I have never been so angry in my life!

[endoman]

Get your college mates to get dropbox on referral from you and your storage increases, I'm up to 13 GB of free storage without really trying. Plus ICloud for phone, and whatever the google one is called. Google apps for email means 25 GB of those stored remotely as well, cloud based is the way forward.

 

[Andrew_P]

get yourself some recovery software and free dropbox account!

 

[summerdays]

Time to learn how to make backups.

We have just had this conversation at the weekend with one of my children who hadn't bothered backing up anything on her memory stick (whereas I'm the opposite and even have copies stored on the stick - and then I can't remember which is the most up to date copy but at least I will have multiple options to go back to). We did use something to recover the data successfully.

 

[summerdays]

I have to admit to emailing myself documents as well as another form of backup, so I can access the files anywhere if needed. (Which is good as this week Mr Summerdays is doing some major work on the computer that stores all files so all are unavailable to me currently).

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Horrid feeling, I lost an assignment when I was at college, but that was word perfect in DOS so options were very limited indeed.

It just so happens I just wrote a blog post showing the easiest way to backup your documents...

 

[Andrew_Culture]

I have to admit to emailing myself documents as well as another form of backup, so I can access the files anywhere if needed. (Which is good as this week Mr Summerdays is doing some major work on the computer that stores all files so all are unavailable to me currently).

YES! This is very wise.

 

[fossyant]

Have you sorted it yet. Easy to recover, and make sure you make backups.

 

[Davidc]

Dropbox and other cloud storage sites are fine if you trust their operators over security, confidentiality, and reliability. I don't.

Online storage is dependent on fast broadband connections. Mine isn't fast enough for the amount of data I have.

Offsite storage is essential though for any sensitive data, and everyone should have it. It's easy to achieve with or without using the cloud.

All this assumes a backup plan. It amazes me the number of people who just don't back up their files, as in the OP.

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Dropbox and other cloud storage sites are fine if you trust their operators over security, confidentiality, and reliability. I don't.

Online storage is dependent on fast broadband connections. Mine isn't fast enough for the amount of data I have.

Offsite storage is essential though for any sensitive data, and everyone should have it. It's easy to achieve with or without using the cloud.

All this assumes a backup plan. It amazes me the number of people who just don't back up their files, as in the OP.

Speaking as a victim of hacking I can assure you that nothing is entirely secure but using large cloud services does give you the advantage of being a dot in an ocean rather than a specific target.

 

[jamin100]

2 things.

1. Download Recuva to attempt to get your stuff back..
2. One of the important rules in IT is "If your data doesn't exist in at least 3 places then it doesn't exist at all"

 

[Davidc]

Speaking as a victim of hacking I can assure you that nothing is entirely secure but using large cloud services does give you the advantage of being a dot in an ocean rather than a specific target.

Trouble is Andrew you can never be sure of winning. My only security breach was caused by an American corporation and other peoples confidential information was leaked. Fortunately they were all very good about it (and didn't sue either).

Since then I minimise how far any data goes, and hard encrypt anything I think should be. Your point is valid, but you are presumably still vulnerable to an attack on your own copies of files?

How did we arrive at this situation? It was much simpler when all you had to do was buy a big heavy safe and put paper in it!

 

[Andrew_Culture]

Trouble is Andrew you can never be sure of winning. My only security breach was caused by an American corporation and other peoples confidential information was leaked. Fortunately they were all very good about it (and didn't sue either).

Since then I minimise how far any data goes, and hard encrypt anything I think should be. Your point is valid, but you are presumably still vulnerable to an attack on your own copies of files?

How did we arrive at this situation? It was much simpler when all you had to do was buy a big heavy safe and put paper in it!

True! 99% of client hacks I helped with were due to poor passwords though; it doesn't matter how many free bits of software folk download, if their passwords suck their already halfway to being hacked!

 

[Noodley]

Oh I so hope you wear wearing a headcam when you discovered this...go on, please tell me you did.

 

[ianrauk]

Oh I so hope you wear wearing a headcam when you discovered this...go on, please tell me you did.

He left the cam running

 

[Andrew_Culture]

He left the cam running

Dangers of Strava I guess.