Comments on: 4 Simple Steps to Protect Your Data From 99.9999% of all Computer Failures. http://www.followsteph.com/2006/07/03/4-simple-steps-to-protect-your-data-from-999999-of-all-computer-failures/ Follow Steph through his real estate and business journeys Sun, 07 Mar 2010 20:28:39 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.5 hourly 1 By: FollowSteph.com - Is Your Backup Solution Actually Good? http://www.followsteph.com/2006/07/03/4-simple-steps-to-protect-your-data-from-999999-of-all-computer-failures/comment-page-1/#comment-104310 FollowSteph.com - Is Your Backup Solution Actually Good? Mon, 22 Jun 2009 18:32:14 +0000 http://www.followsteph.com/2006/07/03/4-simple-steps-to-protect-your-data-from-999999-of-all-computer-failures/#comment-104310 [...] failure, a virus, and so on. It happens all the time. So much so that a few years ago I wrote 4 Simple Steps to Protect Your Data From 99.9999% of all Computer Failures to help prevent this from happening to as many people as [...] [...] failure, a virus, and so on. It happens all the time. So much so that a few years ago I wrote 4 Simple Steps to Protect Your Data From 99.9999% of all Computer Failures to help prevent this from happening to as many people as [...]

]]> By: Steph http://www.followsteph.com/2006/07/03/4-simple-steps-to-protect-your-data-from-999999-of-all-computer-failures/comment-page-1/#comment-553 Steph Fri, 07 Jul 2006 19:20:25 +0000 http://www.followsteph.com/2006/07/03/4-simple-steps-to-protect-your-data-from-999999-of-all-computer-failures/#comment-553 Hi Neville, Yes I was very fortunate, partly due to my diligence like yourself. It's unfortunate how many people today still get hit hard by these kinds of issues... That's interesting idea for the USB key, I never thought of that. If you set it up correctly, you could almost move from box to box with your completely updated system! And thank you for the link to your article, it really elaborates on your backup process. I'll be looking into TrueCrypt very soon. Also for coding, I don't know if you use such a system, but CVS is great for version control, especially if you have an extra PC. This gives you another level of protection for your source code which is critical to your business. Something I didn't bother to mention, which I've just started to implement, is Raid 1 for my data. I use Raid 0 for my main system disk for performance reasons, but I now use Raid 1 for critical data (at least I started this week). For those of you who aren't familiar with Raid system, <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redundant_array_of_independent_disks" rel="nofollow">wikipedia has a great article here</a>. In essence Raid 1 means that you have two seperate hard drives that act as 1, replicating each other continually so should one drive fail, the other will still have all the data right now. Raid 0 is where the two drives split the information between each other (rather than replicate) and is more risky because should either drive fail, the whole thing goes down because you just lost half your data (you trade performance for risk). There are a number of other Raid system, where you can get both of these aspects together (extra security and performance) but they quickly get more costly. Hi Neville,

Yes I was very fortunate, partly due to my diligence like yourself. It’s unfortunate how many people today still get hit hard by these kinds of issues…

That’s interesting idea for the USB key, I never thought of that. If you set it up correctly, you could almost move from box to box with your completely updated system!

And thank you for the link to your article, it really elaborates on your backup process. I’ll be looking into TrueCrypt very soon.

Also for coding, I don’t know if you use such a system, but CVS is great for version control, especially if you have an extra PC. This gives you another level of protection for your source code which is critical to your business.

Something I didn’t bother to mention, which I’ve just started to implement, is Raid 1 for my data. I use Raid 0 for my main system disk for performance reasons, but I now use Raid 1 for critical data (at least I started this week).

For those of you who aren’t familiar with Raid system, wikipedia has a great article here. In essence Raid 1 means that you have two seperate hard drives that act as 1, replicating each other continually so should one drive fail, the other will still have all the data right now. Raid 0 is where the two drives split the information between each other (rather than replicate) and is more risky because should either drive fail, the whole thing goes down because you just lost half your data (you trade performance for risk). There are a number of other Raid system, where you can get both of these aspects together (extra security and performance) but they quickly get more costly.

