Have you watched the 2012 superhit movie OMG — Oh My God? If you have, you’ll certainly remember this scene:
Kanji is flaunting his Godrej Locker key in the aftermath of the earthquake. Because the locker had his insurance papers in it.
There wouldn’t be any movie if he hadn’t kept his papers in a safe vault. Imagine what if there had been fire instead of an earthquake?
He better have a few backup copies.
In a way, most of us are Kanji.
Except, he was struck by an act of God.
We — the knowledge workers — may get struck by an act of Colleagues.
Unintentional, but devastating sometimes.
Just by a single delete command, your weeks of work can vanish. No recovery.
OR a family member hits “delete all” on a Google Drive and all your memories go poof!
That’s why the 3-2-1 backup strategy
Now, I’m not talking about some software. But a strategy. A rule of thumb.
The 3-2-1 strategy states that: you should have 3 copies of your data, on 2 different storage media with 1 backup piece offsite.
Show me an example
Of course, these numbers 3-2-1 are so confusing.
So, let’s take an example.
Suppose you have 100 GB of important work data.
You should have 3 copies of this data:
1. Copy-1: You will use this copy as an everyday copy with which you will work. So it can stay on your computer.
2. Copy-2: This copy is a backup copy and you never touch it. It is somewhere on the office server.
3. Copy-3: This copy is also a backup copy and you never touch it. It will be on cloud storage that is not easily accessible. Since it is not physically present in the office, it is offsite.
So, we ended up having 3 copies, 2 media types: solid state drives and cloud, and 1 offsite copy.
Funny practice: backing up copies of bacteria
Yes, this is real practice.
At one point during my university education, everyone was working on isolating different types of bacteria.
Throughout the yearlong research, as you progress, you have to back up your bacterial samples. (This also applies to viruses, fungi, and DNA samples)
We would keep four copies.
A working copy stays in the laboratory refrigerator. The second one at the research guide’s home refrigerator. The third one at the student’s home refrigerator and the fourth one with a trusted friend.
And yes, updating each of these copies as a new milestone is achieved. (More like the digital backup we should carry out periodically)
I used to find this funny until one day when the lab refrigerator broke down!
When it comes to computer systems, I have always found it best to prepare for the worst and pray for the best.
So Reader, have you ever lost an important piece of data ever?
Hit Reply and share your lessons and tips.
And oh, by the way, did I tell you that you can recover a great deal of deleted data from a hard drive using Recuva? It’s free. I have used it and it works like a charm. If you’re curious, I’d share about it in the future.
Reads of the week:
Gumroad + Flexile’s Public Board Meeting
There are very few private companies in the world that hold their quarterly reviews publicly. Sahil is an inspiration for people who want to build businesses with a strong foundation. Check out this 20-minute trimmed version. Sahil and the team present their financials, product updates, and future roadmap. All of this with freelance remote teams!
Sahil is a great writer, check out his blog here.
Jorge Manrubia works as a programmer at 37signals. So when he writes about problems and solutions of remote workers, it is from a quality experience.
In this short piece, Jorge talks about how remote workers cannot move ahead because they need a go-ahead or advice from their peers. But their peers might be busy with other work or maybe in a different timezone.
Whatever the case, Jorge argues that it is better to state what problem you’re facing and how you intend to move ahead. And then just move! Read this piece, it is so relatable.
So, you have done some research or data analysis work.
And now it is time to share your results.
How do you do that? How much do you share? How do you decide? That’s what Chris talks about in this post. If you look at the table he has created, you’d think to yourself why didn’t I think of it before!