Fullscreen HTML5Med Res (??MB)HTML4

SILICON SILIC CHIP www.siliconchip.com.au Publisher/Editor Nicholas Vinen Technical Editor John Clarke – B.E.(Elec.) Technical Staff Jim Rowe – B.A., B.Sc. Bao Smith – B.Sc. Tim Blythman – B.E., B.Sc. Advertising Enquiries (02) 9939 3295 adverts<at>siliconchip.com.au Regular Contributors Allan Linton-Smith Dave Thompson David Maddison – B.App.Sc. (Hons 1), PhD, Grad.Dip.Entr.Innov. Geoff Graham Associate Professor Graham Parslow Dr Hugo Holden – B.H.B, MB.ChB., FRANZCO Ian Batty – M.Ed. Phil Prosser – B.Sc., B.E.(Elec.) Cartoonist Louis Decrevel loueee.com Founding Editor (retired) Leo Simpson – B.Bus., FAICD Silicon Chip is published 12 times a year by Silicon Chip Publications Pty Ltd. ACN 626 922 870. ABN 20 880 526 923. All material is copyright ©. No part of this publication may be reproduced without the written consent of the publisher. Subscription rates (Australia only) 6 issues (6 months): $70 12 issues (1 year): $127.50 24 issues (2 years): $240 Online subscription (Worldwide) 6 issues (6 months): $52.50 12 issues (1 year): $100 24 issues (2 years): $190 For overseas rates, see our website or email silicon<at>siliconchip.com.au * recommended & maximum price only Editorial office: Unit 1 (up ramp), 234 Harbord Rd, Brookvale, NSW 2100. Postal address: PO Box 194, Matraville, NSW 2036. Phone: (02) 9939 3295. ISSN: 1030-2662 Printing and Distribution: Editorial Viewpoint Check your backups The data we produce at Silicon Chip (magazine layouts, software, PCB files etc) is very valuable to us, so we are careful to back it up, possibly to the point of paranoia. Our internal data store also has quite a bit of redundancy, so even if a storage device fails, we shouldn’t lose anything or even have our workflow interrupted. Backups are for situations like accidental file deletion, file corruption and so on. The general advice is to have three copies of critical data, including at least one off-site. I am a little more relaxed in backing up personal data that I consider less important. I back up important things like family photos and tax documents, but I don’t worry so much about some things that would be more of an annoyance if I lost them, rather than a disaster. However, a recent ‘near-miss’ incident was a wake-up call. For this data, I relied on software with built-in a ‘cloud backup’ feature that told me that the data was ‘up to date’ and ‘synchronised’. But when my Samsung EVO 870 SSD began faltering – disappointing, as I chose it based on Samsung’s reputation for reliability – I realised the perils of overconfidence in technology. Luckily, it didn’t fail completely; most of the data remains readable, with only a fraction corrupted. The problem manifested when I tried to write a significant amount of data to the drive. It would stop responding, often making the computer unusable until it was rebooted. So I bought a new SSD and swapped them. That only took a few minutes, as it was mounted on the back of the motherboard and thus was readily accessible through a hole in the chassis after removing the panel on that side of the case. With the new SSD in place, the computer worked properly again. Still, I would have to wait until I could grab my external M.2 SSD adaptor from the office to get the data off the old drive. In the meantime, I decided to restore some data from the cloud backup. That didn’t go very well. There was data in the cloud backup, but only a fraction of what I expected. It looks like it was only backing up the first file in some directories instead of all of them. It was lucky that I still had most of the data on the drive; I would just have to wait a few days to access it. I filed a bug report with that software vendor, so hopefully, they will fix it for other users. Lessons learned The experience was a good reminder that you can’t just assume that, because you are making backups, you can restore them later if you need them. Not only must you check periodically that the backups are up to date, you need to try to restore some data regularly. The worst possible time to discover that you can’t restore your backups is just after losing the original data! For most people, cloud backup services are the only realistic way to have those all-important off-site backups, but make sure you consider security and reliability when choosing such a service. If your data is very valuable (eg, you make a living from it), consider backing it up to two different providers after ensuring they do not share any infrastructure. In general, it’s a good idea to have diverse backups. I do not recommend backing up to an SSD or flash drive, except in the short term. External mechanical hard disks are inexpensive; while they can be slow, they usually will retain data for years without a problem. Cover image: unsplash.com/photos/grayscale-photo-of-a-land-zcx5ztIjQAM by Nicholas Vinen 24-26 Lilian Fowler Pl, Marrickville 2204 2 Silicon Chip Australia's electronics magazine siliconchip.com.au