Can You Sleep At Night

[siamect]

Of course I should have read the license info better...

There is still absolutely no reason to use proprietary backup software that use proprietary storage format. And if you then have to pay for it and read fine lined EULAS...

Why don't you use software that stores your data in a way that is open?

Why don't you use software where you and all other people have the right to review the sources and see how it works?

If you use proprietary software you simply have no clue what it is doing. That is reason enough to stay away...

The other interesting discussion that came if it is illegal to use proprietary data files when the provider stops selling it. Data files is one thing, software is another. You obviously can use open office to open MS office files even though the result sucks.

If you have a program that is licensed for one computer and the copyright holder goes out of business, you are not automatically allowed to install that software on other computers than the one you have license for. the EULAS are still valid. The only difference is that the risk of getting caught is less because no one cares. It is still illegal though.

In the case with Acronis I believe that the word "decommissioned" need to be further investigated. In the worst case it means that the old computer should be permanently dead before the license can be transferred. If that is the case you actually can loose the possibility to legally use your license even if you still own it. How is the transfer procedure? Are you still required to obtain a new key or can you still use the old one and is the key used for decryption? The answers to these questions need to absolutely crystal....

I don't doubt that your opinion of Arconis is sincere and honest. I think it works like most other backup software does. Just make sure you have realistic expectations.

The question to Acronis is why they choose to use a proprietary format? They would obviously be a more attractive alternative if the specification of the storage format was openly published.

Martin

Edited July 14, 2010 by siamect

[filingaccount]

People do not have a clue even if you commented your open source code to death. But before that, they do not care.

A programmer might have a great time with open source code, but an end user doesn't care. They generally have 3 questions.

1. Does it work?

2. Will it do what I want?

3. If something goes wrong, do I have quick disaster response?

The simple fact is, acronis is extremely stable, simple to use, provides great options, installs easily, doesn't require in-depth knowledge of command prompt instructions, have quick response times in times of need, and generally gives a great experience.

Show me one open source software that does the same. Most likely you can't. Why? Because there is no incentive to make it as user friendly as possible. Acronis is in the business of, not to provide great software, making money. How do they attempt to make this money? By offering something they think is better than the competition. Right now they are better... simple really. The moment they are not, I would suggest the "new and improved".

By the way. Skype is the most secure communication tool available right now. Why? It is closed source, uses non disclosed encryption techniques and thus protects your privacy more than any open source software could. In your reasoning, people should stay away and use another tool. Sadly people do not care, and hundreds of millions of Skype users are very safe.

Oh, and I bet you do not do any graphics heavy work or video editing. Show me an open source tool that would compete with Photoshop. GIMP is nowhere near. Same for video editing, show me tools as flexible, easy to use and quick as for example Premiere Pro.

I can go on for quite a while, but you get my point I assume.

I have nothing against open source, and I think it is great we are inching towards less restrictive solutions. Right now, however, most open source applications are not quite there yet. The sad things is, it's never quite there yet, at least not in the 15 years I have used linux distros and open source apps. For open source apps to become the preferred solutions they must become the driving force behind innovation, but they are not. So far they are playing catchup, staying a couple of years behind what the big software companies do.

And if you have questions about Acronis' business practices, I am not the right person to ask. You should ask Acronis.

And to go back to my original point yet again.

Backup manually. This is in most home users case enough.

Strange really.... you bash acronis up and down, but haven't offered one single alternative that would work as well or better for a normal user.

Anyhow, should you want to continue the discussion, please PM and let's take the hair splitting off the boards.

[Robbogeordie]

I'm not bothered about the software on my computer - I am bothered about protecting my Data and preventing someone I don't know getting access to it.

To address the OP question "Can You Sleep At Night Knowing the repair guy is looking at your Personal Stuff" - Yes I can and no he can't.

