mark avey’s blog

As you’ll know if you read this blog, I’m an avid photographer. Today, I was sorting through my digital albums in order to prepare a photobook as a gift. Trouble is, the files were no longer there. The thumbnails were all stored, but when I clicked one to get the full size image, I was treated to the dreaded “file not found” error message.

I searched manually through the directories and, sure enough, they weren’t there. Panic sets in. Further investigation reveals about 1,000 photos just plain gone. I tried an undelete tool, but no trace. I’ve no idea how they got deleted. Probably finger trouble.

So, time to see how well my backup strategy works. I’m paranoid, so I use Mozy as an online backup and SyncBack from 2BrightSparks to backup to my server. I took a quick look at my server and, sure enough, all the stuff missing from my laptop is safely backed up. I’m still going through the restore now, but all looks well.

Now I’m pleased about my paranoia. Watch out, it could happen to you!