Forum: Story Discussion and Feedback

Unless the hard drive failed,

And then, depending on what the failure is, you can often recover most, if not all, of the data. The most common hard drive failure is a bearing going faulty, and the old 'freeze the drive overnight' trick will often allow you to get data off it if you quickly move it from the freezer to a dock to examine it and transfer data before the bearing warms up enough to fail again.

And then, depending on what the failure is, you can often recover most, if not all, of the data. The most common hard drive failure is a bearing going faulty, and the old 'freeze the drive overnight' trick will often allow you to get data off it if you quickly move it from the freezer to a dock to examine it and transfer data before the bearing warms up enough to fail again.

Unfortunately, that doesn't work with the newer solid state drives (SSDs). If they get even a mild power surge they'll freeze solid and you won't be able to retain a thing. Generally, never install a SSD unless you're running on a high-rated surge protector, and never run an external SSD, as the surge protector often won't protect them if they're not part of the main computer box.

Generally, never install a SSD

SSDs are good for faster access, but they should never be you main or sole data storage. My current system has two ssds in it, one for the OS, and one for the day to day data usage. Both are fully back-up onto disc drives each day, or more often.

SSDs are good for faster access, but they should never be you main or sole data storage. My current system has two ssds in it, one for the OS, and one for the day to day data usage. Both are fully back-up onto disc drives each day, or more often.

So far, my only losses due to SSDs have been on an unprotected (no surge protector) laptop and external SSD drives. My main surge protector has worked reliably for years, despite our being at the end of the power line where surges are a common occurrence. The internal surge protectors I had installed in my desktop seem to handle them handily as well.

These days you need an online cloud backup solution in addition to a local hardware backup. I use Dropbox but there are probably cheaper alternatives out there.

agreed, ditto, and will also use my website once I get it revamped.

I use Dropbox but there are probably cheaper alternatives out there.

You can't get much cheaper than free, though other services have greater free capacities than DB, though I prefer DB because they don't 'farm' their user's submissions for targeted ads or sell the info to others.

I do not consider any of the cloud storage products to be backup solutions. Backing up your data is not what they are meant for.

I'd previously avoided all cloud storage due to issue with the early companies in the cloud sub-industry. However, my normal system has been to have the main data files, a back-up copy on another drive within the computer since it's a home system, a secondary back-up copy on an external drive, and a tertiary critical data back-up on a USB drive I took with me when I left home (an infrequent event). Then I had a visit by the regional Gestapo who walked off with my computer and all the back-up copies; that was last July and I'm still fighting them in court to get any of my data back. So I now do as above, and also do a regular back-up copy to a free cloud data service (Drop Box) so that if the Gestapo come back I still have recent copies of my stories to work on, especially the works in progress.