Coppola Loses All His Data

Colin Smith writes in with an object lesson in backup methodology — once you have backed everything up, take it somewhere else. "Film director Francis Ford Coppola has appealed for the return of his computer backup device following a robbery at his house in Argentina on Wednesday. He told Argentine broadcaster Todo Noticias he had lost 15 years' worth of data, including writing and photographs of his family."

don't worry, check emule

[randuev (1032770)]

Don't worry, mate, It will be backed up very solid quite soon :) You will never lose it again. It will be as safe as it could be. (Unless you'll decide to purchase it and keep it private, of course)

Re:off site

[The Dobber (576407)]

Didn't you watch that episode of MythBusters?

Sure you can get it open, but you'll most likely toast the contents.

Honestly

[chuckymonkey (1059244)]

Why is this news? Someone somewhere didn't back up their data and the hdd was stolen. Happens a lot people, next thing you know we're going to be hearing about how Paris Hilton bought an iPhone and an iGasm.

use a safe & lock

[OrangeTide (124937)]

A safe would be a good investment, most are fire proof which is important too.

For a USB back-up unit, get one with a K-slot [wikipedia.org] on it and bolt it to your desk or wall. It will prevent theft in a robbery, a cable lock (the kind with the hoop that bonds permanently is the way to go, stronger than a K-slot). Using a lock on your home system is especially important if you use a laptop, all laptops have a K-slot.

I love my old Powermac, it has a loop for a cable lock and when the loop is in use it prevents the case from being opened too. Some PC cases have that as well, rarely as fancy, but sufficient.

Re:use a safe & lock

[(H)elix1 (231155)]

Oh man, that brings back a funny memory. I was working a customer where there were many consultants parked in a cube farm. An evening came, and most everyone left the laptops chained via a kensington lock rather than un-network and take them home. They came back to find all of the laptops still there - minus the battery, hdd, memory, dvd, and any other removable part - without being overly gentle on the deconstruction.

bolt it to your desk or wall

[nurb432 (527695)]

Ya, that works great since we havent invented battery powered reciprocating saws yet. Makes mincemeat of cables and wall studs in seconds.

Offsite storage is the only way to go. As you point out, even a simple fire would have wiped him out. With all the talk of 'movie vaults' in his industry you would think that off site storage would have at least crossed his mind once.

Re:use a safe & lock

[ScentCone (795499)]

A safe would be a good investment, most are fire proof which is important too.

Yes, but let's not forget that what we're dealing with here is a forced entry into a place where the robbers were waiving knives in the staff's faces. Nothing makes a knife waive faster than when it's accompanied by the phrase (how ever you say it in Spanish), "I know you know how to open this safe, so get to it..."

If Coppola can't afford the bandwith to push to an off-site storage service, I don't know who can.

Re:use a safe & lock

[ozbird (127571)]

A safe would be a good investment, most are fire proof which is important too.

A safe that is "fire proof" for paper (< 451 F) is not "fire proof" for your backups - you need a data/media safe, which are significantly more expensive.

Re:use a safe & lock

[pherthyl (445706)]

I think we eventually concluded that a fireproof safe doesn't really gain you much in the real world.

In the real world?? What, do you work in the twin towers? Fires in office buildings don't generally proceed far enough to make the whole building collapse. Passing on a safe just because there is some wildly unlikely sequence of events that would still destroy your documents isn't very logical.

I suspect that there is more to the story...

[Futurepower(R) (558542)]

Slashdot story quality is often low; apparently Slasdot editors don't even Google the stories. This is the real story; it was an armed robbery: Coppola Says Robbery Cost Years of Data (AP) [google.com]. This poorly edited story has even more detail: Thieves Steal Francis Ford Coppola's Everything [cinematical.com].

I suspect that there is more to the story than we know. I suspect that he is more worried about release of information than loss of information. The AP article says he had a backup copy of a screenplay on which he is working.

The moral of the story is: Have proprietary data? Use TrueCrypt [truecrypt.org]. Supports Windows and Linux. As all encryption software must be, it is open source, very mature, and supports both Windows and Linux. Supports encrypted devices and encrypted folders, including hidden folders.

To encrypt a file, use the free open source Gnu Privacy Guard [gnupg.org].

Godfather

[by Anonymous Coward]

The backup device was taken and in its place was a severed horse's head....

