Decided I should probably update this again, I don't have much to say, but I figured this would be a good opportunity to share some info.

If you look at the entry I made before this one, I mentioned having around 2.3TB of files that I needed to go through and that I was going to upload some new and old templates. You may have also noticed that this never happened. This is because the RAID (Redundant Array of Independent Disks) that I was using to store all these files failed in a spectacular way. This would not normally be a problem, except the drives did not just die, they were slowly corrupted. My backup software looked at the drives, noticed the missing and corrupted files, and assumed that I had deleted them on purpose, so it removed that data from my backup server. I lost around 10 years of websites, images, templates, and WIP designs. I thought my files were safe, I thought I had my stuff backed up.

I have now been following the 3 - 2 - 1 backup plan that is outlined by the good people over at dpbestflow.org. Their specific article on backups is here: [link]. A file is not backed up unless you have three different copies of it (1 primary and 2 backups), stored on two different types of media, and have at least one copy "offsite" (in an area far away from your computer, in case of flooding, earthquakes, etc.). For off site backups, I recommend Carbonite (www.carbonite.com) and CrashPlan (www.crashplan.com). Both of these have nicely priced pay-for plans where you can backup your data to the "cloud" automatically. Crashplan has some additional features that let you back up to a friends computer for free, which is a nice alternative to paying yearly for the service. There are also services like dropbox that will allow you to store files off-site. For local backups, I have been using a program called "Reflect" by Macrium. There is a free version that lets you back up entire hard drives, which is probably a little overkill for people on DA, but I figured I would mention it anyway.

Most of the stuff I lost was code that can be rewritten (given another 10 years, ugh). Don't take chances with your artwork, back it up safely. Remember, your data is being stored on a metal disc that is spinning at 7,500 revolutions per minute, and being read/written by a metal arm floating above it on a cushion of air half a millimeter thick. Its amazing the damn things work at all.

Just wanted to get this out there.