IT crisis- please help!

Bob Bair · Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008, 17:13 (GMT) Post subject:

I really wouldn't recommend partitioning the drive. As inexpensive as hard drives are, just put another drive in there! I used to do things like that and it just is an extra layer of complexity that isn't required. Buy a new internal HD, use the NEW one as your WinXP drive (newer probably means faster if it's been a couple of years, or just be sure to get one with lots of onboard cache) then reformat the old one for data.

Actually, this was the BETTER solution to your original problem. If your hard drive crashes and you have data you don't want to lose, don't touch it! Buy a new drive, install the OS, then put that old drive in as a secondary drive and get your data off of there.

I just did this for someone who had a crash on his laptop. Actually what I did was put in the new drive, buy one of those external bays that holds the smaller 2.5" drives, place his old drive in the external bay and he was able to retrieve all of his codes, data, etc... off the old drive. Once that was complete, reformat it and he has a backpack drive.

Chris Clementson · **Voice Seeker** Joined: 14 Jan 2008 Posts: 216

Bob Bair · Posted: Tue Feb 26, 2008, 22:14 (GMT) Post subject:

Chris,
Sorry, I know what I suggest makes complete sense. I was not saying this was a backup solution, only a 'recover what was lost' solution. Unfortunately it's too late for that. I don't subscribe to multiple partitions. There is no need for that in today's world with a normal user.

I have an external drive for all my data backups. I also Ghost image my main drive every few months so if I lose the C: I can recover easily.

My point was, if you have an OS crash, don't bother reformatting. Get a new drive, install the OS, and then put the other drive in there to recover your data.

Let's see, have I addressed any crashed systems before?? hmmm...

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Chris Clementson · **Voice Seeker** Joined: 14 Jan 2008 Posts: 216

I'm talking about a backup policy. It's too late to recover Claire's files unless she hires an expensive recovery service.

Claire Dodin · Posted: Wed Feb 27, 2008, 14:05 (GMT) Post subject:

thank you guys!
You both offered solutions to different problems and I've learnt a lot. I feel more prepared now.
I see something else that maybe I could do to minimize the risks of crash.
If I could have my recording PC on the network but not on the internet. This way it would not catch viruses and I could use the shared folder to transfer the files and connect to client's ftp servers from a different computer. I find that saving them on an external hard drive and then unplug and plug on the other computer is too annoying and I end up not doing it and just connect directly to the internet.
I also have to disable my anti virus when I do video editing and of course it puts me at risk too.

So anyone knows how to connect to the network via a router without connecting to the internet (but be on the internet with the other computer, I don't want to just unplug the phone line)

Cheers!
You guys rock with your knowledge! Very Happy

Chris Clementson · **Voice Seeker** Joined: 14 Jan 2008 Posts: 216

Claire -

From time to time you should burn your really important voice/video files to CD/DVD as well.

Gregory Houser · Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008, 01:39 (GMT) Post subject:

Personal opinion on backups for the home VO:

Get a copy of Norton Ghost (or applicable program)
Snag a USB or FW drive of sufficient size (if total size of HDs in your computer is 250Gb, get at least double).
If motherboard is RAID compatible, use RAID 1 or RAID 0+1 configuration.

Use Ghost at least twice per week.

There's always a risk of data loss, but this would minimize a lot of the issues.

My own solution is what several people have informed me as being "insane" (SAN with FC drives using Veritas to backup all DAWs during "off peak" hours).

Overkill? Probably. But I've yet to have an issue when a drive failed (all systems save one are RAID 0+1, so the few times a drive did fail were of little consequence due to the nature of that configuration).

Bob Bair · Posted: Thu Feb 28, 2008, 05:07 (GMT) Post subject:

Claire,

There are a couple of ways you could keep your PC off the network, but if you are using up to date AV and are smart about it (You asking the right questions shows you are) the additional risk is greatly reduced.
If you wish, you can use a router to firewall the connection to the one computer to make it extremely difficult to get in. Another idea would be to use one computer as your external network computer and multi home that PC with two network cards. Then you could either disable or severely cripple the networking in the studio PC except for when you need to transfer files. Let me know if any of this sounds like something you would like to do.

I deal everyday in an environment that is a breeding ground for hacking and a nirvana for attacks. University networks are some of the most prime targets because they have huge pipelines and because of "academic freedom", we can't restrict like most companies can. Yes, that means we have to let the professors have access to porn because they just might be doing a study on that. (yeah, right)
To give you and idea of the volume we experience, we are receiving 1 million spam emails a day. That is on average.