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]

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)

Honestly

[chuckymonkey]

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.

Godfather

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Haiku

[fmarkham]

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

Re:Theft prevention ideas?

[Anonymous Coward]

Put a Vista sticker on it.

Re:Theft prevention ideas?

[Pax00]

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

So he got busted?

[The Amazing Fish Boy]

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.

He then received a package...

[Anonymous Coward]

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

Re:Theft prevention ideas?

[Anonymous Coward]

Know Canada's army? That's right. You don't. Because they're at my house. Both of them. Protecting my data. Highly recommended. They go well with vodka.

Re:More than one physical location

[Esion Modnar]

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]

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

Re:use a safe & lock

[(H)elix1]

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:So he got busted?

[the grace of R'hllor]

I work in IT. I know some IT professionals who I'd like to see convicted too.

Re:off site

[The Dobber]

Didn't you watch that episode of MythBusters?

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

Re:use a safe & lock

[Dephex Twin]

• What if you smartly purchase a safe for your important documents, only to discover too late that the casing is made of Ritz crackers?
• Is there some sort of protection against backing up and safely storing data that is really lame and nobody gives a shit about?
• Let's just say that our backup methodology is completely sound; what if it turns out that everything is merely being simulated inside the Matrix, and the evil machine overlords don't bother to back up our entire universe?
• WHAT THEN????