[Hitch]

Originally Posted by Glorfindel

Hitch: sorry, that was me trying to be funny after reading your spoiler

DUH! See, this is what happens when I'm up waiting to hear from bloody A***** at 4:00 a.m. I'm so slow on the uptake! sorry, Glor. :-) (I'm smiling now!)

Originally Posted by CRussel

I have the original word files from every book I've ever written. Including the ones that were done on PCWrite. Gawd knows how I'd ever actually READ them. But that's 27 years of book files.

Charlie, you never--never--cease to amaze and impress me. All this, and an author, too? Sheesh!

Originally Posted by badgoodDeb

Nope, not excessive at all. (Note: my job is backup!) I'm fretting about re-using tapes that are >3 years old, even though I've saved quarterly tapes from that same bunch. I'm just re-using the months in between the quarter-saves. And fretting about doing so, even though we don't PROMISE that much history, and even though I have the quarterly tapes! And even though the data is presumably still present on the tapes I'm saving TODAY. How many people want a file that was deleted 4 years ago, and didn't exist long enough to be on a quarterly tape??

But I like to keep lots of backups!

I once, in my prior life, built a very large, fairly famous 5-star resort. I was the "fixer of all things," in addition to being the Project Manager. (Of course, inarguably, that's what a PM does, any-damn-way.) I kept ALL the project files--not just the construction, but the land acquisition, acquisition loans, construction loans, etc.--for ages. I finally called the entity in question, and said, "okay, look, guys: it's been 25 years since we opened the hotel. I have <insert list of banker's boxes of documents>. Are you sure you don't want any of these?" And when they insisted, no, they didn't, I had a shredding truck come by. We had something like 170 banker's boxes shredded into itty-bitty bits. Crosscut. Those of you in the biz know what's coming next: sure as s**t, not 3 months later, I had a call "Hitch, do you remember the terms of the XXX agreement by and among XXX, YYY and ZZZ?"

Fortuitously, despite shredding, I did recall the terms. My recall for these types of things is well known in my old circle of acquaintances and clients, so I "had it" for them...but not on paper. If I croaked, (or, for that matter, didn't pick up the damn phone) they'd be hard put to come up with those answers now. Don't ask me anything about what I did when I was age X or Y or whatever; but deal terms? Zoning Entitlement cases? Construction contracts? Change Orders? Yup, those I can remember.

Originally Posted by PeterT

@Hitch: just remember that RAID only protects against hardware failure (and even then only if you have an active monitoring tool to warn you of a single drive having failed); it provides no protection against files being deleted.

Spoiler:

I know full well that you are aware of both those points, but you and I both know that some reading this thread won't know

You are SO right, Peter. I have the active monitoring, of course, and I've rebuilt a few RAIDS in my time. But...it makes me feel a bit more proactive about backups (as if I needed to be, but obsessive is obsessive), and it's a bit like having a nice wubby. :-)

Glad to know that I'm not the only one here with the all-consuming Backup Compulsion!

Hitch