Tuesday, September 23, 2003
Backups
Recently I've been reading a lot about problems with HDs and people not making backups. In my 11 years as a proud computer owner, I've lost all my data twice. One would think that after such harsh lessons, I'd have learned to do my homework. Still, I don't do backups as frequently as I should.
Last week a developer was pulling his hair out because he was facing the loss of all the code (the source files that are later compiled to make the program executable) of his program due to a Hard Disk failure. Yesterday a friend of mine called in desperation because he formatted the wrong drive. Gladly he was able to recover most of his stuff.
Not wanting to act as a fool and ignore all these signals, I spent yesterday locating and doing a backup copy of all my data files. This is very boring, and unnecessary difficult. Where does ICQ stores all my data? And Outlook Express? Where are my favorites? There are dozens of folders spanned all around my disk that needed to be in the backup. I'm remebered of a clever trick from a computing magazine article around 93, where the author talks about creating a "1data" folder and storing all his data in subdirectories of this master personal data folder. Why "1data", you may ask? To apper first on the list of folders.
Microsoft made a first step in this direction with "My Documents" folder. It was a shy attempt, and too little too late. After 10 years, copying the entire HD is still the only way to guarantee all the data is saved propely, for most computer users. Every year a unimaginable amount or work is lost due to loss of data. I think it unfair to blame only the users for all this suffering. We, software developers and Microsoft are to blame too, for making it so difficult to do backups.
Recently I've been reading a lot about problems with HDs and people not making backups. In my 11 years as a proud computer owner, I've lost all my data twice. One would think that after such harsh lessons, I'd have learned to do my homework. Still, I don't do backups as frequently as I should.
Last week a developer was pulling his hair out because he was facing the loss of all the code (the source files that are later compiled to make the program executable) of his program due to a Hard Disk failure. Yesterday a friend of mine called in desperation because he formatted the wrong drive. Gladly he was able to recover most of his stuff.
Not wanting to act as a fool and ignore all these signals, I spent yesterday locating and doing a backup copy of all my data files. This is very boring, and unnecessary difficult. Where does ICQ stores all my data? And Outlook Express? Where are my favorites? There are dozens of folders spanned all around my disk that needed to be in the backup. I'm remebered of a clever trick from a computing magazine article around 93, where the author talks about creating a "1data" folder and storing all his data in subdirectories of this master personal data folder. Why "1data", you may ask? To apper first on the list of folders.
Microsoft made a first step in this direction with "My Documents" folder. It was a shy attempt, and too little too late. After 10 years, copying the entire HD is still the only way to guarantee all the data is saved propely, for most computer users. Every year a unimaginable amount or work is lost due to loss of data. I think it unfair to blame only the users for all this suffering. We, software developers and Microsoft are to blame too, for making it so difficult to do backups.
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