The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Nov 19, 2014 13:49:13 GMT -5
So... many weeks after the original event I can finally post about this.
As some of you may know, I'm a tax professional. DH is an IT professional. Thusly there is a natural division of responsibilities in our household.
I take care of the budgets, bills, savings, investing, taxes, and generally anything having to do with finance. I use Quicken to help with all of this (including our rental properties)
DH takes care of the home network, electronics, computer stuff, etc.
A few years back one of my detailed budget spreadsheets became corrupted. I blew a stack when I found out there was no backup in place. DH's excuse of it being too difficult to backup all the data with just 3.5 inch floppy disks, while lame, was understandable. So I bought a state of the art system and software package out of my personal savings to make it easier for him. I figured I could supply the hardware if he supplied the labor.
Then recently ...I got the blue screen of death on my laptop. DH tries everything he knows how (and he is very good) to get the hard drive back up. No go. THEN I find out there hasn't been a back done since....wait for it...January .
I am totally screwed. 11 months of financial data *poof*. He is now in the process of buying a new hard drive and I will have to reconstruct everything since January. He's sent the hard drive off to a recovery place, but we need to have a plan B up and running, like, right now.
It doesn't help that I have two organizations that I do pro bono work for that I have to get filings done soon.
So now we've sat down, and have put a written backup and recovery plan in place. Yes, he knows he's screwed up major time. But I'm still pondering if if I will smother him one night. Just kidding....or maybe not.
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ArchietheDragon
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Post by ArchietheDragon on Nov 19, 2014 13:51:26 GMT -5
I would sub out the IT to a reliable third party.
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ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ
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Post by ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ on Nov 19, 2014 13:56:36 GMT -5
Ugh - sounds like a nightmare! <Fingers crossed, that the techies he sent the hard drive to will be able to recover it>.
Did he try running a "System Restore" on it before he sent it away?
As for his punishment - don't feed him for a week - or better yet, make him feed you. Even if it's plenty of take-out - pizza, chinese, burgers, etc - so you're not stuck doing dishes too.
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Nov 19, 2014 14:02:24 GMT -5
I would sub out the IT to a reliable third party. I'm getting there. It would cost us around $500 a year (we have multiple computers). I'm not nuts about the versioning some of the places use (nothing kept that's older than 30, 60, or 90 days). I like to keep generational backups for cases just like this one. And yes, I know there is a bit of sarcasism in there. He really is capable of doing this, just doesn't bother with it until it becomes a problem. I don't think (and he agrees) that it's too much to expect.
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Nov 19, 2014 14:04:36 GMT -5
Ugh - sounds like a nightmare! <Fingers crossed, that the techies he sent the hard drive to will be able to recover it>.
Did he try running a "System Restore" on it before he sent it away?
As for his punishment - don't feed him for a week - or better yet, make him feed you. Even if it's plenty of take-out - pizza, chinese, burgers, etc - so you're not stuck doing dishes too. He tried every trick in the book, and even a few "hacks" from his online support sites (he does stuff like this at work). Problem is, he already feeds me - he usually cooks and cleans up dinner during the week. I do the meal planning and shopping. Sigh.
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kittensaver
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Post by kittensaver on Nov 19, 2014 14:07:08 GMT -5
DH is an IT guy and he's never heard of "redundant backups"?
Be prepared for the hard drive recovery (IF you can get anything) to run as high as a $700 to couple of thousand.
I would let him live, but I would fire him as your IT guy. Time to separate home and work, if you want to have peace at home and stay married.
ETA: sorry about your BSOD. They are the worst
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ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ
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Post by ՏՇԾԵԵʅՏɧ_LԹՏՏʅҼ on Nov 19, 2014 14:07:45 GMT -5
Maybe for the future, you could assign one specific day a month for him to be doing an updated backup - an easy date to remember like the 15th of every month.
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NancysSummerSip
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Post by NancysSummerSip on Nov 19, 2014 14:09:30 GMT -5
Aw, I like your hubby; he's such a sweetie. Not for his backup fail, just because he is. (Note to those who are wondering: I've met Mr. and Mrs. Captain). I'd forgive him this time, but I'd construct a belt out of old computer disks and some chain link and hang it above the bed. Just to remind him that a second fail will be painful.
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Malarky
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Post by Malarky on Nov 19, 2014 14:11:55 GMT -5
Hug him.
Tightly around the neck for just a moment until you feel better.
Don't let him faint.
Then put him on a schedule. The first Sunday of every month or some such when he takes a few minutes to do the backups.
Think really hard about the reasons you married him. He still possesses redeeming qualities, it's just hard to remember what they are right now.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2014 14:16:14 GMT -5
No.
Ok, maybe.
Could you make sex dependent on a current backup?