More than one physical location

[Frans Faase (648933)]

Another person who learn the hard way that making backups is not enough, but that you have to store the backups in more than one physical location. I wonder if the thieves will even hear his request, let alone consider to listen to it. Nowadays you can get a 2.5 inch 80 Gbyte harddisk for less than 100 USD. You can easily store this at a location that won't be found by thieves looking for computers. Thieves almost never search children bedrooms or kitchens for these kind of items.

Re:More than one physical location

[gregbaker (22648)]

This still doesn't help in the event of catastrophe: fire, flood, etc. The backup has to go off-site. Some suggestions: parents' house, the office, a friend's.

I keep an up-to-date backup in my office, and drop a DVD or two in a drawer at my parents' every year or so.

Re:

[MichaelSmith (789609)]

The backup has to go off-site

Yes, every place I have worked this has been standard operating procedure. People like Coppola should be getting advice on that from the people who do their IT. I suspect those IT people spend most of their time advising on what virus scanner to use and how to cut down on spam.

I make a backup to take to work from my home system once a month. My wife doesn't like it. She is afraid of people accessing her stuff, and less worried about the house burning down or the server being stolen. Encyryption doesn't i

Re:More than one physical location

[1u3hr (530656)]

I make video DVDs for friends sometimes. Usually there's a few hundred MB free space, so I stash a backup set -- my email, and other documents mostly -- in a data folder, ignored by players (though of course visible on a PC). I use encrypted RAR archives, their encryption is quite strong and uncracked as far as I know. Also of course on my own DVDs, the latter most likely useful in case of computer failure.

Re:

[the_doctor_23 (945852)]

I use encrypted RAR archives, their encryption is quite strong and uncracked as far as I know.

RAR uses AES-128 in recent (V3.0+) versions, so it is quite strong indeed if the password is complex enough.

Re:

[Esion Modnar (632431)]

and drop a DVD or two in a drawer at my parents' every year or so.

Considering what my Mom did with all my porn the last time it was under her control... no.

Re:More than one physical location

[CODiNE (27417)]

in a drawer at my parents'
Upstairs isn't usually considered an "offsite" backup.

Please ignore above poster...

[msimm (580077)]

For the love of god. When we recommend off-site backups we mean off-site. Thieves are just one issue. Then there are fires, tornadoes, earthquakes and the whole gambit of other natural and man-made disasters. Unfortunately you don't get to choose which one.

Re:

[arth1 (260657)]

The funny thing is that it appears he brought the backups with him from the his primary residence in the US to his tax^Wsecondary residence in Argentina.

Re:

[LingNoi (1066278)]

WRONG! Theives take everything!

They know people hide money in childeren's rooms, in toys, under beds, etc. They'll completely trash your room and your children's rooms stealing their toys and everything else they can find.

So he got busted?

[The Amazing Fish Boy (863897)]

In Holland there was a nice program where people could get their house robbed by a formerly professional thief (convicted, sentenced, done his time).

Not very professional.

Haiku

[fmarkham (1091529)]

Three things are certain:
Death, taxes, and lost data.
Guess which has occurred.

Theft prevention ideas?

[Antony-Kyre (807195)]

Anyone have any theft prevention ideas? If someone lives in a high crime area, is there anything that can be done to prevent the easy theft of just picking up and taking a desktop computer?

Re:

[chuckymonkey (1059244)]

Bolt it to the floor and lock the case panels?

Re:

[Antony-Kyre (807195)]

That isn't an option for those living in rented areas.

Re:

[chuckymonkey (1059244)]

You can bolt or chain it to the wall as long as you fill in the holes before you move out. Just make sure that the anchors whatever flavor they may be are sunk into wall studs or they're trivial to rip out.

Re:

[Antony-Kyre (807195)]

Still, what if that isn't a feasible option?

Would chaining/locking it to a desk work?

Re:

[Antony-Kyre (807195)]

I didn't know they made laptop locks with alarms built onto them. Since my desktop has a metal thing with hole where the case slides, this means if I stick something in it, it would be very difficult to steal. So I could just lock it to my computer desk. It isn't so much about backing up my data, which I do, but preventing data from being stolen.

Re:Theft prevention ideas?

[by Anonymous Coward]

Put a Vista sticker on it.

Make it so it's no big deal....

[Joce640k (829181)]

The data is a zillion times more valuable than the PC. Figure out the most painless way to backup the data and hide the backup disk somewhere.

And... look! We're back on topic!

I've been thinking of getting one of those hard disks with the network connector on the back. If you combine this with one of those "network across power lines" adapters you could put the hard disk anywhere in the house (attic, basement...) and still access it from your main PC.

For a "high crime area" this seems ideal.

