you who want to back stuff up, what questions do you have?
Back in 2009 I suffered a hard drive failure. I was devastated. It held all the photos I took for my school classes, there was no back up. At first the drive seemed okay, it clicked but I could still access my data. Didn't really click - pun not intended - in 19 year old me that I should take action ASAP. Well, at some point the drive stopped mounting and I never backed that data up. I held on to that hard drive ever since. I made attempts over the years to recover it myself by putting it in the freezer and even purchasing data recovery software. Nothing helped. From that point on I kept a back up of select photos - and eventually transitioning to full system & photo back ups a few years later.
I knew sending it in would be expensive, online places were advertising $500 to recover your data. That wasn't a lot but it wasn't something I could reasonably afford. Now, let's jump to 2015. I got a new job that pays considerably more and I figured I have nothing to lose, it's $500 to get my data back. Right?
I couldn't have been more wrong. The quote to recover my photos was USD$2400. That wasn't even the whole, 500GB hard drive. That was about 6 days of photos to be recovered. Would the price have gone up if I wanted more? I have no idea. But I learned that $500 was for a simple recovery, such as if a hard drive won't mount or was formatted, which the $100 software application accomplishes and I've used on a two instances (saving ~$1000 between myself and a friend it seems!). The plus side is, if they recovered 50% of the photos I pay 50% of the quote. I don't know if that's industry standard but it seemed reasonable.
I decided to mull over it for a while between some friends online, my family and, my former classmates. Here's some points we covered:
- Points for recovering photos
- Nostalgia
- Access to locations, models and equipment only while with the school are represented in these photos.
- Points against recovering photos
- Not likely to recuperate the money by selling said photos.
- If I haven't needed them since 2009 why do I need them now?
- Money not well spent
- Not likely to recuperate the money by selling said photos.
There were a few others but what ultimately led me to my decision was that I could go on vacation to Maine (where the school resides) and take photos around there again and purchase a new lens all for about the same price as recovering the hard drive. I also have the photos I "graduated" with in an online shop and I have the same photos printed out and hanging on the walls around my residence, which were printed by me in Maine. I did not go through with retrieving my data.
How do I back up my data now?
Each person has a different methodology but in practice you should have a cold local back up, an off-site back up and, an online back up. That way if you lose your immediate copy, you have a back-up within your residence. If your residence burns down you have a copy at a friends, in a banks safety deposit box, or wherever. If there's an earthquake or a more broad disaster, you still have the online back-up.
Not sure if this is a universal definition here but: Cold meaning not connected to a computer, off/unplugged until needed. Hot meaning readily available, always on.
What you do at each back-up point is up to you. For my important work, like my photos, I keep on a RAIDed NAS which backs up to a single hot HDD once a week. From there I back that up to a cold HDD. I don't back up to an online service yet but will likely do so soon. For less important files, like my computer system and documents I have a 200GB iCloud Subscription as well as standard/Free Dropbox and Google Drive subscriptions.
As far as my non-work files stored on my computer, I keep my internal disk space small at 128GB so I can keep a full back up of all my documents on iCloud and can easily access anything from another Mac or iOS device from iCloud. I upload the important documents to both Dropbox and Drive so I can access them anywhere from any device. In my case it's mostly photography contracts but other critical documents are uploaded as well. I use Google Drive to create and edit word documents so those are rarely stored on my computer to begin with. I also back up my computer system with regular back-ups as well.
For those of you who back up your stuff, how do you do it?
For those of you who want to back stuff up, what questions do you have?