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.

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: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:More than one physical location

[CODiNE (27417)]

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

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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: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:

[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