Just a reminder to back up your data, gentleman.
My main system had a catastrophic failure yesterday. One twelve volt rail shorted. Fried my expensive video card as well as one of the three hard drives in my RAID array.
Ordinarily when I have drive failure, my system continues to function and the RAID controller will rebuild the replacement hard drive. No data lost.
This time, Windows was damaged.
I may have lost thousands of train photos. I have some on CD and external hard drives, but many were not.
There is a chance I may be able to repair Windows once the array is finished rebuilding the drive.
If I am so lucky, I’ll be busy backing up my data for a while.
Ralph
Done. Thanks for the reminder.
Yep. I backup to the computer in the basement every night. It backs up to an off-site machine every night.
Had a double hard drive failure Friday. All is backed up on site and off. Just getting back to abnormal.
Thank God no data was lost. I was not able to repair Windows. Had to reinstall XP. But all my data was still safe on the RAID array.
Where are you guys backing up off site? Paying for an online service? If so, who do you use?
Ralph
My important stuff is kept at LSC in the Articles section. 
I’ve been fighting with a DAT drive at work and haven’t had a good backup since thanksgiving. Last night the server decided to just go dark at about 10 at night - no error messages and nothing in the event log. This morning when I arrived the power lights were on, but no activity and no response. I power cycled it and it came back up normally. It wanted me to put in last nights tape, so I did and it ran the overnight backup during the work day with no errors.
Weird.
At home I back up all my pictures and data to DVD’s, but not often enough. I need to get after that soon.
Unfortunately I did lose my bookmarks and e-mail, as well as some passwords.
I’ll have to order another external drive to back up my photos. Burning 200Gb of photos to DVD is not something I want to devote time to.
Ralph
Tom Ruby said:Thanks, but I'm paranoid. I'd never back up any personal or business data to an on-line repository unless I owned the server and had complete control.
Jon, let me introduce you to http://www.mozy.com
Mozy Privacy Policy said:
Decho may disclose Personal Data, including the data you back up with the Service, with or without notice (a) if required by a subpoena or other judicial or administrative order, (b) where required by law, or [b](c) at our sole discretion, where we deem it necessary to protect the safety of any individual or the general public or to prevent violation of our User Agreement or the rights of Decho or any third party.[/b]
I completely agree Jon.
Bank computer systems are constantly being attacked to get someone’s Visa card number.
That’s nothing compared to getting ALL a person’s info in one place!
I would not do it even if they said they would never access the information AND it was encrypted. Ever hear of the U.S. government? They can/will override anything they please, they are already listening to all of our phone calls.
Regards, Greg
Jon Radder said:I have no problem with "A" or "B". Pretty much the case on your own server. But "C" is pretty well a deal breaker. I'd rather not do business with a company that uses the phrase "at our sole discretion" anywhere. RalphTom Ruby said:Thanks, but I'm paranoid. I'd never back up any personal or business data to an on-line repository unless I owned the server and had complete control.
Jon, let me introduce you to http://www.mozy.comMozy Privacy Policy said:
Decho may disclose Personal Data, including the data you back up with the Service, with or without notice (a) if required by a subpoena or other judicial or administrative order, (b) where required by law, or [b](c) at our sole discretion, where we deem it necessary to protect the safety of any individual or the general public or to prevent violation of our User Agreement or the rights of Decho or any third party.[/b]
Then you’ll love this paragraph…
Mozy Privacy Policy said:
SECURITYDecho uses industry standard security measures to protect against the loss, misuse and alteration of the information under our control. Although we make good faith efforts to store the information collected by Decho in a secure operating environment that is not available to the public, Decho cannot guarantee complete security. Further, while we take reasonable steps to ensure the integrity and security of our network and systems, we cannot guarantee that our security measures will prevent third-party “crackers” from obtaining this information.
Jon Radder said:As I read this, I'm picturing a bunch of rednecks plotting a political campaign. I can even imagine their slogan: "If you vote for Billy Bob... you might be a Redneck!"
Then you'll love this paragraph...Mozy Privacy Policy said:
SECURITY“…third-party ‘crackers’…”
Ray - That might be exactly the definition they had in mind 
Well,
Finally got everything backed up to an external drive. Over 200Gb.
Turns out the power supply also fried my Creative Audigy 2zs sound card.
So when the new sound card arrives, I’ll do a reformat and clean install. The install “over” I did is acting a bit quirky.
The good news is replacement parts cost less than the originals. The bad news is it was still $300.
Ralph