Backup Anytime

Seagate reduce warranty period.

Seagate are making notable (very much an understatement) warranty changes in January 2009 which you should know about if you intend purchasing  any Seagate products. The most significant change I could see was that they are reducing their 5 year warranty to a three year warranty. Not good. This surely points to one or more of the following.

1. The 5 year warranty was too expensive to maintain because of more failures than expected.
2. New products for release in 2009 will have a less satisfactory mean time to failure rate than current product line offerings.
3. The general market trend is towards a lesser intended product life span.

Whatever about the consequences for non storage products, the outlook for hard drives is not good if manufacturers are demonstrating reduced confidence in their own current or intended offerings.

What should you take from this?
You already know that hard drive manufacturers are not responsible for your data. Their responsibility as per specific limited warranties generally moves no further than the potential offering of a replacement device should your product fail for the wrong reasons during the warranty period.
This aside, any show of reduced manufacturer confidence in their own product is a red flag for your data protection. The crux of the issue is not a Seagate problem. Seagate have brought their warranty in line with most others. Additionally, Seagate as a major manufacturer will not stray from the mainstay and therefore likely see this as the expected general industry move. Therefore we can expect faster, larger and less reliable hard drives in the near future. Given it is likely to be a general industry move, switching brand is not necessarily the solution. More likely people who store data will simply have to approach this increased per drive risk by increasing redundancy or the number of drives in their RAID or cold swap set.

If you think it is unsatisfactory for one to suggest that the solution to reduced drive quality is to buy more of them, consider this. Hard drive manufacturers want to satisfy the majority. No matter how conservative or data protection focused you are, most consumers unfortunately want faster, larger drives. The public gets what the public wants.

Data loss is only one component of data breach.

In years gone by, the main (even sole) concern which business had regarding data was the direct consequences to themselves of losing data. The questions they asked themselves centred around an inward looking theme.

What data do we need to retain to ensure survival?
How will data loss affect us?
How long will it take us to get backup and running should we lose data which is backed up?
Will we be able to get back up and running if we lose data which is not backed up?

These are all valid questions but every one of them miss the main concern which has always existed but has come to the fore in the past few years.

How will if affect other people and organisations?

Just to bring some clarity to inward looking people, the above question also equates to the following.

Will we be sued, prosecuted or shown in the media to have compromised client data?

This changes the perspective and adds a whole new required functionality to the issue. We are now moving up from basic backup to actual data protection.

So, a manual drag and drop of files to an external pen drive or hard drive which is bandied about in a directors car at night may to a small degree offer an element of simple backup. It does on the other hand however very likely significantly increase the risk of data loss. This is not recognised by companies and individuals who are only interested in retaining a copy of data for themselves. If they look beyond this blinkeed and recklessly narrow focus they will see that the net effect is to place copies of client data in dangerous situations.

Ask yourself this.
Would I be satisfied if every company I have ever dealt with had personal and identifiable information pertaining to me being driven about in staff cars overnight?

Absolutely not. All this does is increase the number of potentially available copies of this information for the companies involved and also increase the risk of breach to those about whom the data relates.

So, simple backup is too narrow a focus. Offsite only helps if it does not as a consequence of being offsite increase data protection risk factors.

The next time you consider the importance of a file, don’t just consider how much you need that file. Also consider how much others need that file (and any other versions of it applicable to you) protected from public release.

Are U.S.B. hard drives the new tape? Not in a well managed environment.

In some very small business environments however this is the case. Please be aware that we are referring here to a low data respect and awareness category. Some people, when armed with information about tape being an old unreliable technology opt to run with a more modern technology on a budget basis. Often this brings with it increased risk, reduced automation, zero encryption and an unwarranted confidence conducive to recklessness.

It is commonly albeit not universally accepted that tape backup is an antiquated, unreliable and expensive way to backup data. With the increased uptake of U.S.B. drives as a local backup medium instead of  tape, the words frying pan and fire come to mind.

So whats wrong with U.S.B. drives? Potentially quite a lot.