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Nov 19, 2014 14:22:06 GMT -5
NancysSummerSip and Malarky, THANKS GUYS!!! I knew I could count on you for a good chuckle, if nothing else! We've already agreed to a schedule. Every Friday night he'll kick off a backup on my PC, and one a month do a whole network backup. Between the rentals, personal finances, and other stuff I do there's at least 5 hours of work a week that gets done. I'd hate to lose even that if it can be helped. I just can't go through this again. Especially not with the rentals and two organizations I do. One of the organizations had their accountant flake out on them so I picked up the books in addition to the taxes. THANK GAWD I kept that piece in the Microsoft cloud so I could work on that at home and in their office.
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Works4me
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Post by Works4me on Nov 19, 2014 14:22:07 GMT -5
So sorry this happened and congratulations for not killing him ... yet.
Maybe he pays from his personal money?
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Nov 19, 2014 14:25:58 GMT -5
DH is an IT guy and he's never heard of "redundant backups"?
Be prepared for the hard drive recovery (IF you can get anything) to run as high as a $700 to couple of thousand.
I would let him live, but I would fire him as your IT guy. Time to separate home and work, if you want to have peace at home and stay married.
ETA: sorry about your BSOD. They are the worst X's 1000. Because of the complexity of our network (his design) we can't go with a simple cloud based backup solution. We are really set up more like a small business. Truth be told I prefer it that way for several reasons. Because of this, the cost to "outsource" backups is a lot more expensive then the $5-7 a month you see advertised. That model doesn't fit us. The other thing is, once the data leaves our control, well - it leaves our control. I'm kinda paranoid about that and would really prefer to not have it go outside our hands if we can help it.
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Nov 19, 2014 14:28:10 GMT -5
So sorry this happened and congratulations for not killing him ... yet. Maybe he pays from his personal money?Why do you think he's still living? It still doesn't get the data back (if it can't be recovered) or the time I will have to spend reconstructing everything. Or the additional 1,000 or so new grey hairs that have popped up in my head.
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Nov 19, 2014 14:28:43 GMT -5
No. Ok, maybe. Could you make sex dependent on a current backup? That would punish me as much as him .
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mmhmm
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Post by mmhmm on Nov 19, 2014 14:33:47 GMT -5
Ouch! I'm really sorry, Captain. That sounds like a freaking disaster. I'd have certainly been ready to beat him with the iron skillet until he quit wiggling.
He'd be doing the shopping, cleaning the bathrooms, and pay from his own discriminatory funds any cost in cleaning up the mess he made. Hopefully, it will be possible to retrieve the lost information from the old hard drive. Heck, I'd probably make up things for him to do to be sure he was busy from sunup to bedtime!
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Opti
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Post by Opti on Nov 19, 2014 14:39:28 GMT -5
Sorry this happened again, perhaps you could do something once a month, once a quarter to retrieve data to make sure the backups are in place and are working.
That way if something slips again, at least you'll catch it hopefully before something bad happens.
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Nov 19, 2014 14:43:34 GMT -5
Sorry this happened again, perhaps you could do something once a month, once a quarter to retrieve data to make sure the backups are in place and are working.
That way if something slips again, at least you'll catch it hopefully before something bad happens. That's a good idea! We should test our disaster recovery plan. We have a few extra (old) laptops lying around that we could use.
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2014 14:48:17 GMT -5
No. Ok, maybe. Could you make sex dependent on a current backup? That would punish me as much as him . I was thinking it might encourage him to adopt a daily back up schedule
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kittensaver
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Post by kittensaver on Nov 19, 2014 15:17:51 GMT -5
DH is an IT guy and he's never heard of "redundant backups"?
Be prepared for the hard drive recovery (IF you can get anything) to run as high as a $700 to couple of thousand.
I would let him live, but I would fire him as your IT guy. Time to separate home and work, if you want to have peace at home and stay married.
ETA: sorry about your BSOD. They are the worst X's 1000. Because of the complexity of our network (his design) we can't go with a simple cloud based backup solution. We are really set up more like a small business. Truth be told I prefer it that way for several reasons. Because of this, the cost to "outsource" backups is a lot more expensive then the $5-7 a month you see advertised. That model doesn't fit us. The other thing is, once the data leaves our control, well - it leaves our control. I'm kinda paranoid about that and would really prefer to not have it go outside our hands if we can help it.
Yes, but (as you probably already know) redundant backups don't HAVE to have ANYTHING to do with the Cloud. It is entirely possible to have multiple backups (on a lonely PC, on flash drives, on external hard drives, etc etc etc) and keep everything at home .
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sesfw
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Post by sesfw on Nov 19, 2014 15:23:15 GMT -5
He'd be doing the shopping, cleaning the bathrooms,
He could be doing shopping, cleaning, cooking during the time it takes for you to reconstruct everything. Should keep him out of trouble for a while.
