[Easter1]

With the external drives, I hate when the power fails or there is a power surge.

I have quite a large pile of external HDD in the corner, UNBOOTABLE!

CAREFUL!

Easter

[D.F. (Nick) Lapenna]

Easter1, on May 16 2008, 01:25 PM, said:

With the external drives, I hate when the power fails or there is a power surge.

I have quite a large pile of external HDD in the corner, UNBOOTABLE!

CAREFUL!

Easter

Thank you for the caution!

I use an APC Back Up Power Supply for my main computer and periferals including my external hard drive. I am contemplating adding a twin to my external hard drive, soon.

I did experience, recently, two major power outages that I can remember and was warned by my APC unit that I was on back up power.

Everything seemed to be OK, and continues to function properly.

Was I just lucky?

Please, what happened to your external units?

I would like to learn from your experience, rather than the hard way.

Thank you in advance for sharing.

Ciao!

[spenceh]

Garett, on May 15 2008, 03:55 PM, said:

For those using carbonite and similar US based services, how do you handle the issues raised by the Patriot Act in the US? I do believe that throws a bit of a privacy wrinkle into the picture.

My query to Carbonite:
I am considering your services but also need to comply with federal and provincial Privacy Acts here in Canada. How does the US Patriot Act apply to your services with regard to maintaining the privacy of the information which is backed up?

Their reply:
-------Original Message-------

From: [Carbonite Customer Support] Rosanne
Date: 05/17/08 07:39:45
To: h_spence@telus.net
Subject: Re: Patriot Act <<#126212-347352#>>

Hello Helga and thank you for your e-mail.



David Friend, our CEO, has asked me to assist you.


Thank you for considering Carbonite. The Patriot Act affects privacy of our customer's data the same way in which any law of the United States Federal or Massachusetts State governments do. We are required to comply with the law. You do have the option to manage your own encryption key. To manage your own encryption key, please follow the steps below:

Log into your account at www.carbonite.com/manage.
Click on the My Protected Computers tab.
Click Reinstall. Follow the on-screen prompts to reinstall Carbonite.
During the installation process, you will be prompted by a dialog box entitled Allow Carbonite to manage my encryption key. Unmark that check box and click Next.
A warning will be displayed. Please be aware that if you choose to keep your own encryption key, the only way you will be able to retrieve your data is with your key. That means that if you lose your key you will never be able to restore your files. If you still wish to proceed, please click OK.
Choose a password at least six characters in length and enter it in both password fields (along with a hint in case you forget the password you entered), and then click Save.
A box will appear saying Browse to Folder. Please select the location you would like to store your key and select OK. You will then be informed that the key has been saved successfully. Please allow a few minutes for the encryption key screen to disappear.
We highly recommend that you keep you key in two separate physical locations. For example, you may save a copy of your key on disk in a safe deposit box or fire proof box.




Thank you for your interest in Carbonite!



Sincerely,



Rosanne

Carbonite Customer Support

www.carbonite.com

Backup. Simple.

[D.F. (Nick) Lapenna]

spenceh, on May 17 2008, 09:54 AM, said:

A warning will be displayed. Please be aware that if you choose to keep your own encryption key, the only way you will be able to retrieve your data is with your key. That means that if you lose your key you will never be able to restore your files. If you still wish to proceed, please click OK.

Helga,

I really appreciate the trouble you have gone to and especially for sharing with us.

Somehow, for no particular reason, I am not comfortable about the security aspect. Are you?

I would in any event be more comfortable with this scenerio if I would be dealing with a Canadian Company who falls under Canadian jurisdiction.

Right now, I am busy with a large project, but I will soon be looking into Bell Canada (Sympatico) back up services, since I have been using them as my ISP for many years.

I like Bell Sympatico especially because even though they, now, outsource their help call centre to India, I have , every time (several), encountered a pleasant, knowlegeable and helpful person at the other end......with no waiting for the next available, etc, etc.

Moreover, not to sound prejudiced, in my time of frustrated and impatient need, always had someone who spoke "my" English.

I value your opinion.

Ciao!

[Dan Reynen]

HEY FOLKS! Look at what Garrett pointed out. If you are backing up to a US company you are subject to the US Patriot Act and you do not have any right to privacy. If the FBI or Homeland Security wishes to look at your files Carbonite and the others will be required to give it to them unencrypted. I tried it about 3 years ago and could not sleep with the possible privacy problems. You may be able to use it worry free if you get every tax, bookkeeping and accounting client to agree to hold you blameless. I would not mind if there were a Canadian company offering the service but have not found a satisfactory one yet. Most are local and do not back up to three sites across the country at a reasonable cost. If anyone knows of one let me know.

I use two of the 160gb cigarette packages. They backup overnight and are changed out each day. On top of that the Server has a terabyte with only about 100 gigs used. The server software makes a version backup of every file as it changes and a mirror backup of the entire file. We still only use less than 400 gigs.

So we back up the whole system constantly, each file every time it changes for instant restore if an error occurs and if we have a virus the external backups are only one day out of date. On top of this we use a Firewall called Sonic Wall and a built in Anti Virus. As yet we have not been interesting enough for anyone to break in.

[D.F. (Nick) Lapenna]

Dan Reynen, on May 23 2008, 06:52 PM, said:

HEY FOLKS! Look at what Garrett pointed out. If you are backing up to a US company you are subject to the US Patriot Act and you do not have any right to privacy. If the FBI or Homeland Security wishes to look at your files Carbonite and the others will be required to give it to them unencrypted. I tried it about 3 years ago and could not sleep with the possible privacy problems. You may be able to use it worry free if you get every tax, bookkeeping and accounting client to agree to hold you blameless. I would not mind if there were a Canadian company offering the service but have not found a satisfactory one yet. Most are local and do not back up to three sites across the country at a reasonable cost. If anyone knows of one let me know.

I use two of the 160gb cigarette packages. They backup overnight and are changed out each day. On top of that the Server has a terabyte with only about 100 gigs used. The server software makes a version backup of every file as it changes and a mirror backup of the entire file. We still only use less than 400 gigs.

So we back up the whole system constantly, each file every time it changes for instant restore if an error occurs and if we have a virus the external backups are only one day out of date. On top of this we use a Firewall called Sonic Wall and a built in Anti Virus. As yet we have not been interesting enough for anyone to break in.

Thank you for sharing with us Dan......
Your findings are most interesting and welcome, indeed.
As soon as I finish my present large project, I plan to look into the Sympatico Back up plan.
It seems to be an answer for us-----on the surface, at least.

Ciao!