Dodged a big data bullet
Imagine it as an act of faith. We commit the majority of our data to mechanical contraptions that we refer to as hard drives, with only a small number of us actually understanding the mechanics involved.
In short, we spin small disks containing magnetic data, at high speeds. All of the time. Using really cheap bearings. And one thing every computer technician learns, as a fundamental of the trade, is that a hard drive will fail. Eventually. Without warning, often.
In my most recent encounter with fate, I heard the impending failure. The “head” started to seek and hide, quite apart from the requested effort. And, with total trust in supply chains, I ordered a replacement. The cost, in such a case, is not really important. And when my new drive arrived, yesterday afternoon, I knew exactly what to do.
The old drive was copied, sector by sector, to my new drive. A simple “let it run, all night and all day” trick, and by late this afternoon, I was able to do a happy dance, because my data is now safe. What, exactly? Not interesting. A lot of movies, to give you a simple analogy. About 2500 of them, for the bean counters out there. All available elsewhere (the cloud is a wonderful concept), but this saves me a winter of effort.
Getting a firm to do something like this, on my behalf, would not be cost effective. I have the skills, honed through decades of office time, and my former employment still serves me. In a wealthier world, I’d have backups of my backups; for now, I have faith in my own ability.
