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[X] Your recent burglary spurred me into action to sort out backups.
My irreplaceable data is probably creeping up towards the 1 Gb mark now. If the city I live and work in was destroyed, I'd not lose it altogether, but would lose up to a year (depending on the last time I dumped a backup onto my father's pooter). And whilst it's not true to say I've never lost irreplaceable data, I've not lost much.
Also, the dividing line between irreplaceable property and irreplaceable data is becoming a bit blurred.
Also, the dividing line between irreplaceable property and irreplaceable data is becoming a bit blurred.
My irreplacable things are irreplacable due to sentimental value.
I haven't lost irreplacable data on this PC yet but am aware it's just a matter of time. My sent-to-a-friend-in-London backups are rather old, too, but at least they exist.
I backed up my mail directory two nights ago, for the first time in (literally) six months.
Crikey, this is depressing.
I haven't lost irreplacable data on this PC yet but am aware it's just a matter of time. My sent-to-a-friend-in-London backups are rather old, too, but at least they exist.
I backed up my mail directory two nights ago, for the first time in (literally) six months.
Crikey, this is depressing.
After having sat in my parents' house and seen would-be burglars walk up the drive (they didn't see me!), and had my mother's car stolen whilst it was in my possession, and had the house I was living in broken into (a flatmate arrived home as the burglar was in my room, but before he had had the chance to take anything), and had the flat above mine ransacked, I'd sadly resigned to the fact that sooner or later someone's going to break into my place and take all my stuff.
Indeed, every day it's a minor relief to come home and find the door and windows unbroken...
Indeed, every day it's a minor relief to come home and find the door and windows unbroken...
I've never lost irreplacable data but through luck not back-ups. Linux can talk to 'dead' HDDs that Windows refuses to see any more; my recent phone crisis turned out to be a case of forgetting that I had got backups for 90% of my numbers on another phone (and real life conversation accounted for the other 10%). I've still 'lost' a couple of pics but they're still physically on the phone, I just can't access them until I buy the correct cable. :-/
I feel that this needs the "and valuable" qualifier - I have lots of irreplacable logs that are of almost no value at all.
Indeed. I'm sure I've lost irreplacable data in the past, but I can't remember what it was, and suspect that if I still had it, I'd look at it quizically and ask myself 'what was that all about, then?'
I have irreplacable things that are irreplacable due to sentimental value.
My irreplacable data is mainly digital images. I've already lost some of these.
My backup strategy is a bit poor, although better than it used to be. The biggest flaw is that it's not automated and relies on me remembering to actually take action every month or two.
My irreplacable data is mainly digital images. I've already lost some of these.
My backup strategy is a bit poor, although better than it used to be. The biggest flaw is that it's not automated and relies on me remembering to actually take action every month or two.
I finally got around to sorting out home contents insurance in the last few weeks, although I suspect it's technically not valid until I work out how to make the bathroom window actually latch.
I think there's an implication of non-interchangeability. Your six-year-old's first painting is irreplaceable because some other kid's painting won't do; someone else's six-year-old's first painting is not irreplaceable because one such painting is likely to be of as much interest to you as any other, even though when your house burns down you won't be able to get exactly the same painting back.
First part is pointless to answer in my opinion - things are not exactly duplicable in the way data is, and thus *everything* is irreplaceable FSVO irreplaceable. Qua the sentimental value criterion - then the number varies from day to day depending how sentimental I'm feeling. Right now, X item may be something I'd be loath to lose, but next week I may change my mind.
Part 2 is hard to answer too - most of my irreplaceable data is work-related, and as such is entrusted to work's backup systems, of which I have little knowledge. They *used* to be crap, but have improved since we brought in an actual sysadmin. Certainly they'd survive my house burning down - but that's because they're not *at* my house, and have never been there.
Part 2 is hard to answer too - most of my irreplaceable data is work-related, and as such is entrusted to work's backup systems, of which I have little knowledge. They *used* to be crap, but have improved since we brought in an actual sysadmin. Certainly they'd survive my house burning down - but that's because they're not *at* my house, and have never been there.
I have a few things it would annoy me very much to lose, and a few quite expensive things, but nothing I couldn't carry on from.
I have no data I genuinely need, but quite a bit (schedules, notes, fiction) it would be very aggravating to lose. It's not officially backed up, but is periodically updated between my computer, and a colo server. I need a better system, but if I lose a few months, that's not such a big deal (unfortunately, or I'd have got around to it).
That would survive my continent being nuked to the bedrock. I'm not sure how I could survive loss of my planet -- I'd probably take my laptop with me if I did. Probably in a sophistry Egan way, in which case I would have the data...
