Backups of backups

You’ve probably heard the maxim—there are two types of computer users—those who have lost data, and those who are about to.

This past Friday I thought I had irretrievably lost a few FileMaker Pro database files that are very important to my department and one of our sister departments. The only backup that I could find was almost two weeks old, so any data entered since then would have been gone.

I had stayed that evening until close to midnight doing everything that I could to recover those files, including running an undelete scan on the hard drive, which took over three hours, but allowed reconstruction of two of the four key databases.

I e-mailed my manager with the bad news and stressed about it all weekend. I stayed away from my computer most of the weekend because I did not want to face what might be in my inbox.

Monday morning came, and with a fresh mind, I actually found a recent backup of the files, which meant that nothing was lost, except a bit of my pride. I had worried for nothing, and caused a few others to worry for nothing.

One can never have too many backups…or backups of backups…or backups of backups of backups….