It was a wet spring, and the fall hasn't been epic - so far, but the rest of season 2019, was excellent!

TomY

Alden Forum Moderator
Jun 22, 2004
2,758
Alden 38' Challenger yawl Rockport Harbor
One of the greatest additions to sailing for me has been digital photography. I've never kept a log but photos - starting with film first - have long chronicled our sailing, and life.

Today with digital editing and storage tools like Adobe Lightroom, so much info (metadata) is automatically stored with the files.

Not all sailing (more than half) but since launching this spring, I've shot over 800 photos - so far. Next week, we'll haul out for our typical 5 month season. We spent more days on the water than our normal and didn't travel far from our home harbor. That was nice!

On August 2, 2019, we were anchored off Torrey Island in the Eggemoggin Reach. This was taken at 7:29 am. Looking at the photo, I remember the moment well. It was a beautiful morning and the rest of the day to follow would be unforgettable.

Eggemoggin anchored off Torries.jpg


It's time for another external hard drive to back - up, back-up,....back-up.
 
Jun 14, 2010
2,081
Robertson & Caine 2017 Leopard 40 CT
It's time for another external hard drive to back - up, back-up,....back-up.
And back up that external backup drive to a cloud backup service that’s purposely sold as a backup service (not iCloud or Google Drive nor OneDrive). Sync services can replicate bad data (think “cryptolocked” files) or accidental deletions. Backup services can recover and restore from prior backup to any point in time, even if a file is changed or corrupted. I use and recommend iDrive for personal use, but there are other good services.
 

WayneH

.
Jan 22, 2008
1,039
Tartan 37 287 Pensacola, FL
Please back up your data.

I've been after the wife to back up her computer to the external drive. Handed her the drive and she set it aside. So the wall mounter table at a hotel we stayed at fell off the wall with her computer on. $400 later, she has a new solid state hard drive and a business card of someone who "might" be able to recover her data. Word documents, recipes, years and years of pictures. I've refrained from saying "I told you so." as I like eating without wondering if I will survive dinner.
 
Jan 24, 2009
450
1981 Cherubini Hunter 27 Shipwright Harbor Marina, MD
:plus: Crashplan for off-site backups. No more worrying about hard drives crashing. Bought a new computer, set it up, and logged into the Crashplan software and it downloaded all my files.
 

TomY

Alden Forum Moderator
Jun 22, 2004
2,758
Alden 38' Challenger yawl Rockport Harbor
Scrolling back, the day before we shadowed a light air classic sailboat race. