the drive went out to Gillware Inc in Madison yesterday 1300 - 1600
buckaroos to get the data off and of course had to buy another drive
to put it on (200) plus 50 to ship the dead one - Lesson: Assume all
hard drives WILL fail.
Develop a very regular back up strategy.
Assume that the backup strategy has more importance and higher
priority than the work itself.
Of course I thought I knew that and had a good strategy.
But my strategy failed for the most recent (important active files)
work.
I attribute the strategy failure to my being more involved in the
work than the backups.
Hear my loud voice - YOUR HARD DRIVES WILL FAIL
Back up often
All the recent electrical storms required many power-downs. Many (too
many) occurred during normally scheduled backups. When I powered up
to get back to work the backup program would tell me that I needed to
readjust things; but "I" had to get right to work figuring that the
next scheduled back up would catch it all up.
Learn from my hard won lessons.
1 comment:
Hi Joe:
Yes your hard drive will fail. And often at the worst possible time. OK, the reality is ANYtime is the worst possible time. Especially if you have not provided in advance for recovery. Industry figures tell us:
* 6% of all PCs will suffer an episode of data loss in any given year.
* 31% of PC users have lost all of their files due to events beyond their control.
* 60% of companies that lose their data will shut down within 6 months of the disaster.
* 93% of companies that lost their data center for 10 days or more due to a disaster, filed for bankruptcy within one year of the disaster. 50% of businesses that found themselves without data management for this same time period filed for bankruptcy immediately.
But the reality of "backup" tends to be very misunderstood. There is typically a confusion between "backup" and redundant data file storage. Most people think they are the same thing. Unfortunately too many supposed IT "experts" don't understand the difference themselves.
Flash drives, DVDs, removable hard drives, on-line file storage, ... are all becoming popular for the redundant storage of data. While these formats do allow you to make additional, archival, copies of files, they do not provide a true "backup" of your computer. And most critically of your server.
Hopefully in the future some better format will come along. But right now the ONLY format available for a true backup is tape. While the drives tend to be relatively expensive, the media is modest in pricing and usable for a good period of time.
But what is the difference then between backup and file storage? The primary difference becomes very evident when major hardware failure occurs. When what is needed is a "bare metal restore".
Say you experience a flood, a fire, a malicious employee or major lightening strike to your network core/ server. Your hardware is toast or soaked and no longer usable. If you used file backup, you can buy new hardware, have the Operating System reinstalled, all of the operating programs reinstalled, all of the custom settings reconfigured and then start loading the saved file data back in. This is a lengthy and by the hour costly process. And if your original software media is also destroyed, add the cost of buying all new software.
However if you have a backup tape, this tape contains not only the data files, but also an entire copy of your hard drives. Including the OS, operational software and all of the little settings that have been implemented to customize your network along the way.
All that is needed then is the new hardware built and developed to the point of recognizing the tape drive. The process is automated from that point. And after a relatively very short time, your new bare metal is a fully functional replacement. You are back in business in hours rather than possibly days or weeks.
Another benefit of a true tape based backup is the functionality of it's librarying. The level of tracking of data files and when changes were made. So if you need to restore a file that was corrupt and you know it went bad two days prior, the software will prompt for the correct tape and load just the parts needed.Properly set up this software can get to the detail level of specific e-mails.
There are also issues such as the actual bandwidth which would be needed to do even a daily full data file storage on line. Or retrieval when needed.
It becomes obvious that file storage is not the same as "backup". Unfortunately it is often only after the fact that this becomes obvious. Or if you are lucky, you will learn the lesson the easy way, by reading about it before it is needed.
As a final note, yes it is often possible to recover data from a failed hard drive. And it can often cost significantly more than the $1,300.00 to $1,500.00 mentioned. However we have usually been successful at this same level of hard drive recovery for our customers for a few hundred dollars. One of the many ways we help our customers find the most Efficient Technologies available to fill their IT needs.
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