PS: Yes, the chances of him getting his data back is zero. It's a pity he had to learn the hard way....

I go around telling all my friends to back up their data, how important this is, how they could lose 100% their baby/wedding photos in a millisecond, etc. but I know none of them ever do.

Re:

[Antony-Kyre (807195)]

Unless you're renting a place, then it becomes more difficult. Plus, the data is back-up. The problem is preventing the theft of the data. Well, making it incredibly difficult to steal the computer itself.

Re:

[Ed Random (27877)]

I've been thinking of getting one of those hard disks with the network connector on the back. If you combine this with one of those "network across power lines" adapters you could put the hard disk anywhere in the house (attic, basement...) and still access it from your main PC.

This does not protect you from disasters like fire - the data plus backups should not be in the same building. I've got a "garden shed" on my property. Chances are, that it would survive if my house burnt down. Network-over-powerline would be a nice way to get a network connection in there.

However, that scenario still does not protect against things like lightning strikes... Unless you use decent surge protectors etc.

Data protection is not for the faint of heart, and unfortunately not for the average user

Re:

[Pax00 (266436)]

tesla coils and an rfid system to deactive them for friendly people

Step 3 in The Tao of Backup

[Vainglorious Coward (267452)]

Oops. Someone missed the 3rd step in the Tao of Backup : separation [taobackup.com]

That list again in full:

Backup all your data

Backup frequently

Take some backups off-site

Keep some old backups

Test your backups

Secure your backups

Perform integrity checking

And note that it's not necessary to purchase [taobackup.com] anything to achieve backup enlightenment.

Re:

[Bios_Hakr (68586)]

I do most of my work on Windows. If you use windows, get SyncToy from MS or SyncBack from 2brightsparks.

Both tools are free and work pretty well.

I have a "hidden" PC stashed in a panel behind the entertainment center. I replicate nightly from my desktop to the media center. Weekly, I replicate from the media center to a portable USB drive. On Mondays, the USB drive goes to the office with me and stays there till Friday.

Backups are not hard. Just set up a good, automatic tool and do occasional checks fo

Re:

[renoX (11677)]

>The *really* hard part of backups is getting people to organize their data. Mom, keeping everything on the Desktop is not an acceptable solution...

Well, why don't you backup the desktop?

Safe deposit box

[KC1P (907742)]

Safe deposit boxes are a really good deal. Mine costs something like $20 per year, and every time I'm going to the bank anyway I just bring an optical disk with all my vital stuff and swap it with the one that's there. Now the trick is not losing the key to the deposit box in the fire/flood/etc. that presumably destroyed all my other backups at home.

Hard lesson

[edwardpickman (965122)]

I'm just a poor working stiff but I have easily 500+ CD and DVD backups going back 8+ years and some of those have data going going back to old 5 1/4" back ups. These days I also have multiple hard drive back up so there's a lot of redundancy. I'm planning to start a process of regularly archiving hard drives in a bank safety deposit box. With his kind of money hire some one to come in at least once a month to do back ups if you can't be bothered. Better yet set up a home network with the server in a safe.

One should have at least THREE copies of data

[Ron Bennett (14590)]

One should always have at least the bare minimum of three copies of their data whenever possible with at least one of the copies *always* located off-site ...

1. The HD in the computer

2. Backup device #1 that's intended for the next backup stored locally or off-site

3. Backup device #2 that's intended for the backup *after the next one* stored off-site

If one only has two copies, which is common, the problem is if the backup fails for whatever reason, then one can suddenly end up with messed up data on their HD *and* on the backup device too ... in essance leaving *no* valid backup at all.

The key to avoiding that problem is doing backups in rotation where at least one copy (ideally even more than one) is always off-site during the actual backup operation ... this shuld be obvious to folks in IT ... yet often this basic precaution is neglected, especially by laypeople, due to ignorance, economy, laziness, etc.

Ron

nothing funny about it

[CranberryKing (776846)]

I can't believe this was tagged with haha. Why is it funny when non-techsavvy people lose all their valuable data? It's not funny. It's terrible. As techies, we should be educating & empowering people, not isolating them.

Re:

[Big Nothing (229456)]

I agree. Sure, he's got tons of money and should be able to buy a really great backup solution for his stuff, but non-techies don't think about these things. So is Coppola losing his personal data funny? No. It's a personal tragedy for him. He's lost the only irreplaceable thing he had. That's not funny, that's sad for him. No matter how much money the guy has, these things cannot be bought for money. In this case he's just like any regular Joe Schmoe who got ripped off.

He then received a package...

