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Thread ID: 91381	2008-07-05 04:13:00	The importance of Back ups	beetle (243)	Press F1

Post ID	Timestamp	Content	User
685391	2008-07-05 04:13:00	This is in reguards a work laptop or 2 . and blind faith . :groan: :crying Just recently work had to have their floors redone, and so everything got the move, and the floor entirely cleared for the new lino to go down . The boss was in charge of putting back the office, laptops etc in some sort of order . Just recently i had 2 weeks off work, now i am about 6 months away from completing my teacher regerstration . and so have a lot of paper work to do, and show, we also do a profile for our individual children so when they leave the centre they have a great folder to show what they did while here . We have 2 external hardrives, maxtor i think? and a work server for storage as well . alas the hardrives were not conected, and so while i was away work decided to do a clean out of files . . . . . . . . . . . . . some happend to be mine, 18 months - 2 yrs worth of work . gone, i have nothing to show for it, because i had blind faith in the fact we had to external hardrives here sitting on the desk, connected . . . . . . . . . . . but not turned on, and they havnt backed up since last term, or even earlier . and the recycle bin was emptied, and so alas, i am gutted . we have discussed this as a team, and decided that in future no one can delete some one else's work . and i will be making copies of my work, in the future, once i have something to copy . i dont know when this stuff was deleted, but early on in the first week, and 2 weeks have gone past since it was done, and yes we have searched, and the I T guy has searched, and its be defragged and stuff, so its long gone, i cant spend $$ finding it . so i am gutted . . . . . . . . . but i have learnt a lesson . Oh and it is not showing up on the server, so it was deleted from there too, and the back up hardrives dont seem to have anything helpful or up to date either . . . . . Back up always even when you think you safe . :crying beetle	beetle (243)
685392	2008-07-05 05:03:00	How awful . :dogeye: You would think as a business they would have more robust backup systems so this shouldn't ever happen . <gives beetle a hug>	Jen (38)
685393	2008-07-05 05:14:00	It may still be there- when items are deleted they are not actually removed, every item, document, photo etc on a PC/Server has whats called a start and a stop Bit, when you delete something it simply removes the start bit that windows uses as a reference to the item. The data stays there until the now, what windows thinks is spare space is over written. Thats how the cops recover data from confiscated PC's, the person thinks deleting the evidence, offending material is safe, as its gone ---NOPE!!!, even formatting a drive, data is recoverable. The IT Guy should know that doing a standard search, or even in depth search will result in ZIP!! Nothing. :groan: Thats basic stuff geees What needs to happen is the drive taken out of the machine, put onto another PC as a slave, then a data recovery program installed on the machine and run through the drive the data was deleted from - chances are, esp if the drive is of a good size, Some if not ALL of the data is still there. The recovery programs look for data, ignoring the missing start bit, then when its recovered to another medium, the start bit is put back - and bingo - theres your data. I use a program called Get Data Back (www.runtime.org) - is the work woth $79.00 USA ??? There is a free trial that looks at the drive, and tells you what it can recover, then if you want to get it back ( no pun intended) you pay the $$ and recover the data. THIS is VERY Important - DO NOT install the recovery software on the Drive thats had the data deleted. There are other free ones , but that one works great - I have even recovered data from formatted drives, and some data going back 3-4 years that had been deleted.	wainuitech (129)
685394	2008-07-05 05:26:00	there lies the problem ............ every day i have been away, new data has been added, new files and folders made, new children starting so new folders being set up, and a whole lot of photos added each day.... anything up to 300 photos a day.... so even if it was there, and it quite possibly is, i dont have the time, $ or resources to get it, and yes the IT guy said this as well, but as this is a work puter, work wont pay to look for my lost work. even tho a work person lost it, work supplies all possible methods for us to save work, its our fault it wasnt working to its potential, and it was a lot of operator trouble it was lost, someone randomly deleting work, and not realising that anything had not been backed up for ages....... this may not have been backed up since xmas, so....... Im going to have to let it go......... and learn by mistake of thinking others wont get rid of my work, and that it was backed up........ i had no reason to believe either of things were ever going to happen. it has been a harsh learning curve, both on and off the computer, having to confront a problem with a fellow worker, and get over the disapointment of my work meaning nothing so they deleted it, and since it was one of my favourite parts of my work its hard to bear. Oh and its a laptop, which is only 6 months old. beetle:angry :groan: :xmouth: :(	beetle (243)
