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posted by martyb on Wednesday April 01 2020, @02:55AM   Printer-friendly
from the Backup?-Like-put-it-in-reverse?-That's-when-you-verse-and-verse-again,-right?-Oh. dept.

Coronavirus bound? A perfect at-home project: Backup your data

Tuesday is World Backup Day, a made-up holiday that encourages the the sale of more products like hard drives and USB thumb drives.

That said, when's the last time you actually backed up your phone? Or computer? All of those precious photos sitting on the phone and not backed up could end up as distant memories if you lost the device or had it stolen.

And having your pictures posted on Facebook doesn't count as a backup. The social network greatly lowers the resolution after you've uploaded it, making it unsuitable as a second copy.

We're all at home now. Why not take a few minutes this weekend to back up our media.

I'd rather have a backup than wish I did.


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  • (Score: 4, Insightful) by Fnord666 on Wednesday April 01 2020, @03:30AM (2 children)

    by Fnord666 (652) on Wednesday April 01 2020, @03:30AM (#977915) Homepage
    Unless you've successfully done a restore from your backup, you don't really have a backup. Test your restore process!
    • (Score: 2) by canopic jug on Wednesday April 01 2020, @08:29AM (1 child)

      by canopic jug (3949) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 01 2020, @08:29AM (#977974) Journal

      During the time a copy is plugged in and available, it is only a copy and not a backup. The copy must be offline and preferably offsite to be a backup.

      Additionally, until the time an offline copy has been fully tested through full a restoration somewhere, it is still only a copy.

      As a case in point, rather recently, Maastricht University made two mistakes [nltimes.nl], one of which was a lack of backups. They had no back up for any of their data, instead they relied on online copies kept on another server hoping that backups would never be needed. That was a big mistake. Then another larger mistake was that they were trying to use M$ Windows in place of critical infrastructure. That not only cost them daily productivity but lined them up for getting hit by the ransomware. When that was combined with the lack of backups, then, well, that was all she wrote.

      --
      Money is not free speech. Elections should not be auctions.
      • (Score: 1) by shrewdsheep on Wednesday April 01 2020, @10:39AM

        by shrewdsheep (5215) on Wednesday April 01 2020, @10:39AM (#977989)

        And the restoration has to happen on a continuous basis. Otherwise your offline "backup" is rotting and might not restore when in need (see the RAID5 stories). This implies that there has to be at least a second backup to replace the failing version. In this sense, "offline" should never mean offline in the sense that manual intervention is necessary. I personally think the offline part is overrated and I keep everything online for the purpose of checking. Of course at least one backup needs to be properly protected (pull, not push, login disabled from backupped systems, otherwise hardened, off-site). Also spinning media are required (tape/HD).

  • (Score: -1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 01 2020, @03:53AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 01 2020, @03:53AM (#977919)

    I tried to push too hard and now I need it to be hemarroids day like tomorrow.

  • (Score: 3, Funny) by ilPapa on Wednesday April 01 2020, @04:20AM (1 child)

    by ilPapa (2366) on Wednesday April 01 2020, @04:20AM (#977925) Journal

    God is my backup.

    --
    You are still welcome on my lawn.
    • (Score: 3, Touché) by AnonTechie on Wednesday April 01 2020, @10:05AM

      by AnonTechie (2275) on Wednesday April 01 2020, @10:05AM (#977984) Journal

      I thought that a Three Letter Agency was in-charge of all back-ups ...

      --
      Albert Einstein - "Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I'm not sure about the former."
  • (Score: 1, Informative) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 01 2020, @04:27AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 01 2020, @04:27AM (#977927)

    backup your soul
    backup your porn
    backup your trolls

  • (Score: 4, Informative) by fido_dogstoyevsky on Wednesday April 01 2020, @05:33AM

    by fido_dogstoyevsky (131) <axehandleNO@SPAMgmail.com> on Wednesday April 01 2020, @05:33AM (#977939)

    ...when's the last time you actually backed up your phone?...

    Never. Nothing important ever stays on my phone, and very VERY rarely even visits.

    ...All of those precious photos sitting on the phone...

    Anything precious would have been taken on my camera...

    --
    It's NOT a conspiracy... it's a plot.
  • (Score: 2) by jelizondo on Wednesday April 01 2020, @05:51AM

    by jelizondo (653) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 01 2020, @05:51AM (#977942) Journal

    Most important of all:

    Have you backed-up your DHF?

    To multiple satellites?

  • (Score: 2) by DannyB on Wednesday April 01 2020, @03:44PM

    by DannyB (5839) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 01 2020, @03:44PM (#978066) Journal

    Backup day was yesterday.

    Today is April 1. Too bad if you didn't make your backup.

    --
    The lower I set my standards the more accomplishments I have.
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