My Requirements:

A. Security of my data - At home,when travelling,or in the repair shop,

B. Good data backup system,so that if the worst happened I have a recent backup - not a month old one!

C. Portability/transferability of my data to USBs,laptop etc whilst maintaining security.

Nothing's ever 100%, but this is part of the basic system I use,it's pretty crude,but it should work well for most normal users:

1. All my data is on a separate internal hard drive.The operating system and installed programmes are on another.You can then just pull the separate data drive out if you need to send the computer in to get fixed,or when you get a new computer just bolt it on!

2. All my data on hard drive/usb/external hard drive is encrypted with Truecrypt (Free - Open Source) and a very strong password - If the lappy was stolen,the USB stick fell out of my pocket, or the computer went in to get fixed no one can access the container with my data on - it's in a safe so to speak.

3. Backups - I use Backup4all- this software is commercial and costs about $50,but the backups it does can simply be copied and pasted and does not require their software to unpack it if you are using a full mirror backup of your data - It can be scheduled to run daily,or whenever and it mirrors all my data to an external hard drive showing the date of the backup and then checks the integrity of the copy.This is done when I'm sleeping and it switches the computer off when finished.

I have tried many programmes including this one for incremental/differential backups and find that NONE have worked correctly when I have checked the data,so be very,very careful if you use these features.For this reason I only ever use full mirror backups,it's also so much easier to restore then.

Note this is data that is backed up and not the operating system.I do about 60GBs each night - It takes a couple of hours and I alternate external hard drives,so that even if one broke I still have recent copies on other ones.

4. I use PortableApps - No registry entries,just copy it from your desktop to your usb,new laptop and there you have it,done.All your bookmarks,emails etc - a mobile office wherever you are.

Most things you need can be added to it - Firefox,Thunderbird,KeePass for all your passwords,Open Office,Xampp,Filezilla and many more.It is essential that this should also be locked in a Truecrypt container,so that if you lost your USB stick or whatever then no one could access your PortableApps, or data.

That's the basic system I use a few other things not mentioned,but it should be good enough to protect your data and get you up an running again should the worst happen.

Another topic could be on security of using wifi which in most cases is wide open.

[nikster]

@siamect - some bizarre opinions there, I must say.

TimeMachine is bad because it deletes old data when the disk gets full? Right. So does any other backup software. You get a warning too, which is on by default. Maybe you have never used it?

You're right in that you need to exclude virtual machines, and the outlook file (or Entourage file on the Mac) from the backup. That's a little hitch that makes TimeMachine a little less than "turn on and forget". Instead you have to know which files are "bad" for TM, and exclude them. It's really only a handful of things - if you don't run a virtual machine, or Entourage, you are basically fine. Neither come with the Mac, both are 3rd party programs you have to install. Ok your torrent download directory needs to be excluded too because torrent files are large files which change constantly during download. Three things

Other than that, it's perfect because not only does it make it super easy to retrieve old data, it also stores everything on a normal hard disk which you can browse even if you don't have TimeMachine. IMO it's as good as it gets. I have used Norton Ghost previously to retrieve backed up data - I got my data back, but what a nightmare!

You can make TM unlimited if you keep switching disks once one fills - just like with professional tape storage solutions etc - it just gets more difficult to maintain.

About Mac being safer - ok I should have said "don't use Windows". There's hundreds of active botnets out there, with millions of zombie computers, which infect websites, and those websites in turn compromise your windows machines if you happen upon them. These are not stopped by your Anti-Virus program. They have one thing in common though: They all run Windows. If you are on Linux or Mac you're safe. There are no active botnets for other platforms. Proprietary or not, securerer or not, none of this matters in the face of the facts, which are that all of that stuff runs on Windows only. The "why" doesn't really matter (and also tends to lead to endless debates).

All I am saying is that if you are concerned about viruses/trojans/malware then don't use Windows and side-step the whole issue.

As for the distributed version control system - another aspect of security and data safety is convenience. If a solution is too inconvenient, then you, the human, will just not do it. Too much work, etc. And the best solution is worthless if not applied. Backup is something you need once every few years - it's not something that should require me to spend a lot of time with, or pay attention to on a daily basis. It needs to be seamless, and brainless.