Most tape backup systems come with management software whereas U.S.B. hard drive usage in small business is commonly employed on a data drag and drop basis. Your external hard drive may be (and that is a maybe) somewhat more reliable than tape but if this drive is used manually, you are the weakest link in the backup chain.

Add to this to common difficulty of U.S.B. drives causing a “data flash on entry or exit” problem and you could be setting yourself up for a total data outage. The worst is yet to come. Whatever the difficulties (and that is putting it mildly) posed by losing your data, the situation gets progressively worse if someone with disingenuous intent has it. Given that external drives are portable and are generally employed for portability, your unencrypted data could end up just about anywhere.

Tape with all its weaknesses was designed for data backup and is generally used with high quality data backup management software. To replace the hardware and dispose of the software (as tape software is for tape) may be presented as an upgrade. You could convince yourself that you are doing the right thing but in reality you are going for a more modern hardware option which is designed for other purposes and only offers some short term savings coupled with immediate and ongoing data risk at an intolerable level.

If you are going to move from tape, talk to a data backup professional. Go with a data backup specific solution. A quality solution should offer automation, verification, off-site storage, compression, encryption, reporting, reliability and support. If any of these crucial components are absent or lacking you may be better of (to a degree) with tape. This is not an endorsement of tape but a damning case against ad hoc, partial or loose backup environments.

U.S.B. drives are everywhere. There is only one reason. They are a cheap way to store data. This is OK if the device is simply intended to move non-confidential data while not depending on the transit version for continuirty. There are some things you can do in life on the cheap. Employing a strong data backup system which you absolutely rely on is not one of them.

Hard drive failure is all too common today. So is manufacturer blame. There are some things which the manufacturer cannot control and which only you can. The principal hard drive responsibilities you have if you want to keep it safe are handling and heat.

Drive handling

Hard drives should be transported and handled as little as possible. Some obvious factors such as remaining earthed and having systems shut down are often overlooked out of laziness more so than ignorance. If you want to keep it safe you have to be informed and active. Care when carrying drives is essential as one fall can be fatal for a drive. In addition, when you must transport a drive it should be protected.

Drive heat

Hard drives are more susceptible to heat issues than any other part of your computer. Even your processor will generally function correctly at the higher end of operational temperatures but hard drives are prone to failure due to heat. Heat being an issue often overlooked we will focus some more on it.

Open case. (computer)

Computer cases are often left open. (very common with supposed “techies”) Your computer case and integral fans are designed with your hard drive in mind. To keep it safe, they are designed around an airflow model so an open case can actually increase hard drive temperature rather than reduce it as often anticipated.

Tightly packed hard drives.

Not alone do hard drives need to be positioned along the correct airflow path but they need to have space around them for the air to escape after it has picked up the heat. As a general rule of thumb you should allow no less then the thickness of a hard drive between drives.

Incorrect operational assumptions.

It is often believed that when a hard drive is not in use that it does not build up heat. This is not correct. If a system is on, the hard drive will build up heat even when not being accessed by the user.

Blocked airflow.

Now that we know the case cover is generally a positive addition to a well designed system, we need to ensure that all airflow paths in and out of the system are clear. Ensure external airflow paths are not blocked by walls, files or other equipment.

Local air temperature. Your intake fan can only provide your system with air at a temperature relative to the area the system is placed in. If your office is very warm and stuffy, do something about it if not for yourself for your hard drives.

Dust.

Open just about any computer which has been in service for a reasonable period and you will find dust which will reduce airflow. Have it cleaned.

Loose drives.

Drives should be positioned and securely retained in the compartments provided. Loose drives will have improper airflow. They will have an airflow vector at the point of contact. They increase the risk of static and the risk of damage should the case be moved or bumper against.

Green is cool.

Any policy which reduces usage time and unnecessary activity is not alone good for the environment but good for system life.

After all of your good work and care please remember this. With regard to your hard drive, no amount of effort to keep it safe will ensure survival. All hard drives will die. They will not notify you in advance. Back up. Backup. Backup. keep it cool. Keep it safe.