Backed up your stuff lately?

[pierces]

Do it now!

 

Don't just do it once and forget it. 

 

Make it part of your normal workflow and do it often.

 

Yesterday was a nightmare for myself and my employer. A widespread ransomware attack locked every file on a large number of company PCs and laptops, including my own. It didn't affect our data or application servers, but a lot of man-hours of work will be needed to cleanse the system and replace lost work (especially if they just re-image the machines and don't pay the ransom). This all happened despite a major security push a couple of years ago that requires second factor authentication (authorization code sent to user's phone) and disabling the USB port on all company computers to prevent unauthorized uploads or downloads. Sadly, this cost me dearly since I would regularly backup working files and my local SQL server to a removable drive. As it is, I may have lost a couple of years worth of development if the corporate OneDrive doesn't have some form of further backup in place. Why? Because the OneDrive solution instituted at the time of the USB lockdown faithfully copied and overwrote my OneDrive backups with the corrupted files before I realized I was compromised.

 

Fortunately, my work computer was connected to the company network via VPN when it happened and though it may have tried to infect my home machine on the local network, I have Windows Defender active and set to only run authorized programs as well as Malwarebytes Anti-Exploit shielding my browsers. Whether because of the protection or pure luck, it didn't get to me and I dodged a bullet. Had it succeeded, I would have only have lost the few files I added since the weekend. Every Sunday, I back up everything locally to a second internal drive, the always-connected external and one of two portables (alternated every other week) from the safe. The connected drives would have been compromised but the backups in the safe could be restored after clearing the local and connected drives and re-installing Windows.

 

I also have a OneDrive directory that synchs local and cloud files and since this happened, I changed it to on-demand synching rather than continuous.

 

I may buy one of these for the nice folks in our IT department.

 

 

Maybe not. I don't want a three-generation-old laptop with a cracked screen and missing "e" key when the next refresh cycle comes around. 😉

 

This was a real wake-up call that I'm happy to say didn't catch me sleeping. It did, however, poke me hard enough to prompt this thread to remind all of you that backups are really important because it isn't a matter of if data can be lost but when it will happen.

 

Dave

[govindvkumar]

I usually take multiple back ups of my photos. Two back ups in two separate hard disks from two different companies and an online cloud back up. I have bad experiences of losing images in the past because of hard drives getting corrupt.

[cherylgrrl]

A great warning to all of us who pay megabucks for expensive cruises then risk the fruits of our photographic labors due to lack of backup. A couple years ago I decided not to carry my big heavy DSLR with me on a 2-week river cruise from Budapest to Amsterdam. Since I had a nifty Samsung Galaxy phone that took great pictures I thought I would try freeing myself. When we arrived in Amsterdam, a team of pickpockets nearly knocked me over in a bus and stole my phone. Won't do that again! And now I make sure all my phone pics are backed up to Google Photo and Amazon Prime Photo. Google Photo works really well, Amazon Prime not so much. But eventually I get the photos uploaded to Amazon for two backups. But now my Sony A7II has a reserved spot for every trip.

 

I recently went to Antarctica and didn't want to drag along my laptop. I found a neat Western Digital solution. I can stick a chip in and have it automatically copy over all the files, leaving the originals in place on my camera chip. Much less weight and I was also able to use the device's wifi capability to copy over selected pictures direct to my iPad so other cruisers could ooh and aah over them! 

 

At home, I must have 4 or 5 copies of my pictures folders going back to 2003. Probably my most precious possession! I still need to rent a safe deposit box and store one of the drives off site... 

[chipmaster]

Digital storage:  

 

0) I have never been a cloud guy all at home

1) The portable media ( probably dump them once a month in the old days, these days once a quarter to half a year, them 64GB cards hold a lot )

2) Primary copy my home compueter

3) Backup copy portable HDD that travels with me ( 3 TB), I'm on the road 70% of the time 

4) Backup copy II at home (3TB) seperate from my computer and off the network

5) Have older pictures on archived portable HDD1 ( 1 TB  start-2012 ), HDD2 (  2TB start-2017 ), then the current two HDD ( 3TB start - current )

 

In the end the best pictures are a few extra places floating around.   

 

 

[mskaufman]

I have two portable HDD drives.  One at home and one at another location.  I sync them about once a month and they are my picture backup.

[487]

On 7/20/2019 at 9:02 PM, cherylgrrl said:

 

 

I recently went to Antarctica and didn't want to drag along my laptop. I found a neat Western Digital solution. I can stick a chip in and have it automatically copy over all the files, leaving the originals in place on my camera chip. Much less weight and I was also able to use the device's wifi capability to copy over selected pictures direct to my iPad so other cruisers could ooh and aah over them! 

 

 

May I ask what exactly is the Western Digital solution?  My husband is looking for a way to backup his pictures while we travel without having to take a laptop. Thanks

[cherylgrrl]

33 minutes ago, 487 said:

 

May I ask what exactly is the Western Digital solution?  My husband is looking for a way to backup his pictures while we travel without having to take a laptop. Thanks

 

I bought the WD My Passport Wireless Pro. It cost about $170. There is a solid state version that is more expensive, but this has worked fine for me.

[mskaufman]

38 minutes ago, 487 said:

 

May I ask what exactly is the Western Digital solution?  My husband is looking for a way to backup his pictures while we travel without having to take a laptop. Thanks

 

Not sure about the Western Digital solution.  I download pictures to a tablet (never deleting them from the card).  The tablet is then set to automatically upload to the cloud when there is free wifi.

[487]

1 hour ago, cherylgrrl said:

 

I bought the WD My Passport Wireless Pro. It cost about $170. There is a solid state version that is more expensive, but this has worked fine for me.

 

Thank you. He’ll check into it.