The hard drive of our main file server at work died last night around 2 a.m., sending about 80GB of precious work-in-process data into the ether.
Did I freak?
No. Because I keep backups. Twenty-one days worth, with a full backup every ten and incrementals in between. Yeah, it took several hours to acquire a new HD and load all the data back into it, but it was all there.
Why am I writing this? I’m sure you’ve all read “All my file are gonerz man!” articles and posts elsewhere, which then proceed to admonish you to have a backup system in place. This is the other side of the coin. Success. Everything’s fine. Nothing’s gone.
1. Have a backup system.
2. Check on it every now and then to make sure that it’s actually making backups.
3. When you check to make sure, do a little test restore to make sure that it’s working from end to end.
That’s what I did, and why I’m not thinking about walking in front of a bus today.
Which reminds me, I need to get my home backup server running too.
Wise words!
If anyone reads this and thinks to themselves, “Gee! I really need to get some backup hardware running!” I’d strongly recommend the Drobo unit made by Data Robotics. They are amazing units and (IMO) well worth the slightly higher price versus similar (and, again IMO, inferior) NAS and backup hardware. And no, I have no affiliation with the Drobo folks — just an incredibly happy (and worry-free) customer.
Yeah, i have an external hard drive which has my only copy on it. When i start major projects that take more than 3 hours, that’ll be the time when i make me 6th copy of everything. Doesn’t it feel satisfying when you beat the computers evil nature?
What software would you recommend for this important task?
Thanks in advance,
JDL