Quite a few firms & systems got hit by the hurricane.
It looks like many had no good disaster recovery system.

Some may have lost their backups too I'd wager.

This includes government Sites.

How many firms are now out of business?
--
Cliff

"Cliff" wrote in message
...
Quite a few firms & systems got hit by the hurricane.
It looks like many had no good disaster recovery system.

Some may have lost their backups too I'd wager.

This includes government Sites.

How many firms are now out of business?
--
Cliff

Several of my buds that work for bigger companies that have quarterly
"Disaster Recovery" drills that involve a number of scenarios including
nuclear attack. In the case of an insurance company, they have facilities
that are redundant and actually nuclear proof except for a direct hit. He
claims that they could be back in business in a week after half of the US is
destroyed.

Even my fly-speck company has off-site data back-ups so, I tend to believe
that most companies have enough sense to do the same, especially in a
high-risk area like NO. Gov, sites have strict protocol for back-ups.

Cliff wrote:

Quite a few firms & systems got hit by the hurricane.
It looks like many had no good disaster recovery system.

Some may have lost their backups too I'd wager.

This includes government Sites.

How many firms are now out of business?
--
Cliff
Disaster recovery is the number one priority of my job. It's not
easy, but it's workable. But all it takes is one day of slacking off
and the whole plan is down the tubes. It is a very serious
undertaking. We use Computer Associates Brightstor with the DA option
which allows me to (using one CD and the latest backup tapes) rebuild
any server, no matter how dead it is. We keep an inventory of spare
drives and other components in a big ol' vault for safety (along with
the offsite tapes that have been returned in the last few weeks) .
Believe me, there are so many competing priorities that it would be
easy to ignore this stuff but I have been told many times, DR is your
number one concern - if anybody comes up with something that
interferes with that, screw them. It is something that just requires
the unwavering attention to detail to get it done - it isn't some kind
of expensive miracle.

Cliff wrote:
Quite a few firms & systems got hit by the hurricane.
It looks like many had no good disaster recovery system.

Some may have lost their backups too I'd wager.

This includes government Sites.

How many firms are now out of business?
--
Cliff

Harddrives are hermetically sealed. If needed they can be overhauled
(replace the circuit card) to make them work long enough to recover the
data.

I tell people to never ever format a harddrive, let the tech do it, but
in reallity, I just keep the old drives, because the data is still in
them.

There are data recovery firms, who can disassemble a harddrive and
using lasers, they can read the data strings on the platters, then they
can reassemble the data, but that is last resort and costly.

Halcitron wrote:
Cliff wrote:

Quite a few firms & systems got hit by the hurricane.
It looks like many had no good disaster recovery system.

Some may have lost their backups too I'd wager.

This includes government Sites.

How many firms are now out of business?
--
Cliff


Harddrives are hermetically sealed. If needed they can be overhauled
(replace the circuit card) to make them work long enough to recover the
data.

I've taken apart dozens and as far as I can
see, they are all vented in some way or another.

I tell people to never ever format a harddrive, let the tech do it, but
in reallity, I just keep the old drives, because the data is still in
them.

There are data recovery firms, who can disassemble a harddrive and
using lasers, they can read the data strings on the platters, then they
can reassemble the data, but that is last resort and costly.

On Tue, 06 Sep 2005 18:37:36 GMT, "Tom Gardner"
wrote:

Several of my buds that work for bigger companies that have quarterly
"Disaster Recovery" drills that involve a number of scenarios including
nuclear attack.

I've worked at similar places.
I've also seen the "drill" look good but the entire thing fail
in practice. In one case, the backup software lied about
having written the files in the log files. In another, a few
sysadmins did not even begin to grasp their own system's
file protections. In another, what to back up had to be manually
added to the list .... but nobody was updating it & there was
no plan at all.
Then someone forgot to turn ON the new UPS system .... g.
--
Cliff

On Tue, 06 Sep 2005 18:37:36 GMT, "Tom Gardner"
wrote:

Even my fly-speck company has off-site data back-ups so,

Do you also compare them to what you actually have
live, bit for bit?
--
Cliff

On 6 Sep 2005 12:52:13 -0700, "Halcitron" wrote:

There are data recovery firms, who can disassemble a harddrive and
using lasers, they can read the data strings on the platters, then they
can reassemble the data, but that is last resort and costly.

