[Technology] You back-up your data, right?

[Brightonfan1983]

If you subscribe to Office365 you can backup to OneDrive for free.

If it's a subscription it's not really free

*That's what people throw at me about Amazon Prime/movies so I wasn't being sarky

 

[Screaming J]

and re-emphasises the point that its usually human error (often brought about by change) which is more common than hardware failure.

Well I suppose if you put it like that almost everything IT related is; whether it's cr@ppy code (is that the right word ?), poorly drafted instructions to users who - guess what, don't live and breathe IT stuff like the people writing the instructions - or just incompetence in using the stuff.

In this case I think it was because nobody told my colleague "don't try and move a folder with more than 'x' mb of stuff in because it will go tits up".

 

[mwrpoole]

I use a software tool called ‘synchredible’, free to use version for home use.

Effectively it copies files/folders to another location. You can schedule it to run every day or more frequently whatever suits. I have a USB hard drive so everything gets copied to that each night. It’s quite clever, after you’ve done the original copy it then only looks for new files or updated files, so usually only takes about 10 minutes to run.

Obviously you need a USB stick/hard drive with enough storage to use but they are fairly cheap to get.

It works really well and has saved me a few times.

 

[Wardy's twin]

Well I suppose if you put it like that almost everything IT related is; whether it's cr@ppy code (is that the right word ?), poorly drafted instructions to users who - guess what, don't live and breathe IT stuff like the people writing the instructions - or just incompetence in using the stuff.

In this case I think it was because nobody told my colleague "don't try and move a folder with more than 'x' mb of stuff in because it will go tits up".

My comment was in relation to doing data recoveries in a large corporate environment with over 4000 databases stretching from gigabytes to many terrabytes with 1 user or 1000+ concurrent users and downtime was in the millions per hour for some of them. Hardware failure in the latter days was a lot less common than people error so you need to understand both. The people error could be someone running the wrong process or wright processes in wrong order , it coul be otehr things.

 

[Blues Guitarist]

If it's a subscription it's not really free

*That's what people throw at me about Amazon Prime/movies so I wasn't being sarky

Many people subscribe to Office365 to access the office suite of applications. If you already do that - then adding a backup capability using OneDrive is at no additional cost.

 

[Publius Ovidius]

Definitely a good approach. Expecting Public Ovidious to point out you should have 8 not 4 though in RAID 10 at a different location with some argonite tanks in case of fire

I would have to charge for that advice

 

[Publius Ovidius]

I work part time for the National Trust which is currently changing its data files etc to SharePoint.

My experience so far of SharePoint is that it is utter w@nk.

Proved this week when one of my colleagues copied a lot of files from our server to the appropriate bit of the cloud or whatever the w@nky thing is called.

Checks the folder has been moved over. Great. So deletes the copy on the old server.

Comes in next day. Opens the SharePoint folder. It's empty. Many hundreds of valuable PDF files with salvage information about the valuable stuff in our property gone.

Fortunately because we have a back up system on the old server whereby us Admin minions put a tape in everyday eventually we got the data back.

So this post is a bit of a moan about SharePoint, but also emphasising about the importance of backing up data.

BUT when everything finally migrates over to SharePoint (which as you may have guessed I have a low opinion of �� ) the old server and it's back up tapes will be ditched. What the f will we do then if we lose anything? Panic, panic!!

When your guys set up sharepoint did they link it to your cloud backup strategy? It is normally part of the initial set up scripts that it prompts you to set up a one drive link. Was that disabled or didn’t your IT team invest in OneDrive?

 

[Screaming J]

When your guys set up sharepoint did they link it to your cloud backup strategy? It is normally part of the initial set up scripts that it prompts you to set up a one drive link. Was that disabled or didn’t your IT team invest in OneDrive?

Sorry, but the answer to that is 'search me guv' ! I'm an end user at a property over 150 miles away from where such actions are presumably taken. My suspicion is that they've all got shiny new machines running the latest software and are blissfully unaware that not all of us in the boondocks have that luxury. So consequently when they tell us to do X and then Y because it works for them, it doesn't necessarily work for the rest of us. They are trying to implement an IT 'solution'/upgrade but it's done remotely; and with little understanding of the problems end users have.

 

[giveusfalmerplease]

For most families, "photos of the kids" probably comes under "important data". You wouldn't want to lose absolutely every photo of your child right from positive pregnancy test to university graduation.

nothing is foreever, not even global internet companies. Back in the early 2000s, i setup a memorial to my late mother with photos of her throughout her life, testamonials written by family and friends etc under myspace.com which was the facebook of the time. unfortunately time goes by, my pc hard disk bricks and then i found out myspace had closed down! so even a cloud backup is not reliable enough for really precious , unreplaceable stuff

 

[Wozza]

nothing is foreever, not even global internet companies. Back in the early 2000s, i setup a memorial to my late mother with photos of her throughout her life, testamonials written by family and friends etc under myspace.com which was the facebook of the time. unfortunately time goes by, my pc hard disk bricks and then i found out myspace had closed down! so even a cloud backup is not reliable enough for really precious , unreplaceable stuff

https://myspace.com/ is still around - just about.

 

[Publius Ovidius]

Sorry, but the answer to that is 'search me guv' ! I'm an end user at a property over 150 miles away from where such actions are presumably taken. My suspicion is that they've all got shiny new machines running the latest software and are blissfully unaware that not all of us in the boondocks have that luxury. So consequently when they tell us to do X and then Y because it works for them, it doesn't necessarily work for the rest of us. They are trying to implement an IT 'solution'/upgrade but it's done remotely; and with little understanding of the problems end users have.

I hear that story so many times.

IT is basically simple but made difficult for overpaid engineers to show how clever and relevant they are

 

[METALMICKY]

I work part time for the National Trust which is currently changing its data files etc to SharePoint.

My experience so far of SharePoint is that it is utter w@nk.

Proved this week when one of my colleagues copied a lot of files from our server to the appropriate bit of the cloud or whatever the w@nky thing is called.

Checks the folder has been moved over. Great. So deletes the copy on the old server.

Comes in next day. Opens the SharePoint folder. It's empty. Many hundreds of valuable PDF files with salvage information about the valuable stuff in our property gone.

Fortunately because we have a back up system on the old server whereby us Admin minions put a tape in everyday eventually we got the data back.

So this post is a bit of a moan about SharePoint, but also emphasising about the importance of backing up data.

BUT when everything finally migrates over to SharePoint (which as you may have guessed I have a low opinion of �� ) the old server and it's back up tapes will be ditched. What the f will we do then if we lose anything? Panic, panic!!

The primary use of SharePoint has very little to do with being somewhere to back up files. It's definitely an adjustment when migrating to it but I've seen first hand how for East Sussex County Council it's addressed many historical poor data management issues.

 

[beorhthelm]

I hear that story so many times.

IT is basically simple but made difficult for overpaid managers to show how clever and relevant they are

corrected for you.

 

[happypig]

I've just renewed my laptop, with no hard drive!
Over the years I've had three towers and three laptops. How do I know? Because I keep each drive from them. Once I move on I copy all important files & pics to the new drive.
My latest laptop is SSD with a few bits of memory so bought a USB adaptor and use the 1TB drive from the old laptop as back up.
On top of that is a 2TB Western Digital onto which all data is backed up automatically via WiFi.

Keep old drives ?

I get rid of mine

 

[Publius Ovidius]

corrected for you.

I have seen both to be fair