Fire! Can it destroy your business? Are your files protected?
On May 30th Steve Cole and his wife woke at 2am with smoke in their bedroom. They had a couple minutes to get out of bed and escape the house. Luckily both got out with their dog, but their three cats, that were very much a part of their family, did not survive. They lost everything else, everything.
A month earlier Steve had sold his photo studio in downtown Atlanta and moved all his photo equipment and computer work stations to his house. He also established a nice little studio in his home. No more commute; everything at his fingertips. His new work environment was ideal!
He did have off-site backup for some of his image files. He calls it his MOA-BU hard drive (mother-of-all backup). But he also had a few shoots that were still in process and only on the main hard drive in his new home office.
After taking the drive that was destroyed in the fire (see below) to a hard drive recovery company and discovering they wanted $6,500.00 to “maybe” recover the files he decided to purchase a new 10 TB Lacie (the same model as the drive that was destroyed). Next he cleaned the burned drives with a simple electronic cleaning spray. Then he removed the new drives from the Lacie and replaced them with the burned drives. Luckily, the drives that had been in the fire booted up perfectly and he was able to recover all of his work.
While it worked for Steve, it is better to be safe than sorry. Keep backups in a second location!