Sorry this happened. A real PITA
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ken a.k.a OMK
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Post by ken a.k.a OMK on Nov 19, 2014 15:25:24 GMT -5
With our first computer, running DOS 5.0, I wrote batch files to save information on floppy A or floppy B alternating each time. Now I just cross my fingers.
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Bob Ross
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Post by Bob Ross on Nov 19, 2014 15:30:11 GMT -5
Tell him to implement RAID 6 or you're divorcing his sorry ass.
That, or the aforementioned "putting everything on 3.5 inch floppies" scheme. Either or.
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steff
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Post by steff on Nov 19, 2014 15:32:56 GMT -5
I like a subtle, passive aggressive form of husband punishment, punctuated occasionally with a burst of something truly evil to remind them. Smother him "almost" to death. when you removed the pillow & he's gasping for breath, lean in and whisper "bet you won't forget to do it again" and smile sweetly. then make his least favorite meals for dinner for the next week. If he dares to even make a face about it, wave a pillow in his general direction and watch him flinch. "forget" to do his laundry for a week or so. "accidentally" lose his favorite shoes or golf club for a couple of months. Or even better, use his favorite pocket knife to open a can & totally destroy the knife in the process....oopsie! Not that I'm an evil housewife who plots and plans revenge or anything.
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Abby Normal
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Post by Abby Normal on Nov 19, 2014 16:01:13 GMT -5
Any reason you can't get a Norton Ghost to just automatically run the back ups?
Or an external hard drive that YOU can make back ups to?
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Nov 19, 2014 16:03:34 GMT -5
I would back up my own data.
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The Captain
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Post by The Captain on Nov 19, 2014 16:07:21 GMT -5
Any reason you can't get a Norton Ghost to just automatically run the back ups? Or an external hard drive that YOU can make back ups to? Sound like you know more about computers than I do. Is it pretty easy? Can I do our whole network or would I only be able to do my laptop. If I run the backup to an external HD can I have redundant/generational backups on the same drive? Then again HD's are crazy cheap so I'd have no problem buying 2-3 of them (or do you still partition really big ones?). I'm not thrilled that I may have to take this on myself, but will do so if it's pretty idiot proof. DH's gets nuts when I start messing with the network/computer stuff but he's brought this on himself.
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kittensaver
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Post by kittensaver on Nov 19, 2014 16:12:21 GMT -5
Any reason you can't get a Norton Ghost to just automatically run the back ups? Or an external hard drive that YOU can make back ups to? Sound like you know more about computers than I do. Is it pretty easy? Can I do our whole network or would I only be able to do my laptop. If I run the backup to an external HD can I have redundant/generational backups on the same drive? Then again HD's are crazy cheap so I'd have no problem buying 2-3 of them (or do you still partition really big ones?). I'm not thrilled that I may have to take this on myself, but will do so if it's pretty idiot proof. DH's gets nuts when I start messing with the network/computer stuff but he's brought this on himself. It is *fairly* easy. Buy a (compatible) external hard drive; configure it to communicate with your laptop/PC; start backing up your stuff. Leave the network alone. And while you're at it, create a redundant backup with a flash drive. Then store both items separately from your computer.
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ken a.k.a OMK
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Post by ken a.k.a OMK on Nov 19, 2014 16:32:27 GMT -5
Quicken, as an example of a popular financial program, keeps your data in a separate file from the program. When you save it asks where. You can save to the file on your hard drive in addition to a flash drive. You can use the flash drive in any computer that has Quicken installed.
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Abby Normal
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Post by Abby Normal on Nov 19, 2014 16:34:50 GMT -5
Any reason you can't get a Norton Ghost to just automatically run the back ups? Or an external hard drive that YOU can make back ups to? Sound like you know more about computers than I do. Is it pretty easy? Can I do our whole network or would I only be able to do my laptop. If I run the backup to an external HD can I have redundant/generational backups on the same drive? Then again HD's are crazy cheap so I'd have no problem buying 2-3 of them (or do you still partition really big ones?). I'm not thrilled that I may have to take this on myself, but will do so if it's pretty idiot proof. DH's gets nuts when I start messing with the network/computer stuff but he's brought this on himself. Better than the average bear as our IT guy often says. The Ghost is pretty easy. I don't know if it can do a network since I've never done it that way. But you could definitely do your laptop. The external hard drive is just a very large jump drive. I use for our music, and pictures as well as a back up for our files. I just save a copy there occasionally. But you should be able to do a back up through your Quicken and save it to the ehd. That is more of a manual process but it's something you could do rather than expecting your DH to do it. DH does the computer crap in our house to (and just like you I do the financial side). But I still back up my own files because it's me that is going to suffer if it goes down.
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