I have no data I genuinely need, but quite a bit (schedules, notes, fiction) it would be very aggravating to lose. It's not officially backed up, but is periodically updated between my computer, and a colo server. I need a better system, but if I lose a few months, that's not such a big deal (unfortunately, or I'd have got around to it).
That would survive my continent being nuked to the bedrock. I'm not sure how I could survive loss of my planet -- I'd probably take my laptop with me if I did. Probably in a sophistry Egan way, in which case I would have the data...
I've counted things as 'irreplacable' if it would take me such a large amount of time and money to replace that I would probably just live without them.
Well, yes, everything is irreplaceable for -some- value thereof but obviously the intended meaning concerns whether you'd go out and buy another one and then forget all about it (or perhaps even be pleased you'd got an upgrade at the insurance company's expense), or whether you'd think that wasn't good enough.
My backup strategy is a bit poor, although better than it used to be. The biggest flaw is that it's not automated and relies on me remembering to actually take action every month or two.
This is what automated diary reminders are for!
This is what automated diary reminders are for!
Like most people who do backups, I imagine, I backup onto portable hard disc drives. But I leave the drives on the table with the computer on, so any half-competent burglar would nick the lot.
I've interpreted "irreplaceable" in its normal rather than literal meaning.
That's not to say I don't take care of things, or that I wouldn't be unimpressed by someone gratuitously depriving me of possessions or data.
I think the distinction I am making is that if all my possessions were destroyed by a natural disaster or accident, the fact that some of them couldn't be replaced or recovered wouldn't be registering at all in my list of priorities.
That's not to say I don't take care of things, or that I wouldn't be unimpressed by someone gratuitously depriving me of possessions or data.
I think the distinction I am making is that if all my possessions were destroyed by a natural disaster or accident, the fact that some of them couldn't be replaced or recovered wouldn't be registering at all in my list of priorities.
Yeah, I really should back up some of my data...
How are chiark's backups these days?
I've lost (personally valuable) irreplaceable data due to it being on old media that could no longer be read by any computer I currently had, and due to not realising I'd lost it until it had fallen off the end of the backups.
Much of my important data exists on several different computers and in hard copy as well, though not always as a result of deliberate backups. Pretty much all my important data could be rewritten, by me, although it would be time-consuming and probably not produce an exact replica of what I wrote the first time. (Though this wouldn't necessarily be bad.) The irreplacable data I've lost in the past has been mainly things like lj or Usenet posts, or Word documents, which I was typing and then lost in some way e.g. the PC crashing unexpectedly. I just had to type them again, probably not quite the same way as they were in the first place.
Some of my data e.g. my thesis, has been emailed to people in other countries, or would exist in Google caches visible from other countries, so it should be recoverable even if the UK were destroyed! But I think actually I might be more worried about other parts of my life than about recovering my thesis if the UK were destroyed.
Some of my data e.g. my thesis, has been emailed to people in other countries, or would exist in Google caches visible from other countries, so it should be recoverable even if the UK were destroyed! But I think actually I might be more worried about other parts of my life than about recovering my thesis if the UK were destroyed.
I'm currently trying to get into the habit of putting a backup on at the same time every week. I'm trying to do this by mentally moving "backups" into the same headspace of household chores which contains concepts like "laundry".
In the unlikely event that I ever find myself bringing up children, I think I'd like to see if I can indoctrinate them from an early age with the idea that backups are a standard household chore. I'm sure they'd thank me for it thirty years later.
In the unlikely event that I ever find myself bringing up children, I think I'd like to see if I can indoctrinate them from an early age with the idea that backups are a standard household chore. I'm sure they'd thank me for it thirty years later.
<nods> I took the effort in 2000 to convert media and burn onto CD-ROM all the data I had in old media—mostly 5¼" floppy disks in ADFS L-format—whilst I still had access to a machines that could read them and convert them to an intermediary format (3½" disk in DOS format) that the machine with the CD-ROM burner could read); also to convert BBC Micro format screenshots in GIF images.
I'm glad I did so; my father's BBC Master is now broken, leaving me with no way to port such media in future.
Now my only problem is the fact all my old programs in BBC BASIC and AMPLE are in tokenised form and unreadable, except on my (own) BBC Master. (I did start a project to convert the former, but ran out of steam after not very long.)
I'm glad I did so; my father's BBC Master is now broken, leaving me with no way to port such media in future.
Now my only problem is the fact all my old programs in BBC BASIC and AMPLE are in tokenised form and unreadable, except on my (own) BBC Master. (I did start a project to convert the former, but ran out of steam after not very long.)
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