Jumping on the dog pile toward the end, it’s always good to see data backup getting more air time. Few conversations are as awkward as when your less technically inclined friends lose data and expect you to fix it.
Paraphrasing an actual conversation I’ve had:
“Hey, I can’t access my pictures any more, it just pauses for a while and then gives me some error. Can you help?”
“Sure, has your computer done anything else unusual lately? Started making odd sounds, or having other errors?”
“No, nothings changed, I just turned it one today and nothing works!”
*Examine the computer, notice loud and painful noises coming from the area of the hard disk.
“Sounds like your hard disk is dying”
“Ohh, that noise? It can’t be that, it’s been making that noise for months!”
The only thing more painful than the above is when they still won’t consider a backup solution. Because “what are the odds of it happening again? I mean, it’s never happened to me before.”
- If your running Linux, there is no reason not to use RAID1. None. Hard disks are inexpensive enough to make it affordable for your primary drive, and additionally, you will get improved performance in most common tasks.
For example, application startup is usually constrained by disk seek performance. The Kernel MD driver is smart enough to interleave requests between disks. So not only do you get improved data security and less hassle when your disk(s) fail, your day-today usage will be faster as well.
- RAID1 is not a backup strategy. Here’s a hypothetical, take two HDDs manufactured at the same time on the same production line. Put them in the same operating environment, and expose them to nearly identical usage patterns. How independent do you think their failures will be?
I’ve seen it happen many times, to myself and others. It’s not an absolute of course, but it’s a lot more probable than you’d expect simply considering independent failure.
- Offsite backup services are plentiful, give serious consideration to it. Many offer the additional convenience of remote access to your files, which can be a plus if you ever need emergency access to your data.
There are dozens, if not hundreds, of ways to do offsite backup of your data. For example, my company (Zettabyte Storage) offers what is essentially a Linux based NAS device with offsite backup of all the data stored on it. It’s extremely simple to use, ranges from ~$1.50 to $0.30 per GB per month, and has capacity between 30GB and 690GB. Use it like an external HDD, point your preferred backup application to it, and you’ve got offsite backup with essentially zero additional work.
Whatever your needs are for backup, there is almost certainly something out there that can satisfy you. Whether it’s writing your own backup solution, using a software OTS solution, or using a hardware OTS solution like ours, there is pretty much no excuse for losing the data which is meaningful to you.
Unless you plan on taking the initial suggestion made in the article, do your self a favor and find a way to backup your data. Sure it generally costs a few dollars a month, but recovering data, or taking the time to recreate it all, isn’t exactly free either.
