Google permanently loses data owing to weather

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Jamesaritchie

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Yep, that's why I also back up to an external hard drive, and to a pair of DVDs.
 

SBibb

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Eeps. I'm glad they were able to get at least some of the data back, though.

But yeah, I usually keep my stuff backed up on my computer or external hard drive, and email myself backups of my story.

This does remind me that I've been meaning to backup one of my external drives.
 

Becky Black

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I don't worry too much about my writing files etc. They are on my laptop, a backup flash drive and the cloud. It would have to be a very bad day for something to happen to all of those at once before I could retrieve my stuff. I do worry a bit about my Gmail account. I've had it for nine years. It's the centre of my world. :D What if somehow all the mail in that was lost? Is there a way to back it up? But I try not to dwell on it too much.
 

Jamesaritchie

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I don't worry too much about my writing files etc. They are on my laptop, a backup flash drive and the cloud. It would have to be a very bad day for something to happen to all of those at once before I could retrieve my stuff. I do worry a bit about my Gmail account. I've had it for nine years. It's the centre of my world. :D What if somehow all the mail in that was lost? Is there a way to back it up? But I try not to dwell on it too much.

I've had that happen, and learned the hard way that, yes, you can back it up. You can set Gmail to forward every incoming e-mail to a separate e-mail account, or to more than one. You can forward it to a private e-mail program such as Outlook, to Hotmail, to Yahoo, or to any other account, including a separate Gmail account. This way you're safe, even if the primary account completely crashes.
 

Laer Carroll

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The headline is deceptive. The following matches my experience in 40+ years in the computing industry.

"Google said that data on just 0.000001% of disk space was permanently affected."

Data centers have all sorts of ways to protect against data loss. One of them is to have data farms widely separated geographically and mirror each other. A disaster which devastates Los Angeles, for instance, will only slow data retrieval down. San Francisco, Chicago, and Atlanta will take up the slack.

This does not mean we can rely on them 100%. If no other reason than if you have a local copy backed up you can have it immediately available.
 
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noirdood

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Digital media is ephemeral. Be paranoid. A little, anyway. I wouldn't store a used toothpick on a cloud.
 

Williebee

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Digital media is ephemeral. Be paranoid. A little, anyway. I wouldn't store a used toothpick on a cloud.

meh. The cloud serves a purpose. It's just not wise to keep critical data in only one place, only one form.

"3, 2, 1" - Three copies, Two formats, One geographically separate from you and the other two.
 

Roxxsmom

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I use cloud backup, but that doesn't mean I don't also keep copies on my computers and on an external hard drive.

No system of data storage is infallible, and if you're talking about something irreplaceable, it makes sense to hedge your bets.

In the old days, people often had just one, or at most two, paper copies of something. They were vulnerable too, and who knows how many important records or really great stories were lost to fires, floods, absent-mindedness, or simple fits of temper.
 
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