[by Anonymous Coward]

...which was a transistor wrapped up in a newspaper, along with a note that said, "Maxtor sleeps with the fishes".

There is not a good backup solution

[LS (57954)]

When losing the sole copy of data, everyone always laughs and says you should have backed up. People, shut up please. That is a fair criticism to an IT or development professional, but not to an average computer user. While average users do know that data loss can occur and will often backup important files to a CD or DVD, there is no standard and easy way for users to backup ALL their important data, do it at regular intervals, test it, an distribute it geographically. Much of this process must be automated. Also, either the quality of media needs to go up, or specifically designed backup-grade hard drives and media need to be developed and released, because the current crop of equipment is pretty unreliable.

Are people expected to keep a second car around if their main one fails? Are people expected to perform regular scheduled maintenance on their cars themselves? No, because it is too complex and troublesome for the average users.

I've reviewed several backup applications and services, and none of them would pass the "mom" easy of use test. I believe there is a potential market for a robust comprehensive backup system...

LS

Re:

[ditoa (952847)]

If the user knows how to check their email then they should be able to master an application such as Mozy from http://mozy.com/ [mozy.com]. If they still can't get their head around such a simple app as Mozy they should do like they do with their car maintenance and out source it to a local IT company/person.

use a memory stick

[belmolis (702863)]

Memory sticks have gotten to be large enough that I can keep a backup of my most important and changeable data in my pocket. They aren't large enough for audio and image files, but they hold a fantastic amount of compressed text. Burglars won't get it because it isn't at home, and it isn't very likely to be damaged in a natural disaster either.

Been there

[kbahey (102895)]

Several years ago, I had a break in. The computer was stolen.

Luckily, I have been using a tape backup, and the robber did not take those. So, I was able to go back one month with everything intact.

In those days, everything I had fit in the 2.5GB tape. I then bought a 10GB tape, and it lasted for a few years. Backups were simply a cron job and an email to tell me that the backup is done and to change the tape. I kept one tape offsite as a precaution.

However, life changed. I got a digital camera and started taking a lot of pictures. Then I got another one with more megapixels and started taking more pictures which are larger in size. All of a sudden, tapes were not enough. The largest Travan tape is 20GB native capacity.

Getting tapes for a home setup is a real chore, specially with the rate the capacity of hard disks is growing. Tapes cannot keep up, specially at price points that home users can afford for both drives and media. Finding the media can be a challenge, let alone finding them at reasonable prices.

To this day, my page on Linux tape backup [google.com] comes up first on Google, despite moving on from tapes.

Because tapes are no longer enough for the size of data that I have, I now use external disk drives in USB enclosures, two of them to be sure, and a cron job to do daily incremental dumps, and weekly full dumps. See setting up a hard disk USB 2.0 enclosure for backup under Linux [baheyeldin.com] and Ubuntu Linux backup of a laptop using a USB enclosure and the dump utility [baheyeldin.com] (I use a similar approach for the server).

Although drive enclosures can be theoretically kept offsite, they have to be unmounted, unplugged and are bulkier than tape. So it is inconvenient. Using 2.5" drives may make this more convenient, but their price vs. capacity still makes them more costly.

What are others using for a home setup for tape and offsite backup? DLT? DAT? What?

Online backups now n00b-proof and trustworthy

[mbaciarello (800433)]

I haven't seen any comments about online backup solutions.

They're quite cheap (~ $50-$100 per year with unlimited storage) now and they make for the (almost) perfect off-site backup solution.

I've tried Mozy.com and Amazon S3.

While not technically a dedicated backup solution, Amazon is quite cost-effective for me and has amazing bandwidth -- I can upload or download through my 24/1.2 mbit connection at full speed 99% of the time. Yes, it's not very user-friendly at first, but after setting up JungleDisk [jungledisk.com] (or your choice of WebDAV interface) and any backup application the first time, you just let the scheduler work its way through your data.

Mozy is cheap at $60/year/computer with unlimited storage, but I get modest connection speeds to their servers. Yet, their Windows client is extremely simple to set up. The Mac client (still a beta) is also good, although not ready for "production" work, yet. Linux is a no-go, though.

Of course it's always best to also keep a local device for quick backups/restores of large amounts of data, but the peace of mind and convenience afforded by online solutions... It's priceless to me...

Re:

[zahl2 (821572)]

I read it elsewhere: it was armed robbery, and it sounds like they took the originals too.

Re:

[cliffski (65094)]

agreed, yet some bastard still tagged it as haha. seriously, what the hell is wrong with some jerks?