One More Word About Backups

I know I have written many times about the need to make backups. However, after reading a comment posted to this newsletter's web site this week, I have to write one more time.

In the comments section after an article about a free software upgrade available for a popular genealogy program, a newsletter reader wrote:

This free upgrade was a major disaster!!! It truncated/lost much of my research and I could not retrieve it. Don't use it... (I know I should have backed up my data first, but I didn't.)

It makes no difference which genealogy program you use; there is always a chance of data corruption. Even the best-written, most error-free product on the market may corrupt your data during an upgrade if it encounters an unexpected disk full condition, a power failure, or other problem.

My advice: never, ever perform an upgrade without having a recent full backup.

I practice what I preach: my primary computer automatically makes an incremental backup of its hard drive every hour. A couple of older computers that I still use make daily backups automatically in the wee hours of the morning. I also test the backups occasionally.

When was your data last backed up?

Comments

[Elyse]

It is so important to back up your information. I back all of my information onto a website (3 times a week, depending on how much work I do on my genealogy), back up onto a jump drive, and again onto my own hard drive.

[Rose]

Don't forget to keep a copy of the backup materials OFFSITE, in another location, as well. If, heaven forbid, the house would go up in flames or get swept away in a tornado or flood, it wouldn't do any good to have 40 sets of backup materials in there. We have an automatic backup program, and I keep a set of the backup files at my office (where I can access them anytime via a private employee network).

The backup rule applies for paper files, by the way. Have an extra set of hard copies of everything. Better yet, scan everything you can, so you have digital as well as paper files.

I also recommend having your information available on several different mediums--hard drive, thumb drive, zip drive, CD, posted online, and whatever else you can think of. Who knows which technology will fail or be replaced, and how quickly?

Better yet, I've made a dozen CD's of my files for family members all over the country. Not only does this prevent a "wipe-out" for me personally, but it spreads the family history around so it won't be "lost" when I'm gone!

Rose
St. Louis

[Wizardluffy]

dick can you give us a locaton of the hourly backup site? Thanks

[John Coplantz]

Haven't been to ALL of the OFFSITE backup sites but most offer a time option when to backup.

One thing that is helpful is fast upload speed. If your upload speed is 300 to 400kps then your computer will really run Sooooooo until the first backup set is completed. After that only new or changed files are uploaded. Pictures and music take the most time.

I use MozyHome.

John
Gustine Ca

[Linda]

I'm not quite as strict about backing up as Dick but here is what I do to backup:

GENEALOGY DATABASE FILES AND OTHER GENEALOGY RELATED FILES:

Database files are backed up on the hard drive after each session and backed up to a portable hard drive each week along with other "working files" (i.e. spreadsheets, things to do, etc.) that are in a "folder set". This folder set is also backed up at least quarterly onto a DVD.

In total, I now have about 80 GB of genealogy related files. I've been scanning and purging non-originals once I have a backup. I see no reason to keep non-originals when scanned files are well organized and backed up and are in a well established file format (i.e. .jpeg, .tiff, .pdf). I've eliminated about 15 linear feet of shelf space consumed by my previous binder method of filing along with other boxes of genealogy stuff. I scan originals too and either store them or give away original photos/docs to more closely related researchers. I also download files and don't keep a paper copy. Saves lots of space and my heirs will probably appreciate the more compact form of genealogy information that they'll have to sort through.

My hard drive folders and subfolders are organized into folder sets of 4 GB or less. The majority of folder sets are surname / category / opt. subcategories/files. The folder sets that are updated are backed up onto DVD no less than once a quarter. The DVD's are marked with the creation date and I have a spreadsheet of what is the latest backup for each folder set. Some folder sets are not changed so do not need an additional backup.

The latest set of backup DVD's are stored in a fire box. I also put my portable hard drive in a fire box when there is a tornado watch. My son in another state receives a full set of DVD's each year and other researchers receive subsets pertaining to their relationship to the surnames.

It is not an ideal backup process but it is managable for me and provides more security in my mind that the large majority of the data will be recoverable in a disaster.

[Dick Eastman]

---> can you give us a location of the hourly backup site?

http://mozy.com/?kbid=7017

I wrote about Mozy at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2006/12/unlimited_onlin.html and at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2007/07/time-lists-mozy.html

Mozy works on both Windows and Macintosh.

[Dan Curtis]

Dick, I'm reminded of a painful incident last year when I lost my hard drive and everything on it. I learned my lesson and now have a proper backup system in place. But it's still onsite, so I've been looking around at some Internet services that provide backup and wrote a post on it at http://tinyurl.com/4nfayp.

[Linda Lowrey]

Is anyone familiar with CDP? This is a Canadian Data Protection online backup service. The company is based in Ottawa, Ontario. How does it compare to MozyHome, for example?

Thank you,

Linda

[Robert Gibbs]

I have learned MUCH from Dick since I have subscribed a number of years ago, and probably the most important was BACKUP. After a hard drive crash (it won't happen to me) with a number of disc backups I had set up myself, I was able to recover but it was a terrible chore and I finally said Dick was right, and I signed up with Mozy plus I purchased a large external hard drive. Now I have added a flash drive. A second loss came but I easily restored everything quickly. I am a full believer in that "IT WILL HAPPEN TO ME'.
Thanks Dick. Once burned is once too many!

