07-29-2009, 09:50 PM
Ha. It's a classic case of a solution looking for a problem, rather than the other way around.
Here's a possible use for those drives. How about redundant duplicates of your most critical backups, then store them completely offsite. Then bring them home three or four times a year to update, but keep them stored offsite. At work. Or in a safety deposit box. Or a family member's house.
I just started doing that with a few spare hard drives. I send them with my wife, she stores a bare HD in her desk at work, containing an emergency backup of our home computer's most critical data. She works at Microsoft, arguably a more secure location than most residential neighborhoods.
Could a person be so unlucky? You might ask--to need such an emergency backup? In my case, YES. Our house suffered major fire damage in 2006, destroying all my macs, all our computer data wiped out, except what I ran out with on one little laptop. And I was the most backed-up person I know! I had terabytes of secure storage and extra backups! I had every kind of redundant backup you can imagine, EXCEPT an offsite backup. I'm living proof that the most unthinkable misfortune can and does happen, even to the most prepared.
Even the Fire Department personnel I talked to on the scene don't have their home data backed up off site. And those are the most saftey-oriented guys you'll likely meet. Everybody has home computers. Nobody backs up offsite. (very rarely, businesses do, but individuals don't)
I admit, I only refresh that emergency backup about once or twice a year. I expect I'll never use it. But I feel safer knowing it's there.
Sorry to be Johnny Raincloud, there ARE more fun things to do with spare hard drives. But it's worth considering, yeah?
Here's a possible use for those drives. How about redundant duplicates of your most critical backups, then store them completely offsite. Then bring them home three or four times a year to update, but keep them stored offsite. At work. Or in a safety deposit box. Or a family member's house.
I just started doing that with a few spare hard drives. I send them with my wife, she stores a bare HD in her desk at work, containing an emergency backup of our home computer's most critical data. She works at Microsoft, arguably a more secure location than most residential neighborhoods.
Could a person be so unlucky? You might ask--to need such an emergency backup? In my case, YES. Our house suffered major fire damage in 2006, destroying all my macs, all our computer data wiped out, except what I ran out with on one little laptop. And I was the most backed-up person I know! I had terabytes of secure storage and extra backups! I had every kind of redundant backup you can imagine, EXCEPT an offsite backup. I'm living proof that the most unthinkable misfortune can and does happen, even to the most prepared.
Even the Fire Department personnel I talked to on the scene don't have their home data backed up off site. And those are the most saftey-oriented guys you'll likely meet. Everybody has home computers. Nobody backs up offsite. (very rarely, businesses do, but individuals don't)
I admit, I only refresh that emergency backup about once or twice a year. I expect I'll never use it. But I feel safer knowing it's there.
Sorry to be Johnny Raincloud, there ARE more fun things to do with spare hard drives. But it's worth considering, yeah?