]]> By: Neville Franks http://www.followsteph.com/2006/07/03/4-simple-steps-to-protect-your-data-from-999999-of-all-computer-failures/comment-page-1/#comment-552 Neville Franks Fri, 07 Jul 2006 10:40:23 +0000 http://www.followsteph.com/2006/07/03/4-simple-steps-to-protect-your-data-from-999999-of-all-computer-failures/#comment-552 Stephane, Great to hear this worked out ok. I'm a backup fanatic. The thought of loosing some code I've toiled over for the past few hours is too much to bear. I do all the backup processes you do and more. One in particular worth mentioning is a USB stick. I've got a 1G stick encrypted with TrueCrypt. My editor has the capability of mirroring all file saves to another drive, and I have this setup for the USB stick. Whenever I walk out the door the USB stick goes with me, just like a security blanket. I've written about TrueCrypt on my Blog at http://blog.surfulater.com/2005/06/09/securing-information/ It is a great app, and free. I've also recently switched to using Backup4All, which I quite like. I use this for doing my offsite backups, amongst other things. And yes I'm an Acronis TrueImage user. Stephane, Great to hear this worked out ok. I’m a backup fanatic. The thought of loosing some code I’ve toiled over for the past few hours is too much to bear. I do all the backup processes you do and more. One in particular worth mentioning is a USB stick. I’ve got a 1G stick encrypted with TrueCrypt. My editor has the capability of mirroring all file saves to another drive, and I have this setup for the USB stick. Whenever I walk out the door the USB stick goes with me, just like a security blanket.

I’ve written about TrueCrypt on my Blog at http://blog.surfulater.com/2005/06/09/securing-information/ It is a great app, and free.

I’ve also recently switched to using Backup4All, which I quite like. I use this for doing my offsite backups, amongst other things. And yes I’m an Acronis TrueImage user.

]]> By: Steph http://www.followsteph.com/2006/07/03/4-simple-steps-to-protect-your-data-from-999999-of-all-computer-failures/comment-page-1/#comment-545 Steph Tue, 04 Jul 2006 02:28:14 +0000 http://www.followsteph.com/2006/07/03/4-simple-steps-to-protect-your-data-from-999999-of-all-computer-failures/#comment-545 Hi Bill, Thank you for the positive comment! You can post some quotes if you wish, or summarize it but please do not copy the content and provide a link to the original article for credit (pretty much what I do when citing someone else's content). I ask this because it's good to avoid duplicate content acrross websites (full articles, as well as just large portions) because it might penalize both of us on the search engines such as Google. Hi Bill,

Thank you for the positive comment!

You can post some quotes if you wish, or summarize it but please do not copy the content and provide a link to the original article for credit (pretty much what I do when citing someone else’s content).

I ask this because it’s good to avoid duplicate content acrross websites (full articles, as well as just large portions) because it might penalize both of us on the search engines such as Google.

]]> By: Bill http://www.followsteph.com/2006/07/03/4-simple-steps-to-protect-your-data-from-999999-of-all-computer-failures/comment-page-1/#comment-544 Bill Mon, 03 Jul 2006 21:52:12 +0000 http://www.followsteph.com/2006/07/03/4-simple-steps-to-protect-your-data-from-999999-of-all-computer-failures/#comment-544 Great writeup! May I post it at my blog, credited of coure? Great writeup! May I post it at my blog, credited of coure?

]]> By: Steph http://www.followsteph.com/2006/07/03/4-simple-steps-to-protect-your-data-from-999999-of-all-computer-failures/comment-page-1/#comment-543 Steph Mon, 03 Jul 2006 21:30:17 +0000 http://www.followsteph.com/2006/07/03/4-simple-steps-to-protect-your-data-from-999999-of-all-computer-failures/#comment-543 Hi Christopher, Yes, you're absolutely right! I did forget to mention the regularly scheduled backups because it's become obvious to me over time. Thanks for pointing it out. Hi Christopher,

Yes, you’re absolutely right! I did forget to mention the regularly scheduled backups because it’s become obvious to me over time. Thanks for pointing it out.

]]> By: Christopher Wilson http://www.followsteph.com/2006/07/03/4-simple-steps-to-protect-your-data-from-999999-of-all-computer-failures/comment-page-1/#comment-542 Christopher Wilson Mon, 03 Jul 2006 20:42:52 +0000 http://www.followsteph.com/2006/07/03/4-simple-steps-to-protect-your-data-from-999999-of-all-computer-failures/#comment-542 You forgot to mention step 0: HAVE A BACK UP SCHEDULE AND STICK TO IT. Most of the time, a home user doesn't back up their data because they're not willing to learn the tool or they're too busy to follow their back up schedule. Having one and not sticking to it doesn't make you any more pre-pared for a disaster. (I know its obvious, but it always bears repeating with regards to back ups.) You forgot to mention step 0: HAVE A BACK UP SCHEDULE AND STICK TO IT.

Most of the time, a home user doesn’t back up their data because they’re not willing to learn the tool or they’re too busy to follow their back up schedule. Having one and not sticking to it doesn’t make you any more pre-pared for a disaster.

(I know its obvious, but it always bears repeating with regards to back ups.)

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