![\"Redundancy\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.goatsurfer.com\/images\/redundancy.jpg?resize=620%2C496\")
<\/p>\nThere’s a mantra I like:<\/p>\n
‘Data you don’t have at least two copies of is data you don’t care about’<\/p>\n
Been there (many many years ago) and now believe in ‘redundancy’ on an industrial scale, nicely summed up in this neat ‘Motivational’ poster:<\/p>\n
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But of course not everybody follows this rationale and they keep their whole ‘lives’ on USB sticks which snap, go through the washing Machine, get ate by dogs, erased by alien forces etc. etc.<\/p>\n
Slightly better (but only by a narrow margin) are those that keep their whole ‘lives’ on Portable Hard Drives. The technology is less prone to going FUBAR<\/a> due to its design but sooner or later it WILL<\/strong> bite you in the ass, normally when you least expect it…..Shit Happens, it’s a fact of life but these days you can (should<\/strong>) plan for such disasters by having copies of all your important data in another place So todays customer who shall remain nameless wandered into my office with a forlorn look and asked if i could recover his Low Rent Portable Hard Disk as it contained all his financial records, his college work and his family photos.<\/p>\n I said “Sure, but you have a backup copy someplace, right?” So it gets prised open and attached to the awesome DriveWire<\/a> that’s saved my ass on many occasion and low and behold check the manufacturer:<\/p>\n Again….i won’t make a big deal about this as I don’t want my ass sued but take it from me….don’t buy one of these, buy a Hitachi… So the end of the story is like this…..I manage to get about 40% of the data off Mr Low Rent Portable Hard Drive before it refuses to read and write data and thinks it’s dead, the rest of the data (and the IMPORTANT<\/strong> stuff too) is unrecoverable. Mr Customer goes into the corner to cry…<\/p>\n Lesson 1:<\/strong> There’s a mantra I like: ‘Data you don’t have at least two copies of is data you don’t care about’ Been there (many many years ago) and now believe in ‘redundancy’ on an industrial scale, nicely summed up in this …<\/p>\n
\n(preferable two other places). This is especially important if said Portable Hard Disk is of the Low Rent <\/a>variety…..what we would call in this country ‘Happy Shopper’ (i won’t be more specific just in case I invite a litigation case but you get the idea).<\/p>\n
\nHim….blank look, blinking like a monkey…..then “That is<\/strong> my backup drive”
\nMe “Ah ok, but….oh never mind, leave it with me”<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.goatsurfer.com\/images\/el_crappo_seagate.jpg?resize=620%2C428\")
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\nBuy a good quality device….THEN<\/strong> also back it up to one of the many new fangled Cloud Storage solutions on offer from the likes of Dropbox<\/a>, GoogleDrive <\/a>, SkyDrive<\/a>, or SugarSync <\/a>(other brands are available) then at least you stand a fighting chance if things go Tits Up with all your important shit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"