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  1. #1
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    Question Data integrity..How do you protect yourself from irreplaceable data loss

    Most of the posts in this forum are about security in relation to hackin/viruses/etc, but this question is about security in relation to data integrity.

    I have data stored on an internal hard drive which is physically separate from my operating system C: drive. This protects me not only from operating system failure (which usually requires a reformat and reinstall), but also from complete drive failure which would mean kissing your data goodbye forever. The data is also backed up regularly using backup software called 'Always Sync' to a wired network drive located in my garage/workshop at the bottom of the garden. This is to protect my data from fire. The most important stuff is also copied to an external usb hard drive just in case both drives happen to fail at the same time. Improbable but not impossible.

    I have been asked on many occasions to recover data for friends and relatives who have developed a defective hard drive. Most of the time the drives have been operational with just a few bad sectors causing the operating system to crash,so have managed to get most of their precious family photos and videos back for them. In one instance a friends daughter had a whole years worth of her degree projects on the computer with no backup at all.

    With almost every family now owning at least one pc and a digital camera, and using their pc's for school/college/university projects, there must be many, if not most people, with irreplaceable data/photos just sitting on their C:/ operating system hard drive with no backup whatsoever. If I know anything about human nature it's a case of "it will be ok, I'll back it up to dvd tomorrow".

    There are many free online data storage facilities available these days. Don't use them myself but worth considering if security, rather than integrity, isn't too much of an issue.

    So how safe is your irreplaceable data/pictures/etc, and how do you protect it?

    BigBird (">

  2. #2
    DF VIP Member muttleymacclad's Avatar
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    Default Re: Data integrity..How do you protect yourself from irreplaceable data loss

    Image of workhorse netbook backed up on nas. Incremental back ups daily.

    Mac book photos / data, stored on machine and on nas. Most good photos stored in Flickr too.

    Image of netbook also stored at parents house, every 8 weeks or so.

    All emails in google.

    All music stored on devices and nas.

    Mml
    "When a naked man is chasing a woman through an alley with a butchers knife and a hard-on, I figure he isn't out collecting for the Red Cross." - 'Dirty' Harry

  3. #3
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    Default Re: Data integrity..How do you protect yourself from irreplaceable data loss

    I have a home server with a few TB of space. On that is Carbonite. Job done.

    Current backup size = 188GB
    Last edited by ZX7R; 14th April 2012 at 03:52 PM.

  4. #4
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    Default Re: Data integrity..How do you protect yourself from irreplaceable data loss

    Oh, what happens when your home and garage gets burgled at the same time?

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    Default Re: Data integrity..How do you protect yourself from irreplaceable data loss

    Quote Originally Posted by ZX7R View Post
    Oh, what happens when your home and garage gets burgled at the same time?
    Got an alarm system fitted in the house. Got a PTZ camera on the corner of the house which scans the front and side of the house, including the front of the garage. Got a fixed camera behind the garage and one inside and an audible alarm.

    The network hard drive in the garage is not going to be easy for anyone to find... even if they know it's there somewhere. Its a large garage/workshop with two separate workshop areas and a large loft with stairs. The drive is totally hidden from view within part of a wall cavity. No cables to be seen running to it either and it cant be heard. If it fails one day it would take me a while to get at it, and I know which cupboard to empty first and then unscrew from the wall. And that's after I weld some M8 nuts onto the heads of the shear bolts fixing the cupboard to the wall.

    Actually that last bit is an exaggeration. They are not shear bolts... but they will be by tomorrow evening. But then I will have to change all the bolts for all the cupboards so that one doesn't stand out. Damn you ZX7R.

    Thanks to BigBird

    BFG (15th April 2012)  


  6. #6
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    Default Re: Data integrity..How do you protect yourself from irreplaceable data loss

    Quote Originally Posted by BigBird View Post
    Got an alarm system fitted in the house. Got a PTZ camera on the corner of the house which scans the front and side of the house, including the front of the garage. Got a fixed camera behind the garage and one inside and an audible alarm.

    The network hard drive in the garage is not going to be easy for anyone to find... even if they know it's there somewhere. Its a large garage/workshop with two separate workshop areas and a large loft with stairs. The drive is totally hidden from view within part of a wall cavity. No cables to be seen running to it either and it cant be heard. If it fails one day it would take me a while to get at it, and I know which cupboard to empty first and then unscrew from the wall. And that's after I weld some M8 nuts onto the heads of the shear bolts fixing the cupboard to the wall.

    Actually that last bit is an exaggeration. They are not shear bolts... but they will be by tomorrow evening. But then I will have to change all the bolts for all the cupboards so that one doesn't stand out. Damn you ZX7R.
    lol. That sounds like a serious man-shed!

  7. #7
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    Default Re: Data integrity..How do you protect yourself from irreplaceable data loss

    Quote Originally Posted by ZX7R View Post
    lol. That sounds like a serious man-shed!
    I suppose it is. Built it myself. Got a decent sized main workshop with a pit and enough space for my motorbike an all the usual junk that collects over the years. The back workshop has a full size milling machine and a decent sized lathe. Also enough room for a large sandblasting cabinet, workbench, industrial sized polishing machine. Also a sink and a toilet to save going into the house with oily clothes/boots. The attic is also a decent storage area and is also my electrical/electronic workshop.
    Over the years much of it was aquired cheap or for free because of someone I know through my engineering contacts. The three phase converter I built myself. Its 240v 3 phase and I internally rewired the motors on the milling machine, lathe and polishing machine to run on 240v 3phase. Also built up a decent set of power/hand tools to tackle almost any job I need to.