Sadly, this will not work for striped drives if there's
been a bad head crash, AFAIK.
--
Cliff

On Tue, 06 Sep 2005 13:32:45 -0700, Jim Stewart
wrote:

I've taken apart dozens and as far as I can
see, they are all vented in some way or another.

Reminds me of GM headlamps ..... the last thing they
did was to install a hole to let the water in.
When it gets enough water sloshing about it will hit the
real bulb & *poof*.

But the drives are supposed to be sealed.
--
Cliff

"Cliff" wrote in message
...
Quite a few firms & systems got hit by the hurricane.
It looks like many had no good disaster recovery system.

Some may have lost their backups too I'd wager.

This includes government Sites.

How many firms are now out of business?
--
Cliff

any firm that didn't have a backup stored somewhere deserves the same status
as the welfare losers who didn't leave NO. In todays world of (increasingly
cheaper) DVD writers backups have become easier than ever to perform. I used
to use tapes for all my backups, but now I do it all on DVD. It's so easy
I'm astonished that some businesses miss this step.

Halcitron wrote:

Harddrives are hermetically sealed. If needed they can be overhauled
(replace the circuit card) to make them work long enough to recover the
data.

I tell people to never ever format a harddrive, let the tech do it, but
in reallity, I just keep the old drives, because the data is still in
them.

There are data recovery firms, who can disassemble a harddrive and
using lasers, they can read the data strings on the platters, then they
can reassemble the data, but that is last resort and costl
--------------------
I have disassembled several dozen hard drives.
I love the magnets, very small and very strong!
But they all have had vent/breather holes with sub-micron filters
in the top. I suspect that all hard drives are built this way.
Take an old one aaprt and you will see what I mean.

Terry

In misc.survivalism Cliff wrote:
On Tue, 06 Sep 2005 13:32:45 -0700, Jim Stewart
wrote:

I've taken apart dozens and as far as I can
see, they are all vented in some way or another.

Reminds me of GM headlamps ..... the last thing they
did was to install a hole to let the water in.
When it gets enough water sloshing about it will hit the
real bulb & *poof*.

But the drives are supposed to be sealed.

No, they arn't.
Sealing against 1-2PSI of varying air pressure (as you change location)
is really problematic.
If it fails, even slightly, then it may suck in debris, not to mention
the forces of some 30 pounds or so on each side of the drive distorting
it and making it not work.
All hard drives have breather holes of some sort, as that way they can
filter the air coming in, instead of attempting a hermetic seal.

After serious contemplation, on or about Tuesday 06 September 2005 5:00 pm
wrote:

On 6 Sep 2005 12:52:13 -0700, "Halcitron" wrote:

There are data recovery firms, who can disassemble a harddrive and
using lasers, they can read the data strings on the platters, then they
can reassemble the data, but that is last resort and costly.

Sadly, this will not work for striped drives if there's
been a bad head crash, AFAIK.

Ontrac Software which makes Disk Manager has a data recovery service. One
of their advertisements use to show a screwdriver driven right through the
platters. They claimed to be able to retrieve data from everything except
where the holes were.

Paul Mace's company use to do the same thing. But that man was a genius
when it came to hard drives.

--
Later,
Darrell Stec

Webpage Sorcery
http://webpagesorcery.com
We Put the Magic in Your Webpages

tg wrote:
"Cliff" wrote in message
...

Quite a few firms & systems got hit by the hurricane.
It looks like many had no good disaster recovery system.

Normal.


Some may have lost their backups too I'd wager.

Possibly. The better ones would have insisted on flood proof storage.


This includes government Sites.

How many firms are now out of business?

