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PSA: Back Up Your Shit

jwz.org

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Re: PSA: Back Up Your Shit

#41

Post by count »

greenyoda wrote: post #35
randomdrake wrote: post #29

Accessing your own data and storing it is great, but there's still the matter of backing it up. jwz wrote a good guide for that as well. It's linked in the article, but not in a way that makes it obvious. Thought it would be good to mention it here: http://www.jwz.org/doc/backups.html

In that article, jwz wrote: That third drive? Do a backup onto it the same way, then take that to your office and lock it in a desk. Every few months, bring it home, do a backup, and immediately take it away again. This is your "my house burned down" backup. If you work for someone other than yourself, it might be safer to keep that drive at the home of a trusted friend or relative (or a safe-deposit box) rather than…

Encrypt your backups.

Re: PSA: Back Up Your Shit

#42

Post by anigbrowl »

These conversations aren't ephemeral and disposable, they are your life, and you want to save them forever.

Yes they are, and no I don't. I highly doubt JWZ carries a portable recorder to immortalize all his in-person conversations; I certainly don't, even though recording people (for movies) is what I do for a living. Funnily enough, far more of my important memories involve real-life conversations than exchanges on IRC/Facebook/HN.

Yeah,. it's good to have a method of backing this stuff up if you do need it, eg for business communications or any number of other use cases. But most digital chatter is eminently disposable I wish there was a way to have emails expire and self-destruct automatically, so that things like time-sensitive sales offers would quietly vanish once the actionable date had passed unless I made some special effort to retain them.

Re: PSA: Back Up Your Shit

#43

Post by rryyan »

unepipe wrote: post #30
Nicholas_C wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I had an iPhone 4 with iOS5 and an extremely old version of iTunes. It hadn't synced it in a long time as iTunes had stopped recognizing my phone. Further, windows on the computer I used to back it up on is now not booting at all. I have assumed that all my iPhone data, if any, would be on that computer unless it was saved in the cloud. Is that correct? EDIT: I also unregistered my iPhone because I bought an S4 and c…

You could potentially remove the hard drive from that computer, then put it in an external casing and hook it up to a new computer. Then research software to pull messages out of your old backups. You could potentially still salvage the messages, it sounded like they were old ones

If you can recover the iPhone backup files that iTunes created from the hard drive (such as via an external enclosure like unepipe mentions), you should be able to recover the messages contained within. Messages are stored in a SQLite DB within the backup (this is how jwz's script reads them).

Looks like iTunes on XP stores backups at this path: \Documents and Settings\(username)\Application Data\Apple Computer\MobileSync\Backup\. That's the directory you need to recover from the hard drive.

Re: PSA: Back Up Your Shit

#44

Post by privong »

incongruity wrote: post #40
steven2012 wrote: post #34

I think that the beauty of Snapchat is that it frees you from this ridiculous notion that a text, IM, Facebook message, etc, has any value. In my opinion, it doesn't. Also, in my opinion, I believe that feeling the need to save every single conversation you have fuels an over-inflated sense of self-worth, and that everything you say has value and needs to be saved. I never, ever peruse through my messages, to reminis…

Honestly, a lot of what you have to say make sense, it does... But then I remember that I still have the emails my wife exchanged almost ten years ago when we first met - and occasionally I do look back at those. And I fall in love with her all over again. And then there are the random musings from friends who have died or any of a dozen other, slightly less big deal reasons to look back -- and I realize that in fact…

> And I fall income with her all over again.

Glorious, glorious (auto-correct) typos! :)

Re: PSA: Back Up Your Shit

#47

Post by [deleted] »

privong wrote: post #44
incongruity wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly, a lot of what you have to say make sense, it does... But then I remember that I still have the emails my wife exchanged almost ten years ago when we first met - and occasionally I do look back at those. And I fall in love with her all over again. And then there are the random musings from friends who have died or any of a dozen other, slightly less big deal reasons to look back -- and I realize that in fact…

> And I fall income with her all over again. Glorious, glorious (auto-correct) typos! :)

[deleted]

Re: PSA: Back Up Your Shit

#48

Post by aestra »

dded wrote: post #23
borski wrote: post #2

"You don't just throw your letters in the trash. You might want them some day." Maybe it's just me, but I actually /do/ throw my letters in the trash. I /do/ treat Twitter, etc. as ephemeral and passing. I don't care about saving those messages. Am I the only one?

> but I actually /do/ throw my letters in the trash You still send and receive letters? Somebody sits down, puts pen to paper and writes a letter ? Folds it, puts it in an envelope, adds postage, and mails it? Outside of hokey "Christmas letters" (typed once, printed, and mailed to many), I haven't seen a real letter in many years. I'd say I envy you, but then someone else would reply and tell me that if I like lette…

Yes I did with my grandma until she passed a year and a half ago. I have about 2 of these letters but thats enough for me.

Re: PSA: Back Up Your Shit

#49

Post by superuser2 »

steven2012 wrote: post #34

I think that the beauty of Snapchat is that it frees you from this ridiculous notion that a text, IM, Facebook message, etc, has any value. In my opinion, it doesn't. Also, in my opinion, I believe that feeling the need to save every single conversation you have fuels an over-inflated sense of self-worth, and that everything you say has value and needs to be saved. I never, ever peruse through my messages, to reminis…

Most of my texts and facebook messages are about organizing things and referencing them saves me tremendous hassle on a regular basis.

Re: PSA: Back Up Your Shit

#50

Post by cbr »

steven2012 wrote: post #34

I think that the beauty of Snapchat is that it frees you from this ridiculous notion that a text, IM, Facebook message, etc, has any value. In my opinion, it doesn't. Also, in my opinion, I believe that feeling the need to save every single conversation you have fuels an over-inflated sense of self-worth, and that everything you say has value and needs to be saved. I never, ever peruse through my messages, to reminis…

This assumes you never talk about anything that actually matters. Having personal relationships and having fun are important, and technology can get in the way when overused, but if your conversations all have no lasting value you're missing out.
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