685395	2008-07-05 06:35:00	Oh and its a laptop, which is only 6 months old Only kidding here - bring the laptop home, ghost the drive to another HD, and run the recovery from the ghosted drive - The Only kidding part is bring the laptop home and ghost the drive - but I have done that before ;) I actually ghosted to a USB Drive at the customers work as they needed the PC at work, and worked on the files at the workshop, they had a damaged .pst file, lost over 2Gb of mail, - got it back though. Moving on - might pay for you to do your own backups,(if you cant trust yourself who can you trust) and check that they have worked - backups should be removed from site, or kept in a fireproof safe / location, and checked regulatory - no good if the building got robbed or burnt down and the back ups are in the same location.	wainuitech (129)
685396	2008-07-05 08:38:00	i had blind faith in the fact we had to external hardrives here sitting on the desk, connected . . . . . . . . . . . but not turned on, and they havnt backed up since last term, or even earlier . Um . Fire the IT guy . Backup devices are supposed to be used on a regular basis . And what about the server, they may have deleted files off it, but there are daily, weekly, monthly backup tapes stored . Or did they not do that either? So who is this IT guy? TSome "I play with my PC at home" type expert? Or a real one? If real then you are entitled to take him out back and have him executed .	pctek (84)
685397	2008-07-05 08:48:00	Well we are in a different building, and it isnt part of his job to look after our machines . Ours is a childcare centre . where the IT guy works is a adult unit for disability services, he teachers the less able adults ( special needs adults i guess you could say) how to use puters . . two seperate entities . and it was supposed to be the boss of my unit to make sure they are connected and working . ive learnt the hard way, and it wasnt me that talked to the IT guy, it was the one who erased it who did, so i was just going by what she said . beetle	beetle (243)
685398	2008-07-05 09:11:00	Only kidding here - bring the laptop home, ghost the drive to another HD, and run the recovery from the ghosted drive - The Only kidding part is bring the laptop home and ghost the drive - but I have done that before ;) I actually ghosted to a USB Drive at the customers work as they needed the PC at work, and worked on the files at the workshop, they had a damaged .pst file, lost over 2Gb of mail, - got it back though. Moving on - might pay for you to do your own backups,(if you cant trust yourself who can you trust) and check that they have worked - backups should be removed from site, or kept in a fireproof safe / location, and checked regulatory - no good if the building got robbed or burnt down and the back ups are in the same location. Would you do that for beetle if she could get a copy? She might be too shy to ask. PJ	Poppa John (284)
685399	2008-08-25 07:17:00	Ok sorry to drag this up again . . . . . . but . . theres a new twist to the saga . :eek: Last friday work decided to upgrade the program that does back ups, change the times it does them, one external hardrive is daily and one is weekly . the new program was installed . and apparently was all go . Now i have a half day on the friday so i went home . this morning the person who arrives before me found that accidently the lappie had been left running all weekend . . . . . . . . . no biggy i think . . . . but she couldnt get it to restart fresh . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . so cold closed it . . . . . . power off . and it started up, went to password page, and got as far as desktop . . . . . . . . . this is when i come in and click on a prog to open to veiw photos . . . . . . . it promptly crashes . . . . . . hmmmmmmmmm so it says encountered a error and must shut down etc, the words take up whole screen . we restart it . and it goes, but very very slow . i get on the net to check some stuff, i leave the room, and we come back and its got a screen full of blue black lines . . . . . . . . . and then black screen, we cannot power off, start up or anything . . . . . . . . . this is where we call the pc guy who was here last week, we dont sound desperate enuf, he doesnt come, on our third phone call he turns up with in minutes . . . he unplugs it, pulls out battery, hums and harhsss . . . . . then takes it away . . . . . . . . . . . sigh, he has no idea, he is going to talk to his work and then ring HP . . . . . . . . so again . . . . . . . . . . . this confounded computer not yet a year old has brought us to its knees . . . . . . . frustration city . so we wait, and hope the back ups have been working as they are supposed to be, and wait for a lappie to come back in one healthy peice . . . . . . . :p beetle:confused:	beetle (243)
685400	2008-08-25 07:31:00	so we wait, and hope the back ups have been working as they are supposed to be, and wait for a lappie to come back in one healthy peice . . . . . . . HOPE they worked ?? part of doing regular backups is also making sure they have worked . What I tell people is take the backups off site unless they have something like a fireproof safe to keep them in - and regularly check that backups are actually doing what they are meant to . No point in backing up if they don't work when required . I do daily backups- two sorts on this PC, one a full backup using windows home server - and another back up program that does only my important data, to a different server in the workshop . Worst case I lose every thing from 8 . 00 pm the night before .	wainuitech (129)
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