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toblix

Keeping your data safe

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I've become terrified of losing files too. I've started using Dropbox for an online backup of the most crucial (work) files, on top of an external hard drive. With the free 2GB, you don't get enough space for music and photos, though.

I think at some point I'd consider paying for online backups, perhaps if the sync was really smart and just pulled from certain folders so I didn't need to worry about putting it in the right sync-spot on my computer (which also uses double the hard disk space of course). Is there anything like that?

Edited by Simon

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Also, CDs and DVDs sometimes fail, but it's easier to make multiple backups I guess.

Everything sometimes fails.

God is dead.

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Does somebody need to be administratively raped through the pants?

Really bizarre spam, seemingly normal then later edited.

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Really bizarre spam, seemingly normal then later edited.

Oh no, spammers are evolving!

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Hey toblix, thanks for reminding me about this thread via twitter now that I'm in a similar situation :frusty:

How did you get recuva to find your fucked up drives? I've got my drives hooked up on my computer, but recuva only finds my C: drive.

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Hey toblix, thanks for reminding me about this thread via twitter now that I'm in a similar situation :frusty:

How did you get recuva to find your fucked up drives? I've got my drives hooked up on my computer, but recuva only finds my C: drive.

I used Recuva to recover files from formatted disks, not the RAID ones. Exactly how upfucked are your drives? Do they spin up?

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I actually lost all the data on a drive when it got hit by a horrible virus. Although I was trying to download a no-cd crack for a game I had lost the cd for from a very suspicious website. On a computer running no antivirus software. So it was completely my fault, that time.

Soon, lo and behold! Advertisements started streaming through my speakers whenever I was connected to the internet, and I couldn't open .exe's.

I never lost a terabyte of data, though. Jesus. I would feel horrible if I lost the 30-odd songs I've made since switching to Windows 7.

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I'd just like to say, Piriform is probably one of the best software companies out there. I mean, look at their FREE products... they are amazing. Besides that, I've been in some similar situations and have had success using Zero Assumption Recovery - another free tool. I was even able to repair a corrupted SD card with it.

http://www.z-a-recovery.com/

Also, on a related note, we use FreeNAS at work with AllWay Sync to transparently and hassle-lessly back-up/propagate our files. AllWay Sync is great because it only uploads newer files, but also nice because it can propagate deletions and changes as well.

Edited by Drath

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So god damn it I bought a while ago a new Western Digital external HDD to replace my old Lacie.

Today the stupid thing changed itself to RAW format and now I fucking lost 390GB of data and that is my life! I really really REALLY hope I can recover my data back...

How can I recover this thing I think this is different from having a flash stick that I had previously with this kind of problem as this one has a real HDD inside it?

I will seriously die if I lost my data.

EDIT: Seems this Z-A-Recovery might be the one I need IF I would pay the license as the free portion limits to 4 folders per run and I have a looooot of folders on that HDD. Recuva was useless as it doesn't recognize RAW system type. Also Handy Recovery doesn't seem to recognize HDD RAW, even though it did recognize the USB stick RAW status when I had it with one USB memory stick.

EDIT2: YES! It worked! Z-A Recovery is amazing. The best $29,95 I've spent in a long time.

Edited by Kolzig

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FUCK

My FreeNAS box has went to shit. The last couple of days I've been treating it a bit badly, pulling out and replacing disks, just to make sure everything's working properly. As it turns out, everything did not work properly. I've seen a wide array of different error messages, and during the last hours of its terminal phase, there was clicking sounds from hard drives and horrible scary stuff like that. My theory is that the software isn't at fault, but rather the hardware. I especially suspect the weird, buzzing external PSU that came with the cheap, flimsy Chenbro case I had stuck everything in. I've just ordered proper parts for a new box, and though it will be much larger (midi ATX tower versus super-tiny cheap plastic flimsy piece of shit Chenbro case) my hope is that I'll be able to build the new box, stick in the old drives and be on my merry way.

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Shit man, I'm sorry to hear that. You were so pleased with it, too.

Past year, I've had terrible luck with data - first our Time Capsule hard drive failed, then my MacBook died spectacularly in the middle of listening to a Thumbs, then the replacement USB drive I got to replace the time capsule died when a cat led to a sudden removal of the power cord.

These days I use Dropbox for my vital stuff - meaning work and school documents - but I'm considering using AWS for offsite backup. Only considering, though - nothing (like, say, a drive failure) has prodded me into actually doing it yet.

Edited by subbes
(SUB: PLEASE FIX)

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Shit man, I'm sorry o hear that. you were so pleased with it, too.

I was super pleased! The only thing I had my doubts about was the build quality of the case, and more critically the PSU that came with it. It's a pretty large external brick that gives off this horrible buzzing sound when power is not drawn. I'm not totally convinced that it's to blame for what's happened, but I don't know what else it could be. I guess I'll find out next week.

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Don't worry, it's just my usual reaction when I expect open source software to function like Windows, readily using my installed hardware without question. Turns out there's no Solaris driver for my onboard network adapter.

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Quote from the most passionate open source advocates I've known: "My next phone is going to be an iPhone. I had one of those, and now I have an Android one, and I've decided I want a phone again instead of another fucking project". That said, rooting and flashing new ROMs got a lot simpler in the past six months.

Ubuntu got impressive for a while, but I tried installing the netbook version recently and found the solution to one of the issues was "Buy different wifi adapter. Dismantle netbook. Replace wifi adapter. Then dick around with drivers".

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Here it is, the update everyone's been waiting for. Since my last post I've built a brand new NAS from less shitty parts, switched from FreeNAS to NexentaStor, and an SSD instead of a USB stick. In addition to the four disks in my original NAS, I bought four more: one to replace the one that actually turned out to broken, one as a hot spare (the NAS will switch to this automatically if a disk breaks) and two for taking a simple NTFS no-nonsense backup of everything on there. Being unable to fix the permanently damaged ZFS volume from my FreeNAS I've decided to just dump everything to my two backup disks and start fresh with NexentaStor. It's a tad more fiddly, but has some nice stuff like sending me fucking emails letting me know when everything has turned to shit. I'm getting around 60MB/s write speed dumping everything back, which I'm happy with.

The current moral is: if you're making a NAS to keep your data on, remember:

  • A NAS is not a backup, only a way of keeping your files safer and network accessible.
  • Don't try to be all smart buying tiny Chinese cases – everything will explode in your face and you'll end up twisting off the cheap plastic hinges like they're made of cream, and probably inhale some hard core carcinogens in the process.
  • ZFS is the motherfucking bomb. If you're not afraid to type commands in like a movie hacker, ZFS has never stopped impressing me with its apparent robustness, even in the face of the gravest of my many mistakes.
  • Profit!

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