Microsoft Loses Data

[Robert Barney]

Some wonder why I don't trust the web or web based storage of data. Perhaps this will help underline my reasons:

Microsoft loses Sidekick users' personal data - Network World
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Oops! Microsoft Loses All Sidekick Users' Data - Tom's Hardware

 

[Cenla Agent]

Yeah...cloud computing is all the rage these days. Those people's data went poof.

 

[Guest]

Some wonder why I don't trust the web or web based storage of data.

Are you saying that nobody ever loses data on their desktop machines? You never had a hard-disk crash? You never had a virus? No one ever can hack into your home or office network and wipe it all out? (I bet I know someone who could... in like a New York minute!)

Cars crash. Do you drive?

Planes crash? Do you fly?

People slip and fall? Do you walk?

How many times have you been told to back-up your data? And how often do you do it? People who had all their data ONLY on the MS system... were/are stupid.

If you want to be a Luddite, knock yourself out. The rest of us know how to use advanced technology to our business advantage.

Al

 

[GonnaFlyNow]

Are you saying that nobody ever loses data on their desktop machines? You never had a hard-disk crash? You never had a virus? No one ever can hack into your home or office network and wipe it all out? (I bet I know someone who could... in like a New York minute!)

Cars crash. Do you drive?

Planes crash? Do you fly?

People slip and fall? Do you walk?

How many times have you been told to back-up your data? And how often do you do it? People who had all their data ONLY on the MS system... were/are stupid.

If you want to be a Luddite, knock yourself out. The rest of us know how to use advanced technology to our business advantage.

Al

for once we agree, al.

 

[WinoBlues]

for once we agree, al.

My file cabinets have not crashed in 24 years.

 

[Robert Barney]

I fail to see why a person cannot do both.

The point I am making is that there is NO WAY I would rely upon the web alone to back up my computer. Putting my life into the hands of strangers is NOT my idea of a good strategy unless there is no other alternative. In this example there are lots of alternatives.

With respect to my own Compulife program, we may use the web for delivery of our software, but I would not trust the web for operation of the software, unless there was no other choice. For example, if an agent wants a quote system for his/her web site, then the web is where the software has to be. But if you have Compulife's internet quote system hooked up to your web site, you need to realize that if the web goes down, or the server at godaddy that we use goes down, so does the online service.

Even so, we would not have a complete loss in that everything we have on servers is backed up on local PC's, which are in turn backed up as per the hard drive procedure I describe following. So if our web based offering are all backed up to local PC's and if a server is lost or goes down, we can simply upload the files to a differrent server. I am bewildered as to why Microsoft did not have that kind of backup for the service as per the news story, but there it is.

With respect to our PC software, I think it only makes sense for agents to have that comparison software on their own PC. If the web goes down, no problem, the software will run fine.

If the PC goes down then our software is backed up for the agent by us in the sense that every agent has a copy of what we have, and if they blow out their PC they just need to reinstall. Given that the whole program is under 20 megabytes decompressed, and under 6 megabytes in its compressed form, it would be silly to rely upon the web for its execution or use which is why we don't.

Of course that does nothing for someone who has unique data on their PC. If you have a database, with a few hundred clients in it, then you have the only copy in the universe and so if you don't back it up, and you lose it, you are cooked.

In that regard there are lots of programs in the market that let you automatically back up your PC to the web. Would I rely upon that as my ONLY form of backup - heck no?

In my case, about twice a month I fully and completely duplicate my hard disk drives using a slick program called "Drive Clone". Drive clone boots in my floppy disk drive, launches it's own OS (linux), and proceeds to a menu that lets me make a complete copy of my hard drive to another hard drive.

What's great about that is that the duplicated drive is a bootable copy of the original - in EVER respect. That copy then goes into my drawer, copies go to my other office and safe.

Needless to say, the process requires a lot of hard drives - I own dozens and dozens. But hard drives are just way to cheap to not have a spare which is a copy. We run our office machines on 80 gig drives (about half full) and I typically buy used 80 gig drives on ebay for $15 to $20 each.

If you are downloading and storing movies and other hard disk hogs, I would do that on a second hard drive and keep it off my main hard drive. Make sure that the main hard drive has your important stuff on it, and keep it backed up by duplicating it from time to time.

I run all my hard drives in removeable trays like these:

http://images.auctionworks.com/hi/73/72897/mbrkbk-unt12.jpg​

I simply turn off my computer, turn a key, and the drive is in my hand. The drive trays cost less than $10 a pop and that includes both the component that mounts into the computer, and the tray into which the hard drive goes. Once installed, switching hard drives is easy. Without that, changing the hard drive in your computer is surgery.

And remember this, it is not IF your hard drive is going to fail, it is WHEN. Modern hard drives spin at 7,200 rounds per minute and do so every minute your computer is on. There are some computers I never turn off. Will they wear out - eventually they have to. And everything on the drive will be gone when it happens, so a copy of it is VITAL.

I do take the point that many people do not back up. But to suggest that they run their applications "on the cloud" means telling them to have everything on some other computer far, far away and to trust that the far, far away computer will be cared for by experts.

The worked great for Bernie Madoff's clients, didn't it?

If that internet computer (server) evaporates, and if the software is lost, it's game over. It would appear that that is exactly what happened to Microsoft in the story that I provided. While I freely admit that is an infrequent occurrence, that is of little consolation to those people who lost their data.

So I would suggest that whenever, wherever possible, especially when dealing with software and data that is unique to you, that you have software that is on your OWN computer. I would always prefer that over software "on the cloud". If for reasons beyond your control you MUST run the software "on the cloud", so be it - not my preference.

If you are terrible at backing up, then it's not a bad idea to look into a backup system that backs up your computer "on the cloud" and does so automatically. There are several that do just that.

Even so, if you completely lose your hard drive, then you need to know that restoring your computer to the way it was before you lost the drive is hell on earth. The ONLY way to avoid that hell is to have an exact duplicate of your hard drive and that can be accomplished with software like Drive Clone or a similar hard disk duplication system. And even if you only did that twice a year, I would still do that in addition to backup on the web.

I would be happy to comment further or answer questions.


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This from PC Magazine:

Don't Blame Cloud Computing for the T-Mobile Mess - Reviews by PC Magazine


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This from MSNBC

Sidekick users deserve more than $100 apology - PC World- msnbc.com

 

[Robert Barney]

Microsoft declares it has found lost data:

UPDATE: Microsoft Says It Has Recovered Lost Sidekick Data - WSJ.com