Imagine logging onto your computer and realising you’ve lost 60,000 documents. Everything essential to running your business. Gone.
It’s okay, you think. I’ll just restore my files from my backup. But what if it’s your backup that’s lost it all? What then?
Cue sweaty palms, racing heart and the threat of bringing up your breakfast.
But that can’t really happen, can it? Not when you’ve got your computer backed up on Time Machine or One Drive?
Well, have we got a story for you.
Losing our data
Here at Stellarise, we’re Mac users. So when one of our team had a problem with his, he sent it off to Apple for repair. Not before backing it up on Time Machine, of course. Once Apple had made the necessary repairs and returned it, he restored the machine from his backup and merrily went about his day.
Meanwhile, I was working on a few different projects, saving them to Onedrive’s Sharepoint. However, when I went back to Sharepoint later to continue, all the files were missing. Utterly confused, I began hunting around, trying to find the files I’d been working on. It was then I made a rather startling discovery.
All our Stellarise data was missing. All our documents were gone. 60,000 of them had vanished into thin air.
Backing up from our back up
After those few heartstopping moments, I knew I needed to find out exactly what had happened. Now wasn’t the time for lying down in a dark room, rocking slowly back and forth. I needed to take action, and fast.
My first fear was that our system had been hacked. But thanks to elastic, our programme that’s designed to detect malicious activity, I soon discovered it wasn’t a hack at all. Phew.
But what on earth had happened?
In fact, it was Max restoring his Mac from Time Machine that had actually caused the problem. When he’d synced his files, it had managed to wipe them from our Sharepoint drive. As soon as we realised the problem, we were able to restore them from another backup.
Problem solved.
So why am I telling you this?
We’ll often tell you about the importance of having more than one backup of your data. You might give yourself a wry smile and think you’re safe because your files are ‘in the cloud’. What could go wrong?
Well, as you can see, a lot. It’s not enough just to have your important data in the cloud. You need to have multiple backups. Without ours, we wouldn’t have been able to restore anything.
It’s why you’ll hear us recommend Onedrive’s SharePoint too. If you’re a Mac user, don’t just rely on Time Machine. Use other software to give you that peace of mind.
As the old saying goes, ‘it’s better to be safe than sorry’.
And when it comes to your data, it really is.
If you need further support with backing up your data, get in touch. We’d be more than happy to help you find that peace of mind.