    For years I had nothing more than a small shed. Now I consider myself quite lucky. Useful for me but also useful for my m8's who are free to use it when they need to, and often do.

  8. #8
    DF VIP Member Little John's Avatar
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    Default Re: Data integrity..How do you protect yourself from irreplaceable data loss

    3 desktops,
    My sisters is just 2 drives one for OS the other for docs etc
    Mine 3x160GB drive raid5 for OS 3x500GB raid5 for stuff and Doc's
    Main house pc 160 drive for OS and 3x500gb drives for stuff and docs

    2003 server with roaming profiles for the 3 PC's so everything docs wise etc is also on the server and the server backs up to 2 external 1TB drives which I swap out weekly and store one at work.

    I do have a trend safesync account which my laptop backs up to as well but its too much data to use for home.

    Having lost a few years of photos from holidays due to a drive failure I try to make sure I have backups I can recover from. I have considered getting an incremental offsite backup solution as well which we have all the kit for at work anyway.
    Last edited by Little John; 14th April 2012 at 07:30 PM.

    never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups!:thumbup:

  9. #9
    DF VIP Member Geko's Avatar
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    Default Re: Data integrity..How do you protect yourself from irreplaceable data loss

    What is your data?

    The only data I care about are my photos of the kids. These are triple backed up. Stored at more than one address. And kept on my storage that I bought on googles servers.

  10. #10
    DF VIP Member Little John's Avatar
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    Default Re: Data integrity..How do you protect yourself from irreplaceable data loss

    My pc has photos I have shot for my photogrpahy business and pleasure along with everything from when I had my IT company tax returns, accounts etc
    My sisters cake business is on her PC accounts photos etc. I have about 400GB of photos alone.

    The main pc is used by my dad who is heavily involved in the local Church, scouts so all their accounts is on there, runs the tuck shop at the local scout site so again scans of all invoices and the accounts from that he also runs the turnstiles at the Reebok so again lots of information and stuff for work he does there.

    never underestimate the power of stupid people in large groups!:thumbup:

  11. #11
    DF VIP Member Undertaker's Avatar
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    Default Re: Data integrity..How do you protect yourself from irreplaceable data loss

    my plan is to backup to nas drive, and the nas drive to backup somewhere online. Only for those treasured photos, nothing else really matters

  12. #12
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    Default Re: Data integrity..How do you protect yourself from irreplaceable data loss

    Well I can recommend Carbonite as an online backup service. I have also read good things about Back Blaze http://www.backblaze.com/

    Both are unlimited storage for a reasonable sum per year. The initial backup may take some time but once that is done it will automatically backup new content.

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    DF VIP Member rIKmAN's Avatar
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    Default Re: Data integrity..How do you protect yourself from irreplaceable data loss

    Quote Originally Posted by BigBird View Post
    Got an alarm system fitted in the house. Got a PTZ camera on the corner of the house which scans the front and side of the house, including the front of the garage. Got a fixed camera behind the garage and one inside and an audible alarm.

    The network hard drive in the garage is not going to be easy for anyone to find... even if they know it's there somewhere. Its a large garage/workshop with two separate workshop areas and a large loft with stairs. The drive is totally hidden from view within part of a wall cavity. No cables to be seen running to it either and it cant be heard. If it fails one day it would take me a while to get at it, and I know which cupboard to empty first and then unscrew from the wall. And that's after I weld some M8 nuts onto the heads of the shear bolts fixing the cupboard to the wall.

    Actually that last bit is an exaggeration. They are not shear bolts... but they will be by tomorrow evening. But then I will have to change all the bolts for all the cupboards so that one doesn't stand out. Damn you ZX7R.
    No offence, but you just triggered my paedo alarm!

    WTF are you hiding Mr Creepy?

  14. #14
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    Default Re: Data integrity..How do you protect yourself from irreplaceable data loss

    For those with less demanding needs, Microsoft offers 25gb of free storage called sky drive and they also do a free windows live service called mesh which can sync multiple computers and also back up to the skydrive


    Its better to burn out than to fade away...............

  15. #15
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    Default Re: Data integrity..How do you protect yourself from irreplaceable data loss

    Quote Originally Posted by rIKmAN View Post
    No offence, but you just triggered my paedo alarm!

    WTF are you hiding Mr Creepy?
    I'm next door to a wilko car park which also goes around the back of my property. Over the years I've had somebody reverse into the side fence and also someone reversed into the back fence behind the garage. Nobody ever came forward to admit to the damage they caused. Last year someone jumped over the fence and stole a copper hot water cylinder. The dog must have heard them and scared them away which saved around thirty quids worth of copper piping which would also have been taken.

    My dog Taffy died last year so between the damaged fence, theft of the copper, and with no dog to protect my property I decided to fit the cameras. Apart from the coreldraw files which contain the graphics created for my sign writing business, the most important files I have are the hundreds of pictures and videos of my dog and best friend Taffy, which I can never ever replace. If there was something illegal on the drive I obviously wouldn't have mentioned it's existence on the forums because the police wouldn't have to be quick to find it and could tear the place apart if they wanted to.

    And as ZX7R said earlier
    Oh, what happens when your home and garage gets burgled at the same time?
    .
    That's the reason the remote backup drive is well hidden.

    You think I'm Mr Creepy now... wait until the electric fence and the razor wire goes up

    Thanks to BigBird

    rIKmAN (15th April 2012)  


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