A salutary lesson for us all

annpa · Post by **annpa** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 5:35 pm

i've been reading the posts about backup methods and thought I would share my experiences with you all.

i always preach constant backup, but am a bit lax myself. i've never lost any data on the PC, and my virus software has always been as good as I can afford and always up to date.

Until end November 2007!!

A trojan or something was about , specifically attacking Norton. Of course I was attacked and the whole PC had to be reformatted and started again from the original backup disks. I was able to backup data files prior to the reformat and did that, leaving the programs as I could reload them from disk.

What I had not remembered was that my family history data files were held in the program, so did not back it up. Loss of 15 years worth of family history work!!!

My family history program Sierra Generations grande Suite was no longer produced, but fortunately I have several gedcom files created from earlier programs, and my family tree is almost complete on genes reunited so I haven't completely lost everything, but there is a lot of hard work to do to recreate the trees.

fortunately I found that TVR computing have done an update to generations which (with a patch) works on Vista, so at least my new trees will look the same when I have finished. Unfortunately I have lost all the notes I made so will be racking my memory cells and those of my relations who are still alive. well at least it will keep me out of mischief.

i now have (as well as the reformatted PC) a vista laptop, a couple of memory sticks and loads of CDs and DVDs. an external hard drive seems a good idea too!!

Cheers
Annpa

Rach · Post by **Rach** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 7:36 pm

Thanks for the reminder! If the p.c. is working fine it easy to forget to keep back-ups up to date. I am still finding holes in my tree from the time I lost my data. I hadn't kept the back-ups up to date on c.d which meant having to sort out all the bits and pieces that were missing. I will have to get on to Roots Magic as I have made one back-up disc but since then backing-up onto disc is not working.
Rae

Post by **emanday** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 10:42 pm

I've got only one thing to say - Backup!

Knowing from my own experience how much I have spent obtaining the information I have on my own ancestors I have a great respect for the concept of backing up everything I have on a regular basis.

My store of CD's and DVD's of backups is probably way over the top, but at least I can safely say that I am never more than a few days short of what I have found.

Do NOT trust Windows, your PC or any other system you use! Backup everything!

At one time my income was based on what I stored on on my PC. I'd have lost thousands of pounds if it had been lost to a virus or system failure, so I backed everything up on a daily basis.

My family research is so precious to me that I treat it the same way.

Backup! Backup! Backup!

Falkyrn · Post by **Falkyrn** » Fri Feb 08, 2008 11:35 pm

The only thing I would add is .... make two backups and keep at least one of them as far from your own computer as possible...... in that way if complete disaster strikes (fire, flood etc etc) you always have one secure back up.

Currie · Post by **Currie** » Sat Feb 09, 2008 12:41 am

Hello Annpa,

That’s a horrible situation to happen to someone and I hope you get things fully sorted out. And you’ve reminded me that one of the things I like about the LDS Personal Ancestral File (PAF 5) Genealogy program, despite the fact that it isn’t too fancy, is that user’s interests are going to be religiously protected by the LDS Church.

One thing I forgot to mention in a recent posting is that as well as my Documents folder I also backup my Documents and Settings folder which normally has all the program settings, email storage etc. This should be where programs store user information on a Windows XP and later set up but some very old programs may not be able to handle that.

I have my Hard Drive divided into several partitions. I have a Linux operating system on one, Windows XP operating system on another and My Documents folder on the third. The actual Documents and Settings folder remains on the Windows partition and I can access the Documents folder from either operating system. This sort of a set up is most easily organised when Windows is being reinstalled after a reformat or on a new Hard Drive.

If Windows becomes corrupted I can access everything from Linux, not only that but I can reformat the Windows partition and reinstall Windows without disturbing My Documents or Linux. You can even have your Windows installation on one Hard Drive and your Documents folder on a second hard drive in your computer if you want to.

You can also have your email messages and some other things that may usually reside within Documents and Settings stored within the actual Documents folder. They can otherwise so easily be missed in a backup.

Of course none of this helps if the Hard Drive turns up its toes and it doesn’t lessen the need for backups.

All the best,
Alan