A very important task completed today

[Stephen Edwards]

I have learned so much about woodworking since joining the Creek a little over a year ago. I have several folders on my computer that are dedicated to important info gleaned from SMC. Almost everyday I add a link to a thread or a link to another website with a product or idea that I may want to eventually purchase, build or follow up on. I've also saved hundreds of photos and quite a few videos that people have either sent to me or that I've downloaded from the web. For me, these folders contain literally a wealth of woodworking related information.

One of my biggest fears is losing all of this info if my PC hard drive were to crash or, heaven forbid, there be a fire. One of my nephews recently lost everything in his house to a fire. That was my kick in the butt to do what I'd be considering doing for quite some time.

This afternoon I created a new back up folder that contains ALL of the SMC links and ALL of my woodworking related files of all types. I then uploaded that folder to one of my websites via FTP. Even with a DSL connection, it took several hours to upload that folder. Even so, I now have all of this info in a " virtual safety deposit box"!

Boy, I feel better now! Can you imagine how bad you'd feel if you lost all of the woodworking related files that you've saved on your computer. I know, all of the SMC threads and post are on the SMC website. Still, it would be very time consuming to "search" for all of the specific threads and posts that I've saved and properly named in text files, so that they make sense to me when trying to find something that I saved months ago.

I'm very thankful for the resources available here at SMC and thankful for all of the kind people who so willingly share their knowledge and experience with others. Thanks to all of you have helped me be a better woodworker! I appreciate it enough to have "backed up" all my files in what I consider to be a safe place!!!

Thank you again and Kind Regards,

[David DeCristoforo]

Don't trust your irreplaceable data to a remote server. There are a million ways in which that server could be attacked. You need to get an external hard drive and copy your backups to it. Then unplug it. If you want to add more data later, reconnect the drive, copy your new data and disconnect it again. Not only will this be more secure, the transfers will be much faster. Your remote files may be safer in the event that (god forbid) your house burned down but outside of that, your data will be much more secure stored locally. No reason not to do both.....

[Blake Barr]

AS far as backups go having the originals, a separate device backup and a remote backup you're pretty much safe enough... if nuclear war happens you won't need your data anyways....

[Stephen Edwards]

Thank you, David. That's a good idea and I'll follow your sound advice. Perhaps I'll even put that external hard drive in an out building here when it's unplugged and not in use. Thanks again for the idea.

[Jim O'Dell]

I've been working on a backup this weekend also. LOML business computer. She is horrible about doing backups on DVD, so I ordered an external hard drive to do like I do on mine. But I'm having trouble. I send it to the drive, it shows there is information on the drive (24 GB used) but I can't access the info to see that it's there. On mine, I can pull up each folder just like the computer drive shows. I can see it's there. Her's is not working that way, yet. I'm formatting the drive to start again, and see if I've done something wrong. Good for you to get your's safe. Jim.

[Robert Eiffert]

Another, slightly more techie backup system:
Install blogging software such as WordPress on a remote server. Then blog the new stuff (and maybe retrospectively add stuff from your current archive).

As you blog, your entries can be tagged by subject for easy searching and sorting (all entries under chisels for example). Most blogging software has a backup system in place so you can archive your stuff to a local external HD.

[Todd Burch]

I just keep it all in my head.

[Kirk Chester]

Use carbonite it is cheap and backs up files automatically.

Plus you can upload unlimited data and it runs when your computer is idle.

[Bill Huber]

I just keep it all in my head.

I have tried to do that but just can't, so I just right it all down in 1s and 0s on a note pad....

[harry strasil]

I backed up all my blueprints files I made for a blacksmithing website, and all my woodworking files and pictures and important documents for me and the wife on a flashdrive. another benefit is when I go somewhere I can take a flashdrive to plug into someone elses puter or my little laptop so I can show people stuff instead of trying to describe it. there is also a copy on a flashdrive in my bank box. lots of stuff in a very small package.

[David DeCristoforo]

"... lots of stuff in a very small package...."

especially seeing as you can now get an 8GB flash drive for less than thirty bucks!

