Do you try to protect your onsite backup from fire?
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I fully understand backup in layers. Ideally you want an onsite backup, and an offsite backup. But for the onsite... do you even try to protect it from fire?
If not, doesn't that mean all your "fire" protection is really just the one online layer?
And if you do, where do you get such a thing. I have looked around, I can't find anything that actually lists hard drives as protected. Like sentry safe has "data protection" safes, but they say this
"CDs, DVDs, memory sticks and USB drives up to 1700°F
(927°C) for all FPW base models. These products are NOT intended to protect computer floppy or 21⁄4” diskettes, cartridges, tapes, audio or video cassettes, or photo negatives. "That doesn't seem to include HDD or SSD. So I started wondering if anyone actually tries to protect their onsite backup from fire.
I've had corporate clients with halogen fire suppression systems.
I've seen home offices use lto tape and a thermal resistant safe.
I've heard of people linking networks with the neighbour and using a remote drive at their house.
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I fully understand backup in layers. Ideally you want an onsite backup, and an offsite backup. But for the onsite... do you even try to protect it from fire?
If not, doesn't that mean all your "fire" protection is really just the one online layer?
And if you do, where do you get such a thing. I have looked around, I can't find anything that actually lists hard drives as protected. Like sentry safe has "data protection" safes, but they say this
"CDs, DVDs, memory sticks and USB drives up to 1700°F
(927°C) for all FPW base models. These products are NOT intended to protect computer floppy or 21⁄4” diskettes, cartridges, tapes, audio or video cassettes, or photo negatives. "That doesn't seem to include HDD or SSD. So I started wondering if anyone actually tries to protect their onsite backup from fire.
No. I didn't do backups during the last decades, so maybe I'm going to start some day, eventually, but surely not with overdoing it
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I fully understand backup in layers. Ideally you want an onsite backup, and an offsite backup. But for the onsite... do you even try to protect it from fire?
If not, doesn't that mean all your "fire" protection is really just the one online layer?
And if you do, where do you get such a thing. I have looked around, I can't find anything that actually lists hard drives as protected. Like sentry safe has "data protection" safes, but they say this
"CDs, DVDs, memory sticks and USB drives up to 1700°F
(927°C) for all FPW base models. These products are NOT intended to protect computer floppy or 21⁄4” diskettes, cartridges, tapes, audio or video cassettes, or photo negatives. "That doesn't seem to include HDD or SSD. So I started wondering if anyone actually tries to protect their onsite backup from fire.
MTO answer your title, yes. He's you should.
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I've had corporate clients with halogen fire suppression systems.
I've seen home offices use lto tape and a thermal resistant safe.
I've heard of people linking networks with the neighbour and using a remote drive at their house.
I duplicate my data to my parents house, and I think it's far enough that one backup point could be nuked and my data would still be safe
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Seems like the vast majority don't. They protect paper, but not drives...
maybe he keeps on his backup on punch cards?
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Yeah this is what I do. All the important or irreplaceable stuff easily fits on a USB HDD, and I leave one with a friend I visit regularly. I just run three drives total and no more than two of them are in the same place at the same time. Cheap, simple, and a good excuse to catch up.
This should be a thing. Like a trusted group of people to store encrypted backups at their house. Just needs a catchy name. "Data Safety Social Club"?
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This should be a thing. Like a trusted group of people to store encrypted backups at their house. Just needs a catchy name. "Data Safety Social Club"?
Crash plan used to have a "backup to your friends" solution. They ended it, dammit
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I think they mean if you’re using removable media that is easily portable then the answer to your question about fire proofing is doable.
You can store them in a fire safe when not actively backing up or need constant access.
Fireproof safes are for paper, not drives or tape.
They work by having a material in the walls that breaks down from heat, keeping the interior cool enough for paper.
I wouldn't trust that without some kind of testing.
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I duplicate my data to my parents house, and I think it's far enough that one backup point could be nuked and my data would still be safe
I am not sure if it is still applicable, but with the 3-2-1 rule, that should work good enough. 3 copies of your data on two different medium with one off-site backup.
So the data with it's local backup that is copied to an off site backup. Which is probably your case (I assume that your offsite backup is a copy of your local backup).
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Fireproof safes are for paper, not drives or tape.
They work by having a material in the walls that breaks down from heat, keeping the interior cool enough for paper.
I wouldn't trust that without some kind of testing.
Well, honestly they’re not really good for anything. Most manufacturers use a bake type method, which is not in anyway comparable to a house engulfed in actual flames.
As a general consumer, this is about the best you can do. Put whatever in a “fireproof” bag inside a “fireproof” safe and you might save your data in the event of a fire.
It’s the same thing about gun “safes”. They’re not really safes unless you spend big money. Like $10,000+. Otherwise they’re categorized as “residential containers”.
I should have clarified whether or not my answer was in response to “is it possible” instead of “is it recommended”.
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I fully understand backup in layers. Ideally you want an onsite backup, and an offsite backup. But for the onsite... do you even try to protect it from fire?
If not, doesn't that mean all your "fire" protection is really just the one online layer?
And if you do, where do you get such a thing. I have looked around, I can't find anything that actually lists hard drives as protected. Like sentry safe has "data protection" safes, but they say this
"CDs, DVDs, memory sticks and USB drives up to 1700°F
(927°C) for all FPW base models. These products are NOT intended to protect computer floppy or 21⁄4” diskettes, cartridges, tapes, audio or video cassettes, or photo negatives. "That doesn't seem to include HDD or SSD. So I started wondering if anyone actually tries to protect their onsite backup from fire.
Yes. At work
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I fully understand backup in layers. Ideally you want an onsite backup, and an offsite backup. But for the onsite... do you even try to protect it from fire?
If not, doesn't that mean all your "fire" protection is really just the one online layer?
And if you do, where do you get such a thing. I have looked around, I can't find anything that actually lists hard drives as protected. Like sentry safe has "data protection" safes, but they say this
"CDs, DVDs, memory sticks and USB drives up to 1700°F
(927°C) for all FPW base models. These products are NOT intended to protect computer floppy or 21⁄4” diskettes, cartridges, tapes, audio or video cassettes, or photo negatives. "That doesn't seem to include HDD or SSD. So I started wondering if anyone actually tries to protect their onsite backup from fire.
As far as I'm concerned fire and flood are just game over for data. There are resistant enclosures but I wouldn't count in them. For what they cost, I'd rather buy a cheap HP Microserver with a bunch of hard disks and install it at family's house, which is what I do. That way I've got a physical object I can drive over and collect if needed, and it's still remote.
