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Ghetto > Redundant Hard Drives

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crackerjax

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 5, 2009
9
0
Just a word of advice to anyone that thinks their data is safe because they back things up to multiple hard drives across multiple rooms. When someone breaks into your house and steals all those hard drives, it doesn't matter how many copies of the data you had.

Good thing is I had some of it back up online, but I lost the last 3 1/2 years of photos. Apparently my youngest son doesn't exist.

Sad thing is they took the digital picutre frames too that had all my home movies (low quality, but better than nothing) in them too.

So anyway, word to the wise, backup hard drives are nothing, optical discs are nothing. Back it up online because you can't stop everything that's attacking your house. Excuse me while I put my house up for sale, I mean foreclose.

-Nick
 
Hellhammer

Hellhammer

Moderator emeritus
Dec 10, 2008
22,164
582
Finland
I'm sorry :( All criminals should get a death penalty or something more cruel than 1 year in prison, something like they do in middle-East, cut thieves hand in public.
 
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crackerjax

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 5, 2009
9
0
No, the safe thing is a very good idea. Are they connected inside the safe, as in plugged in and constantly updated? I was looking for a hard drive safe last time I was broken into but didn't find anything that would work. Buy a normal one and drill into it?
 
robbieduncan

robbieduncan

Moderator emeritus
Jul 24, 2002
25,611
893
Harrogate
crackerjax said:
No, the safe thing is a very good idea. Are they connected inside the safe, as in plugged in and constantly updated? I was looking for a hard drive safe last time I was broken into but didn't find anything that would work. Buy a normal one and drill into it?
Click to expand...

No, I take it out every two weeks, clone to it and then lock it back in the safe. I have a Time Capsule as well for accidental deletes etc. I figure that every couple of weeks is OK: I can live with the small data loss that might happen between backups. The Time Capsule is out of the way so less likely to be stolen, but you never know. I am considering a Kensington lock for it to make it a little more secure...
 
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crackerjax

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 5, 2009
9
0
I have my internal HD mirrored onto an external a few times a week (used to have time machine but it kept failing) and a media drive with a duplicate right next to it, plus a scratch disc for my avchd video. Well, last time I had my backup drive in the closet connected to an old laptop that was rsyncing between the media drive on the mac and the backup drive. They stole the backup drive, left the main alone. Now, I had both backup drives next to eachother since I don't have any more laptops to put in the closet, and they're both gone.

I put up flyers all around the townhouse complex with a $1000 reward but I doubt that will get me anywhere. Hopefully one of the criminals or their friends wants cash more than strangely formatted hard drives without cables.

This looks nice, but uh, outside my budget. I'd have to weld a safe around it though.
https://iosafe.com/4x1TB-NAS-storage-appliance

I'd be happy if I could find a firewire drive but every "safe" drive appears to be USB. How am I going to edit HD video (they left the camera but took all the video) on a USB drive?
 
TJRiver

TJRiver

macrumors 6502
Jan 14, 2009
269
0
Good ideas in this thread, but does anyone find " Ghetto > Redundant Hard Drives" a touch offensive. Thieves are thieves. The word "Ghetto" has nothing to do with it, and carries an offensive stereotype. Why not "Barrio"? How about "White Trash Trailer Parks"?

It is pretty easy to avoid, simply title the thread accurately, e.g. "Multiple drive backups can't protect against theft".


I'm just saying....................:D
 
robbieduncan

robbieduncan

Moderator emeritus
Jul 24, 2002
25,611
893
Harrogate
TJRiver said:
Good ideas in this thread, but does anyone find " Ghetto > Redundant Hard Drives" a touch offensive. Thieves are thieves. The word "Ghetto" has nothing to do with it, and carries an offensive stereotype. Why not "Barrio"? How about "White Trash Trailer Parks"?

It is pretty easy to avoid, simply title the thread accurately, e.g. "Multiple drive backups can't protect against theft".


I'm just saying....................:D
Click to expand...

On the otherhand I only clicked on this due to the unusual/almost amusing thread title. I was expecting a picture of a stack of ancient low capacity drives being used for interesting purposes but got this instead :)
 
bartelby

bartelby

macrumors Core
Jun 16, 2004
19,795
34
robbieduncan said:
On the otherhand I only clicked on this due to the unusual/almost amusing thread title. I was expecting a picture of a stack of ancient low capacity drives being used for interesting purposes but got this instead :)
Click to expand...

Same here...

I was most disappointed...:(
 
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crackerjax

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 5, 2009
9
0
I don't mean to be offensive with the "ghetto" title, but I really do live in a ghetto. A large majority of the people that live here are black, on welfare, and many are prostitutes and drug dealers. When I asked the homeowner's association why the security gates were left open the said the drug dealers break the gates so their clients can get in more easily.

Besides, ghetto can be white trash as well, or jewish i.e. WWII, but the point is there are people here that society doesn't want to acknowledge, and I am a simple civil servant on one income trying to take care of my family of four and live within my means. So this is what I can afford to live in. Sadly, not buying $1000 of hard drives from the insurance claim isn't going to allow me to double my mortgage and move out of this mess. As my wife and I predicted when we got married, we'd be living in a two room shack in the ghetto, filled with nice toys and shiny gadgets.
 
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crackerjax

macrumors newbie
Original poster
Jul 5, 2009
9
0
At this point we've tried 4 houses in another area but the banks have always had problems selling them, or with the inspections they had broken roofs or broken plumbing. We got an acceptance on the same house 3 times in a year, but banks can't get it done. The real downer is I've lost 75% of the sale price of my house since I bought it 3 years ago. So I'm way upside down, no chance to sell, can only rent at a substantial loss, neighborhood is going to crap, and houses in the price range I can now afford are just as bad an area.
With the wife out of work and at school (epic fail, 1 yr of prerequisites, out of work, and can't get into a nursing program with her 4.0 gpa and double business major because of a community college class she took when she was 16) we've been able to get by. I'm sure its time for her get a job and put the infant in daycare.

Side note, can I foreclose on my current property and not have to go into bankruptcy?
 
S

Shuttleworth

macrumors regular
Dec 23, 2008
196
0
UK
The other thing to consider is the possibility of a house fire, most people say the first thing they'd save after the family are the photo's. Photo's on an old HD at a friends house or your workplace is a good idea.
 
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crackpip

macrumors regular
Jul 23, 2002
210
0
crackerjax,

Some advice as you rebuild, you don't have to spend a ton of money to keep your data safe. Just buy a couple of external HD's and get a safe deposit box at a bank. Safe deposit boxes are not that expensive (mine is like $30 per year). You can rotate the drives so that at no time is there a HD that is not in the safe deposit box. The bottom line is that if you want your data to be safe you need a copy that is both offline and stored at a different physical location.

crackpip
 
ian.maffett

ian.maffett

macrumors 6502
Aug 1, 2008
258
0
Florida
I keep a backup drive in my safety deposit box at the bank. They're ridiculously inexpensive and we all go to the bank often. Drives are so cheap today (compared to the value of our content) that keeping 2 spares with pertinent info on them is easy.
 
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