Confessions can be good. Here are mine around backup mistakes I’ve made.
- Copy “new” backup disk over the “old” backup disk.
The “new” disk was blank!
I (almost) “lost” 5 years of irreplaceable photos. Fortunately I found an “old old” backup.
What it cost me: 100+ photos / 4 hours. - Production server: Disk to Disk backup.
Setup a nightly backup of SOELAB1 server, so it copies all the changes to SOELAB1BUP.
Some time later, try and recover a file from SOELAB1BUP. It’s not there.
Ask co-worker:
”Oh, we were running out of backup space so we don’t backup ISO files anymore.”
What it cost me: Operating system install disk needed for fault investigation. - CTOS FAQ website.
GeoCities was shutting down on 26th October 2009. I thought it was the 31st October.
What it cost me: complete website and Google Pagerank of 1 for CTOS. 3 files gone forever & 15 hours recovery time (had a 10 year backup). - Forget to backup the backup file.
Make a backup of the Wisefaq web server.
Download it, and store the backup locally.
Yes, I forgot to download the backup. I did several WordPress upgrades before I realised.
What it cost me: nothing (phew!). Potential lost, everything.
If you can learn something from my mistakes, more power to you.