[Stephen Edwards]

"... lots of stuff in a very small package...."

especially seeing as you can now get an 8GB flash drive for less than thirty bucks!


And that's another good idea. I didn't realize that they were that cheap now. I'll have to get one of those 8 gig flash drives, too.

As for the remote server that I use, my hosting service is geared toward small businesses and they offer excellent customer service and support. I can send them an email at 2AM with a specific question and by 3AM I'll have a detailed reply to my question.

Each day they make a back up of all of their files. I've been with them for 11 years now and never had a problem losing any files on their servers. I'm not saying that it can't happen, but they do have a great system in place.

[Greg Hines, MD]

Depending on how much data you have, Office Max or Office Depot has jump drives that do not take up any space but will hold several gigs of data. Unless you have movies you intend to save, a jump drive would probably work. If not, a portable hard drive would be a good choice.

Doc

[Ben Franz]

I just keep it all in my head.

That only works up to age 50 or so. DAMHIKT, I've forgotten.

[Andy Sowers]

USB flash drives are a convient way of taking stuff with you, but please do not rely upon them as your sole backup source. Flash drives are known to fail, and will do so without a warning. Recordable CDs and DVDs are also prone to failure. Although its more expensive, I recommend using external hard drives as backup media, you may need several depending on the volume of data you have. My 2 cents...

Andy

[David DeCristoforo]

USB flash drives are a convient way of taking stuff with you, but please do not rely upon them as your sole backup source. Flash drives are known to fail, and will do so without a warning. Recordable CDs and DVDs are also prone to failure. Although its more expensive, I recommend using external hard drives as backup media, you may need several depending on the volume of data you have. My 2 cents...

Andy

+++++++++++++++

[Glen Blanchard]

At the office, we have 3 portable USB hard drives that we use on a rotation - the data is backed up overnight. Every morning I confirm that my backup was successful and then that particular drive goes home with me. If the office should burn down, I have all my data.

Now, if you have a "good" backup of your data and your C drive crashes, obviously you restore your data onto a new drive from your portable backup. What happens however, if while restoring, the portable drive crashes? You have only a portion of your data restored and you are pretty well up the creek without a paddle. Redundancy is the key if the data is important to you.

[Ryan Stagg]

USB flash drives are a convient way of taking stuff with you, but please do not rely upon them as your sole backup source. Flash drives are known to fail, and will do so without a warning. Recordable CDs and DVDs are also prone to failure. Although its more expensive, I recommend using external hard drives as backup media, you may need several depending on the volume of data you have. My 2 cents...

Andy

It goes on and on though - external HDDs are certainly prone to mechanical failure, especially given their portability (people are more likely to drop them than if they're installed in a box). I've had a couple fail (head crashes - while they were on a stable surface).

CDs and DVDs are more prone to fail when they're written, so you just need to validate the data. After that, you can count on them pretty much until they start to rot - which doese happen.

Despite the possibility of being hacked, I'd have to recommend an online service. If it's a reputable service, you can trust that the people that maintain the data can do so no matter the disaster - hardware is redundant, security is excellent, and *you* don't have to play IT guy. One of the primary duties of the network IT guy is data integrity, and they know a lot of more about it than the lay-person. If you want a cheap (free) way to do it - get a gmail account and email everything to yourself. Those guys aren't losing data anytime soon. That's 7GB free.

If you're really paranoid, do this in addition to burning DVDs, and put them in a safety-deposit box monthy/annually/whatever you're comfortable with.

[David DeCristoforo]

FWIW six (?!?!) hard drives. Used as follows:

Drive 1 (Internal) Operating system and applications.
Drive 2 (Internal) All data files (documents, pictures, videos, etc.)
Drive 3 (Internal) Backup clone of Drive 1 updated whenever any changes are made to the OS
Drive 4 (Internal) Backup clone of Drive 2 updated daily or weekly depending on activity
Drive 5) (External eSATA Enclosure) Redundant backup of Drive 1
Drive 6) (External eSATA Enclosure) Redundant backup of Drive 2

[Cliff Rohrabacher]

You won't lose all that valuable information is you put it to use.