Probably many, but for many other reasons as well.
e.g. all/majority of your customers have gone out of business as well
and you can not absorb the loss.
--
Cliff


any firm that didn't have a backup stored somewhere deserves the same status
as the welfare losers who didn't leave NO.

ROFL, that is probably 99% of them.

So, how far away is your offsite backup stored?

In todays world of (increasingly
cheaper) DVD writers backups have become easier than ever to perform. I used
to use tapes for all my backups, but now I do it all on DVD. It's so easy
I'm astonished that some businesses miss this step.

Wow, your on a real humor run today. Don't give up the day jopb will
you. Hint, it isn't the tool that is important, it is how you use it
that matters.

If a business owner backs up and was able to evacuate and remebered to
take family records and his business papers, then he might survive. It
doesn't matter if it was on floppy, CDrom, DVD, Tape, Ram Stick, etc, or
even paper.


I will give everyone a free hint, you plan your backup system to match
the disasters you want your company to survive. For many companies, a
nuke hitting their city isn't something they are going to be too worried
about. Many companies don't plan to survive such events.

On Tue, 6 Sep 2005 22:04:32 +0100, "tg"
wrote:

deserves the same status
as the welfare losers who didn't leave NO.

You expected the poor survivalists to WALK out during a
class 5 hurricane?
Or is it just because most of them are poor & Black, not
having Hummers to evacuate with?

Are you a winger or just a racist?
--
Cliff

"Cliff" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 6 Sep 2005 22:04:32 +0100, "tg"
wrote:

deserves the same status
as the welfare losers who didn't leave NO.

You expected the poor survivalists to WALK out during a
class 5 hurricane?
Or is it just because most of them are poor & Black, not
having Hummers to evacuate with?

Are you a winger or just a racist?

oh get off your high horse will Cliff, you're a bore.

In misc.survivalism Halcitron wrote:

Harddrives are hermetically sealed. If needed they can be overhauled
(replace the circuit card) to make them work long enough to recover the
data.

This is incorrect; most hard drives have an air vent with an HEPA filter
(often a little felt disc) so the cover doesn't blow its gasket if you
take the computer to say Denver after it's built at sea level. Thus if a
drive is submerged water CAN enter the head-disc assembly, especially if
the drive was at its operating temperature when the machine room got
flooded.

--
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Reply-to: address IS Valid.

On Thu, 8 Sep 2005 20:58:33 +0100, "tg"
wrote:

"Cliff" wrote in message
.. .
On Tue, 6 Sep 2005 22:04:32 +0100, "tg"
wrote:

deserves the same status
as the welfare losers who didn't leave NO.

You expected the poor survivalists to WALK out during a
class 5 hurricane?
Or is it just because most of them are poor & Black, not
having Hummers to evacuate with?

Are you a winger or just a racist?

oh get off your high horse will Cliff, you're a bore.

And you've been applauding the neocons for
finding those "WMDs" and murdering ~100,000 ++
since day one, right?
Happy there in the bunker, are you? What if it flooded?
--
Cliff

"Cliff" wrote in message
...
On Thu, 8 Sep 2005 20:58:33 +0100, "tg"
wrote:

"Cliff" wrote in message
. ..
On Tue, 6 Sep 2005 22:04:32 +0100, "tg"
wrote:

deserves the same status
as the welfare losers who didn't leave NO.

You expected the poor survivalists to WALK out during a
class 5 hurricane?
Or is it just because most of them are poor & Black, not
having Hummers to evacuate with?

Are you a winger or just a racist?

oh get off your high horse will Cliff, you're a bore.

And you've been applauding the neocons for
finding those "WMDs" and murdering ~100,000 ++
since day one, right?

wrong

Happy there in the bunker, are you?

not in a bunker

What if it flooded?

I'd move upstairs

"tg" wrote in message
...

oh get off your high horse will Cliff, you're a bore.

Please stop quoting this drooling idiot.



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Drooling idiots G.
--
Cliff