ack! Check your back-ups!

[Libby Pritchett]

Jeff built me a new computer, so tonight I was going through and making sure everything was backed up on my laptop so that I could get it loaded over there tomorrow. I went into backblaze (it backs up everyday in the background), and I decided to do a few spot checks just to make sure everything was there before I did a full restore.

Well, I started to get alarmed when I couldn't find my photos anywhere... then my music...

So, i went into the backblaze control panel on my laptop to double check. Well, in there, there is a "folders to exclude" tab. I started looking through there and realized that I had accidentally included a folder that I never meant to include... the folder that had all my photos & music in it!! 87gb!!!!!!

I'm so thankful that my laptop hasn't crashed (it's been hobbling along for a while) and that I caught it in time.

I'm now feverishly backing up that folder so that I can load it all on my new computer.

So the moral of the story - double check your backups to make sure you are backing up everything you meant to!

[nun69]

wow...that is scary!!!!

[julia]

Great reminder Libby. So glad you were able to save all your stuff! I need to create some more DVD's with my pictures on there, it's been a while since I did that.

[Ginger_79]

I am not using a back-up system per se, but a folder synchronisation program called ACJ Sync. Before it starts to sync my desktop and my EHD folders it shows me a list of the files it has detected to be copied. So I can directly see, if all is there. Plus I usually check for a few files afterwards to see, if it worked.

I can totally recommend it. It works well and - most important for me - fast! I hated back-ups taking forever, so I rarely did them. Shame on me. This one is excellent. Plus it detects when files were changed since the last synchronisation. Aaand, which I find very helpful, if I tell it to, it will delete things from the EHD that have been deleted on the desktop HD. Means when I tidy up folders, I don't have to do it twice. Especially when weeding the photo folders, this is great.

[cardinalskate]

Yes, yes, yes! When someone asks me about backing up, I always give me recommendations, then tell them to check their backups, too! So glad you checked and were able to remedy it before a disaster. Whew! (This has me going to triple-check my Backblaze right now, so thank you!)

[rachaelsscraps]

Off to check my exclusion list! I already found one on there that I didn't want to exclude. I guess it's easy to accidently choose the wrong folder on there!!

[MamaBee]

oohh... we've had that happen, too... makes a person paranoid!

[rach3975]

Good thing you caught it in time! Does Backblaze mark things in any way when they're backed up? I'm using Mozy now, and Mozy shows a green mark on every folder and file that is backed up. You don't have to look anywhere special for it, the green mark always shows as you browse through your files. I was planning to switch from Mozy to BackBlaze before my Mozy rates go up in October, but I need that visual reassurance!

ETA: I see that Carbonite does something similar, so if Backblaze doesn't I'll probably try Carbonite instead.

[terrab]

Thanks for the reminder. Going to check my backups now.

[heathergw]

great reminder!!! So glad you caught it before you lost them all!!!