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View Full Version : The Paper Trail Saves the Day

BarTopDancer
03-20-2007, 11:28 AM
Tech error wipes out Alaska Oil Fund Info. Story here (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070320/ap_on_re_us/lost_data;_ylt=AodacrdYNSKprDgohweuDIzMWM0F)
Ghoulish Delight
03-20-2007, 11:40 AM
Sigh. As someone in the data protection industry, and who specifically works with data on tape...TEST YOUR ABILITY TO RESTORE YOUR DATA, PEOPLE!

It's entirely anecdotal and guesstimating, but many people in the industry like to bandy about the stat that ~%50 of all backed up data will fail to recover properly because people aren't properly validating the backups. Whatever the actual number, it's definitely too high and it only takes once to cause massive issues.

I'd love to know what their backup solution looked like, who put it together, and who is on the hook and has a lot of 'splainin' to do.
Moonliner
03-20-2007, 01:15 PM
Sigh. As someone in the data protection industry, and who specifically works with data on tape...TEST YOUR ABILITY TO RESTORE YOUR DATA, PEOPLE!

It's entirely anecdotal and guesstimating, but many people in the industry like to bandy about the stat that ~%50 of all backed up data will fail to recover properly because people aren't properly validating the backups. Whatever the actual number, it's definitely too high and it only takes once to cause massive issues.

I'd love to know what their backup solution looked like, who put it together, and who is on the hook and has a lot of 'splainin' to do.

I must say, Over the years I've made a pretty penny off of system Admins that failed to test their backups. Primarily by taking their jobs from them :D

Do you care about what's on your work computer? Then you need to:

Take an old file you no longer need, save a new file over it, delete the file, wait 24 Hours and then ask to have your origional file restored.

See if your IT folks can get it back, which version you get and how long it takes. If they can't get it back let me know and I'll send you a resume.... ;)

If they pass the first test, try this:

Create a file at 9:30am. Delete the file at 11:30am wait 24 Hours and ask for it back.