Stolen MacBook

[cu2010]

Was this person's house broken into or what?
I know the area W8 quite well, so it's hard to believe that an alleged thief stole it from the house in the absence of the owner.
Regardless, if I find it, I'll return it to the owner for nothing.

 

[splashnader]

Kiddie porn?

Seems like a desperate man. Maybe something on that MB he doesnt want the world to see;
I am not buying this 'life's work' story......you would surely have that backed up.
No...no....I reckon there is something on that machine that will cause 'discomfort' if found by others😛

Maybe the person downloaded a whole bunch of kiddie porn and would really hate to see the computer fall into the hands of the wrong person, wink* "COPS" *wink. I mean that would be sort of poetic justice if the computer somehow was recovered by the police, and in the process of trying to determine who the rightful owner is/was they came across an IPHOTO library of child porn.

That would suck for the owner.

 

[getz76]

You guys are questioning the guy because he didn't backup. Whoever stole his laptop, could have stolen his time capsule, external drives, or even DVDs!

Bad planning, then. I keep a monthly "critical" document backup offsite (in my work office). Drives are cheap. I rotate a pair of 1tb drives monthly.

 

[applebook]

I predict the thief contacts him, arranges for a meeting, takes the thousand quid and beats him up for good measure.

LOL.

I can commiserate with a victim of theft, but people who don't back up their extremely important data (particularly in this case, when it is the guy's LIFE work!), they are just testing Murphy's Law. It WILL eventually happen to you. You WILL lose critical data somehow, so BACK UP your crap!

 

[applebook]

Bad planning, then. I keep a monthly "critical" document backup offsite (in my work office). Drives are cheap. I rotate a pair of 1tb drives monthly.

...and besides, the guy admits that he failed to back up his stuff! 😛

"I REALLY REALLY NEED IT BACK AS IT WAS NOT BACKED UP (STUPID ME, YES, I KNOW)."

 

[atticus18244fsa]

Stuff seems important. Honestly I don't feel the least bit bad. If he really needed the files that bad he would have back them up.

 

[Sirolway]

In terms of backup, I always figure you want something outside your physical house / apartment as well as inside; what happens if the place burns down?

I've tried Carbonite & Mozy in the past & they both seem to work well. They cost a little, but the 'set em & forget em' convenience is critical.

Aside from that I have Time Machine (of course) as well as using ChronoSync to copy all volumes onto duplicates in case a disk fails. (I've had too much trouble with home RAID controllers to completely rely on them)

A tad overkill I know...

I'd also recommend something like http://www.orbicule.com/undercover/mac/ to maximise your chances of getting a lost / stolen laptop back ...

That being said, the vast majority of data loss I have suffered have been down to yours truly trashing a duplicate folder, only to realise it was the original - that 'oh no' sinking feeling ..!

 

[redshovel]

You can buy fire safes to keep back up dvds, ubs drives etc in - but even still I also keep a backup of my data at another family address. Fire safes are good but not full proof and may only last 30 mins in a good 'burn your house to the ground' fire.

Just have some wit and know that keeping your Mac and Time Capsule (being your only backup) sitting on a desk together is utter madness because if you have a good fire or even get robbed you are uttertly screwed!

PS - If you dont wanted to leave data with a family or friend in fear they might look at it and laugh ast your private pics or poor performing business accounts - just encrypt it all first.😀