[Loretta]

I'm using Carbonite. I tried it on the recommendation of Kim Komando, and I'm quite pleased. While it's doing a backup of new data, it does slow my laptop down, but for just under $50 a year, it will automatically backup ANY change I make to files on my laptop, including my extensive video work. I also back up my genealogy files to an exterior hard drive and to another off-site location. The slowdown is an annoyance, but since there are three computers on my home network, one of them in the same work area as my laptop, it's a minor inconvenience compared to losing my work.

[Philip]

I don't know if it has been mentioned before, but one good offsite place to store backup external hard drives, CDs, DVDs, or thumb drives is at the bank. One can rent one of the smallest safety deposit boxes for only $20 a year and store your backups in it. A safety deposit box doesn't facilitate the regular backups of Mozy or software, but it is just as safe and secure.

[Bob Larson]

Dick,

Like yourself, I'm a promoter of backing up important data. I was burned several times before learning the hard way! I recently invested in HP's MediaSmart home server with one TB storage, which does many things besides backing up data and sharing all that data with your networked computers via a router or switch. It's capable of backing up to 4 TBs of storage. There are other similar inexpensive home servers (NAS) available to do the same thing or purchase another computer and run Windows Home Server program on it. Although this seems like a luxury, it's worth it if you use computers every day like I do. I back up everything often on my three computers to the home server. Two of my computers also have backup hard drives, before I purchased a home server. So I feel backing up critical data is very important from past experiences. Like one of your other readers said, "Once burned is once too many!"

[Ellen Healy]

One word of caution about Home Fireboxes. I mentioned this to a friend whose house had burned down after a gas main had been ruptured during town road construction. She had things in a firebox, which didn't melt, but everything in it did! Scorched from the outside heat.

[Bob Hobbs]

Having a backup is great, just make sure you can recover the data if your system crashes. I use Ghost to image my hard drive and add incremental backups to a network attached hard drive. I also keep an image on an external hard drive which I store in a fire proof safe. When my system became corrupted and I tried to restore, it I discovered that the Ghost Boot CD didn't have the drivers for my network card and didn't recognize my USB hard drive. None of my backups were accessible. Eventually I was able to restore my system by using an earlier version of Ghost but it took a day and a half and I was sweating bullets. The moral of this story, Test your restore capability before you need it.

When I moved into my current home, I purchased a quality Fire proof safe. Fire proof Safes are great for documents but they are not "Media" quality and your backup media will not survive a fire. Knowing this, I also purchased a "Converter" which is an insulated box that goes inside the safe and converts it into a Media safe. The Converter takes up a lot of room inside the safe but my backups should be safe should the need arise.

[Howard Faulkner]

15 months ago I purchased an expensive MAXTOR One Touch v. 3 system.
Yesterday it died. Not only is it not covered by warranty (good for one year only), but all my data is lost. My hard drive is still OK so I'll immediately be in the market for a new back-up system. In the mean time I'll put all on CD's.
I am considering a Seagate ST 30504 with 500 GB which will use a USB 2.0 connection. I'll also look for an off site program with a similar size capacity at a fair price. Any recommendations? Thanks, Howard

[Dick Eastman]

---> I'll also look for an off site program with a similar size capacity at a fair price. Any recommendations?

Mozy. See http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2006/12/unlimited_onlin/comments/page/2/

- Dick Eastman

[Cheryl]

We started using Carbonite about 8 months ago! Best thing that we ever did!! Two months into our subscription something happened?? Who knows what? My hard drive locked up big time. I got the blue screen of death. I happened to be working in my Legacy program at the time. Our older son, our techie, came and resurrected my machine. Almost everything was still there ......... except for ............ my genealogy files. Wiped out. I was so distraught. So I sat down, opened my Carbonite program and selected "Restore." In minutes I had all of my genealogy files right back! That was the best $50.00 I ever spent!!
Thanks to Kim Komando for recommending them!

They do offer a free trial for about 2 weeks or so. The first time you back up it takes a L.......o.........n..........g....... time. It took literally days and nights to back up my entire computer the first time. I now have it set to back up once a week automatically. I can also manually run a back up if I have just spent a lot of time updating and adding new information. The program only backs up new or changed info. Doesn't take long at all for that.

The trouble with making CD's, DVD's, etc. etc. is that the technology becomes outdated and that is happening more quickly now. At some point no one will be able to open, read and/or download some of those types of data. Something to keep in mind.

[Roger Root]

I am looking for a recommendation for a backup program what will either create an image of my entire system drive to a second hard drive or copy the system so it is bootable. I have been looking at Shadowprotect Desktop 3.1

I just found out that my new computer, IBM Netvista, has new BIOS code that will not accept my Norton Ghost diskette. With this new computer I am also using NTFS instead of the FAT32 table, thus my Norton Ghost 2002 would probably not be reliable for back up images. Comments anyone?
Roger Root