[jaideeguy]

A more realistic fear that happened to me was that the shop lost everything...all files, fotos etc. That was a falang, so called pc guru that knew it all....ha ha!!

[siamect]

@siamect - some bizarre opinions there, I must say.

TimeMachine is bad because it deletes old data when the disk gets full? Right. So does any other backup software. You get a warning too, which is on by default. Maybe you have never used it?

Other than that, it's perfect because not only does it make it super easy to retrieve old data, it also stores everything on a normal hard disk which you can browse even if you don't have TimeMachine. IMO it's as good as it gets. I have used Norton Ghost previously to retrieve backed up data - I got my data back, but what a nightmare!

As for the distributed version control system - another aspect of security and data safety is convenience. If a solution is too inconvenient, then you, the human, will just not do it. Too much work, etc. And the best solution is worthless if not applied. Backup is something you need once every few years - it's not something that should require me to spend a lot of time with, or pay attention to on a daily basis. It needs to be seamless, and brainless.

Dear Khun Nikster

I didn't say TM is "bad", on the contrary, it is definitely one of the best traditional backup systems if you accept proprietary software. TM is according to what I remember hourly, daily, weekly by default and I personally prefer that so that is also good.

But I said it is "worse" than the daily,weekly, monthly tape routines that is used in the corp world because it deletes old data.

I just want people to be aware of this. It may be a problem because we have laws and regulations that forces us to store data for certain amounts of time. Therefore I think it is a good idea to keep the warnings on and clean out unimportant stuff manually and intentionally. And monitor the backups frequently.

Have I used TM myself... nope, my opinions are based on the experiences of one of my best friends system. He is very happy about TM but he doesn't use it without brains. He monitor it daily and is probably spending more time on that than what I spend on the systems I use. But he also produces a lot more than what I do...

Tapes, daily and weekly, are usually overwritten weekly and monthly but the monthly are usually kept for 10 years or more. Basically I think it is terrible to overwrite the daily and weekly but you need to draw the line somewhere. You cannot save everything. Tapes are expensive.

Distributed version control systems is mainly not made to be backup systems but because of their distributed nature they are filling the purpose as long as you need backup on a per project basis. DVCS is collaboration tool a version control system and it give you control by telling you when you have changed anything... Is this the real version that I made and tested and signed 3 years ago? Otherwise you will never know. Use a good DVCS and you know for sure.

If you need full disk image backup you should just forget about DVCS for a while but you should also ask yourself if you really need image backups. Usually what you need is to get back to work as soon as possible after a disk crash. You do that by restoring the urgent stuff on a different computer. Often you need a file that you accidentally screwed up a while ago, so you would like a copy of an earlier version.

I loose track of what I was doing last time I worked on a project, so I need the change-log that a DVCS is providing. I also use many different computers for the same projects and I work together with others... That is why a DVCS is really good and I really save time using it.

I think you can agree with me on these points.

I think it is a good idea to base your choice of backup (or other) solution on a policy rather than to choose something that "works well" and then get married to that software. Don't stay with a solution if you find anything that fills your needs better.

I'm trying to make people think a little and choose because they know what they need, having heard of good and bad scenarios.

If they end up with a completely different solution than what I have, it is fine as long as they know what they can expect. I would never recommend anyone to use proprietary formats for anything important, most people, including you, understand why. (One of the good things with TM that you pointed out).

Ghost is a perfect example of a disgusting piece... I have a number of images give to me by some machine vendor years ago. They rely on a key... a silly number. If I loose that number I'm screwed... One of the first things I did when the vendor left was to stop the production to take images in an free format.

Ghost is very stable and works, but it will never be compatible with any backup policy that has been carefully thought through... using it is a crime against younger generations.

Martin Pettersson

Department of bizarre opinions...

Edited July 16, 2010 by siamect

[JetsetBkk]

I use Acronis True Image Home 11 on a bootable USB flash drive to make system images.

[welo]

Can we get back on topic please?

