Question Your Assumption: Portable Media Bites

I had a client this last week approach me for recovering data from a broken USB drive. She had purchased the external USB drive to serve as a backup for her primary hard disk, but the USB drive went south and she needed the data from it.

Eventually, I was able to fix the problem by ripping the drive apart and hooking it into a regular drive controller on a PC. And from there, I could make the copies she needed away from the broken media. Still, the incident reminded me just how many assumptions go into backing up on USB drives.

1. No Recovery Record. Drives like this just add and remove files dynamically, just like your hard disk. There’s no long-term record of what you added or removed or changed. So, unlike other forms of backup, there’s no way to look back to last week, let’s say, and yank a copy of a spreadsheet you had then. If it’s gone, it’s gone; if it’s there, it’s available in the most recent version.
2. Portable yet Stationary. On the one hand, a backup solution on portable media offers some convenience in trucking-around your data. On the other hand, it makes it really convenient to lift, too, and walk out the door with it. These volumes are usually unencrypted and can be read by any system. In some respects, it makes stealing your data even easier. Plus, if it’s used as a backup device, it’s often not leaving the premises, so when there’s a fire or flood, the backup device gets destroyed right along with the microcomputer.
3. No Backups of Backups. This technology is the same as the hard drive in your computer. It’s vulnerable to the same risks: temperature, electromagnetic fields, humidity, static electricity, moisture, and so on. And hey, it’s portable, so you could accidentally drop it or some accident could happen where it drops off of your desk. What precautions have you taken to backup the backup?

All of this boils down to poor data management – particularly if you’re a small business relying on this technology to backup a server. That’s bad news: imagine making your business data more vulnerable and easier to walk out the door with. If you’re an individual, you’re still at risk, and never (ever) put anything important on a thumb drive. That’s just a disaster waiting to happen.

Instead, here’s a couple of options:

1. Online Backup. There are plenty of solutions around like Carbonite and Mozy. These are low-cost options for creating backups of the portable media online. Historical logs are maintained so you can restore up to 30 days of content. It’s all online and secure – if you need your data back, you can login and download it from where ever you are.  Online backup can also displace portable media. It’s a great option if you have high-speed Internet to your home or business.
2. Dropbox. This is a commercial service that allows you to create a synchronized data repository on your computer. Files that you add to that repository are slowly sync’d (copied) to your Dropbox, and your files are then available to you on other PC’s, Mac’s, or Linux machines, and, on the web; even your iPhone with their app!  With Dropbox, I’ve totally replaced my portable drives and the data backups happen silently in the background on my computers, and I can move between various computers and see all of my data on the local hard drive. It’s easy, fast, secure, and cheap.
3. Google Docs/Microsoft Skydrive. The Cloud also provides some options. Both Google and Microsoft offer ways of integrating your productivity software and document management.
4. Acronis. Now, if storing your data remotely bugs you and you’re looking for professional archival and backup software, look no further than Acronis. This software does a lot of sophisticated things (ghosting, sequential imaging, pattern restorations, etc.) and can work on multiple platforms. Acronis can help you image the portable media to some other form of media to help you “compute with confidence”, as they say.
5. Genie-Soft. Finally, if you’re just a regular user looking for some good options, I’ve always recommended Genie-Soft for Windows.  It’s an easy-to-use personal backup solution that works great and provides some reasonable tools. It integrates with Outlook and Office, and makes restoring files and email a snap.

The point here is to question assumption. You assume just because the data is next to you in a little box on the outside of your computer  (rather than the inside) is better for it. You assume it’s safer because it’s easier to move around. You assume that the media is sound and won’t suffer from catastrophe. You assume that your PC may be destroyed but the little plastic box will prevail.

Well. You know what they say about assumptions (grin). It’s time to question your assumptions about portable media and think about better, more sound options.

R

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