Backup Backup Backup

My backup drive recently died. Fortunately all of my important stuff was on one of the computers so if I lost anything it wasn't important.

I discovered the backup drive was dead late in the evening so I did do a bit of scrambling to get everything backed up again. I was fortunate to have about 150 GB of USB flash drives available. That and using the amount of storage left available on Google Drive gave me a quick solution.

This event did make me stop to think about backing up data. I use different Operating Systems on different computers, on my Linux machines I have the OS saved to a USB drive and in the documents folder on my Windows machine. For Windows I have a recovery disc and a system image. 

But the data is the big thing. Everything else is easily replaced. In addition to work files I have lots of pictures of my children and grandchildren. Audio files of conferences. Personal and business data. On and on.

That got me thinking about ways we could lose our data:

• Machine or drive failure
• Disaster (fire, water damage, electrical storm or surge)
• Theft of equipment

In the first case, if your HDD or SSD is still working you can plug it into your new computer to salvage the data. In the second case your machines and data may be gone. In the third case they will be gone.

So what can one do?

For machine or drive failure it's as simple as backing up to a secondary drive. An External Hard Drive is preferred, in my opinion, because if Item 2 hits while you are home you may be able to grab it on your way out.

Items 2 and 3 make me think about an extra external drive that is kept away from home or office and swapped periodically so you always have most of your data preserved in case of disaster or theft. If you're backing up at home you can consider keeping a drive at your office and vice versa. 

Also consider cloud storage and backup. I used the aforementioned Google Drive. If you have a Google account you get 15 GB of storage. If you use Gmail any saved mail counts against your storage. You can buy additional storage if needed.

In addition to Google Drive, there is probably the most famous cloud storage, Dropbox. Dropbox will give you 2 GB of storage for free. Once again you can buy additional storage if needed.

One you may not have heard of is Box. It actually predates Dropbox. Box gives you 10 GB of storage for free, with the option to buy more if needed.

Those are three great services, which combined give you 27 GB of free cloud storage. The only thing with those is the data is not encrypted (unless you encrypt it before uploading) so if your account is hacked anyone can access your data.

Enter MEGA. MEGA is a New Zealand based encrypted cloud storage service. MEGA gives you a huge 50 GB of free storage. The data is encrypted on your machine and uploaded to MEGA. MEGA also doesn't store your password so if you lose it, you've lost your data. On the plus side, since they do not store your password, if MEGA were hacked all the thief would get is encrypted data that he has to try to crack. Once again, if 50 GB isn't enough you can buy additional from this page at MEGA.

So you have physical backup and cloud backup.  But what about when your laptop or backup drive is stolen? Rather than rewrite what has been covered by many, I am going to leave you with a couple links on encrypting your laptop and making a strong passphrase.

Have a good day. And don't forget to run your backups.

EDIT: Foss Force ran this great article. It's a quick read and well worth your time.

Helping in Nepal (and Texas)

 Edited 06/03/15

The same organizations listed below are also busy in Texas helping victims of the recent flooding.  Any donations specified for relief in Texas will go to help folks in Texas.

Unless you've been totally disconnected (a place I wish I could find on occasion) you've surely heard about the earthquake in Nepal, and it's aftermath. In the days after disasters like this there are always many scam artists who spring up seeking to profit from the misery of others and the kind hearts of those who wish to help.

I turned to my friend from Twitter, Marie Wikle, for her guidance. Marie runs the Spreading Joy charity, and her outlook is best described by her Twitter bio - "Have a great desire to give big, but will simply give what I can until that day comes".

Marie recommended two organizations and I'm going to add a third.  Her first recommendation was Samaritan's Purse, a fine organization headed by Franklin Graham.  I'm surprised I didn't think of them but we all have brain blocks at times.

Marie's second recommendation was The Red American Cross.

My recommendation is The Salvation Army.

All three of these organizations will make sure any designated support you give goes to the designated relief effort.

Thank you for anything you are able to do.