Data isn't data until it is backed up in two locations, one offsite.

[MarkR]

So, my iMac harddrive was dying, in all the obvious ways. (Slowdowns, weird noises, I/O errors, etc.), and since it was just under warranty, I had it replaced at the local Apple store, after first making sure that everything on it was backed up on an external HDD through Time Machine.

Got the iMac back, plugged in the Time Machine, and ... nothing. Not a sausage. Ran Disk Utility and determined that the backup drive was in worse shape than my original iMac drive. Everything on it, over 100 gigabytes of pictures, documents, and applications were gone forever.

Or would be, if I didn't have a crashplan (http://www.crashplan.com) account.

I'm in the process of restoring everything now, and it's slow going, but it looks like I will not lose any photos or documents.

Moral of the story: don't just rely on a Time Machine-like backup solution. Million-to-one failures crop up nine times out of ten. Get a second backup solution, preferably one that is off-site, and keep it up to date. :thumb

[Yergi]

I grin sometimes when i watch my time machine arrow twirl. But you are right. It is still in the house, and still victim to the same theft, and fire, and power surge. I will visit your link. Good reminder.

[MarkR]

There are other options out there too for 3rd party backup. I believe Crashplan came highly recommended in another thread on these boards, and so far, works as advertised!

[colourbox]

Ran Disk Utility and determined that the backup drive was in worse shape than my original iMac drive. Everything on it, over 100 gigabytes of pictures, documents, and applications were gone forever.

The IT community actually has a guideline about this. In addition to "Have multiple backups" and "Get them offsite," the situation above is why they also say "Verify your backups." In other words test the restore capability to make sure the backups are actually good. Apparently the situation you ran into happens far too often...bad data tapes, deteriorated CDs...

Glad you had enough redundancy!

[MarkR]

The IT community actually has a guideline about this. In addition to "Have multiple backups" and "Get them offsite," the situation above is why they also say "Verify your backups." In other words test the restore capability to make sure the backups are actually good. Apparently the situation you ran into happens far too often...bad data tapes, deteriorated CDs...

Glad you had enough redundancy!

As a member of the IT community, I obviously agree! :thumb

But sometimes us IT-types don't always follow our own advice when it comes to our personal computers.

(In other news, auto mechanics sometimes skimp on the maintenance on their own cars, and doctors don't always follow their own health advice (http://health.usnews.com/health-news/managing-your-healthcare/healthcare/articles/2011/04/12/health-buzz-doctors-dont-always-follow-their-own-advice). :rolleyes.)

[colourbox]

But sometimes us IT-types don't always follow our own advice when it comes to our personal computers.

What I didn't admit in my post is I haven't even been checking my own backups! Last time I needed to retrieve files from my clone and also from my Time Machine, luckily it did work both times. But I'm just as lazy as anybody, it looks like... :rolleyes

[Dan7312]

Have you noticed any slowdown in the upload rate to Crashplan's servers? I've seen a slowdown and wonder if it is me.

I've got fiber and I'm trying out CrashplanPro. Initially the uploads ran over 8mbs (over 3GB per hour). Now they are running at about at less than 1 mbs per second. I've done a couple of speed tests that register over 8mbs upload consistently and when I do uploads to Amazon S3 they run at over 8mbs like my test show.

TIA for an info,
Dan

There are other options out there too for 3rd party backup. I believe Crashplan came highly recommended in another thread on these boards, and so far, works as advertised!

[JimKarczewski]

Hmm.. CrashPlan seems like one of the better ones with no fee for data amount. My biggest beef with most online is they limit the amount of data. I have 8TB of photos... so yeah, I'm worried about limits... LOL, trying to download crashplan software now and see what it does.

[Dan7312]

Only the $1.50 a month Crashplan cloud backup subscription has a limit on the amount of data you can store. All the rest of the subscriptions, allow unlimited backup and range in price from $3.00/computer to no more than $8.95 a computer per month. 8TB is a lot though, if you don't have really good bandwidth the initial backup would take while:D

What I'm finding, though, is the rate the backup runs at seems to slowed down. Last week I was backing up 3GB an hour now it's less than 1GB an hour. Crashplan says they have no limits on the backup rate so curious if others have seen this.

BTW Backblaze also has no limit on the amount you can backup too.


Dan

Hmm.. CrashPlan seems like one of the better ones with no fee for data amount. My biggest beef with most online is they limit the amount of data. I have 8TB of photos... so yeah, I'm worried about limits... LOL, trying to download crashplan software now and see what it does.

[divamum]

Thanks for posting this. Seriously considering adding this; I'm not as good about backups as I should be (I usually have one on the hard drive, one on an external hdd and I backup paid shoots on DVD as well, but ....)

[JimKarczewski]

LOL, Take a while?

I just checked on CrashPlan this morning.. It says it will take 5.5 YEARS to complete my upload. That's with 2MBit upload speeds... D'oh

[Dan7312]

Since yesterday, maybe Sunday morning the upload rate moved back up 2+GB an hour. Must have been something happening on their servers over the weekend. Still would take a long time for 2TB:wink

[Dan7312]

One of the nice things about Crashplan is that it will backup to the cloud and a local drive too. So if you add a big usb drive to your system you end up with both a "hot" backup when a working drive just goes OTL and one in the cloud for a big event like a lightning strike that fries your systems big time.

Thanks for posting this. Seriously considering adding this; I'm not as good about backups as I should be (I usually have one on the hard drive, one on an external hdd and I backup paid shoots on DVD as well, but ....)