Not very. Yup sounds like a contradiction – it is a contradiction. Safes are only for honest people, safes are only a place to store stuff that you don’t want anyone else to see. The sort of stuff I am talking about are the XXX rated videos of you with someone other than the person you are married to.
All safes have a fire rating, the best you can get without paying an arm and a leg (and I mean that literally) is four (4) hours, some cheaper safes are rated under that.
I’ve seen safes drilled, I’ve seen safes blown apart, I’ve seen safes burnt, I’ve seen safes look fine from the outside but when opened everything is either reduced to ashes or melted.
The polymer notes that are Australian Currency these days just melt when exposed to heat. The old paper money used to turn to char.
Don’t rely on a safe to protect your data, don’t rely on a safe to protect your wills, don’t rely on a safe to protect anything of value. Because it can’t when exposed to anything other than ‘normal’ trauma.
You’ll notice that since I started blogging, many of my blogs have been about the Black Saturday’s fires, that is because they are a big part of my life at the moment and will probably remain so for the rest of my life.
Someone was talking about data protection – computer hard drives and the like. They were saying move HD onto portable drive and just pull the drive and leave. Life is never that simple, life is never that easy. Trust me you don’t have time. Don’t rely on remembering – don’t rely on it won’t happen to you – don’t rely on off-site servers (Although better than nothing) Rely on friends and family outside the area and rely on duplicity.
I can’t be any straighter to the point – remember it may not be tomorrow, it may not be the day after, It may not be next year.
Don’t lose those precious family photos because you think you have plenty of time.
YOU DON’T HAVE ANY TIME. DO IT NOW.
The challenge with using friends and family to share your duplicity is that you need to provide them with updated copies of your files regularly. In most circumstances this just isn't possible. If your files are important to you, you should use a combination of backup methods. External drives at friends (if this is your preference) and online backup. Online backup will ensure that the most recent files are also backed up. Hard drives are cheap these days and so is online backup.
ReplyDeleteCompletely agree - Personally (and I have always done this) I keep back-ups on email servers and also CD's/USB's distributed around the state. Someone somewhere has a copy that is no more than 1 month old.
ReplyDeleteYes - perhaps some people call this over the top, but looking back to February I am glad that I have always done this. So much has been lost, so much history, both personal and business and local.
Some loss is to be expected - but so many people were not prepared.
Thank-you for your input - more than one method in one location is imperative
Some months ago I had a discussion with a leading bank in NZ that was thinking of offering all of its customers a virtual safety deposit box. It would enable all customers to store an amount of their personal documents online for a very minimal cost. At this stage it hasn't gone ahead but pushing something like this with a local community or community bank might be a good idea. At some stage the bigger banks will introduce something like this in Australia, its only a matter of time.
ReplyDeleteArthur, one day the banks will get into somethng like this. but remember nothing is infalliable. Just the other day, (even in the times of microfisching) a council office burnt down. ALL the house drawings that they held GONE.
ReplyDeleteWho woulkd have thought?
A town burns, servers, photos, you name it ALL gone, the school has NO photos left, the historical socity has NOTHING left.
Gone, wiped from the face of the earth. Remember the fires of Black Saturday were so hot that some victims there was nothing left but ash :(