There is obviously two relevant topics here (like nikster pointed out)

• data safety - this includes (long-term) data backup and crash recovery (which again are related but not the same)
  
• data security / privacy - whereas OP pointed out the specific issue of safeguarding your privacy when handing in the computer for repair
  

Of course the topic of data security is a huge one - your data cannot be kept safe if your PC (operating and software) is not safe. Then there is the issue of online privacy.

However, while it is valid to point out those aspects, I think the OP (and this discussion thread) is served better when focusing on the matter of data encryption (just as the first posters on this thread did).

The problem with both topics (backup as well as data encryption) is that they are not necessarily easy to setup and maintain for the average user. I guess Apple has (yet again) a head start with TimeMachine and encryption facilities built into the OS.

For some reason I tend to avoid built-in facilities into Windows, I tried the system image and backup features in Windows 7 but they seem kind of clumsy (again).

Does anybody have Windows based solutions that he/she thinks appeal to the standard (non tech-savvy) Windows user (which I could recommend to friends)?

I personally use Gizmo Drive for sensitive data which allows encrypted virtual drives and is fairly easy to use, but I don't use drive encryption for my user account in general - this thread actually makes me think about why I do not.

And for backup... Can anybody recommend an all-in-one solution to handle system and data recovery (in case of a system crash) plus long-term archiving. I guess something like Apple's TimeMachine that further allows to categorize data into essential and non-essential would do the trick.

Martin definitely knows his stuff when it comes to data backup, and I guess the issue of long-term backups (data that will NEVER be trashed) is also important to home users. Even though I think that his experience in the professional field does not necessarily apply to the typical home user. ANY form of data backup is better than none, and most users will rather ignore the problem complitely (not doing ANY backup) than dealing with a complicated setup that requires to make many decisions on revisions being kept, backup schedules and backup strategies etc.

[OxfordWill]

You work in IT in Thailand and you don't restore machines which you are binded from doing so because it would break terms of a license? That is rare.

[siamect]

You work in IT in Thailand and you don't restore machines which you are binded from doing so because it would break terms of a license? That is rare.

If you asked me ten years ago I would have done it.

I learned a lot since.

Successful computing is all about staying out of trouble...

[Crushdepth]

If you seriously have sensitive data then it needs to be strongly encrypted and backed up on a separate physical drive, there's no excuse.

Truecrypt is a free and excellent encryption option, whether you just need to do a few files or a whole drive. Backup - well I'm a big fan of making a full disk image so you can restore the whole dam_n drive if you need to. Acronis works very well for a PC and is worth the money, but if you have your data on a NAS or file server rsnapshot is an outstanding and free piece of work.

If you just want to backup a few files Jungledisk is another good option for automatic backup to the cloud. Allows you to encrypt the files as well, so it is useless to anyone else.

Edited July 18, 2010 by Crushdepth

[JSixpack]

About Mac being safer - ok I should have said "don't use Windows". . . . If you are on Linux or Mac you're safe. There are no active botnets for other platforms. Proprietary or not, securerer or not, none of this matters in the face of the facts, which are that all of that stuff runs on Windows only. The "why" doesn't really matter (and also tends to lead to endless debates).

All I am saying is that if you are concerned about viruses/trojans/malware then don't use Windows and side-step the whole issue.

Huh? Apple the new world leader in software insecurity

I'll continue to use Windows, thank you.

[JetsetBkk]

<snip>

Backup - well I'm a big fan of making a full disk image so you can restore the whole dam_n drive if you need to. Acronis works very well for a PC and is worth the money

<snip>

Agree with the above completely. Coincidentally, my scheduler has just popped up a reminder for me to do my weekly system image, so my Acronis bootable USB flash drive is raring to go.

As for backing up my data, I have backup drives that I keep in sync with my work drives each week and check them by doing a binary compare of each work drive with its backup to make sure all the files are identical.

I keep meaning to use Truecrypt, but have been too lazy to investigate it.

[alexbangsare]

Why not use a home computer repair company like com2u (google it) so you can watch the tech as they are fixing the machine ? that would solve the sleeping problems no ?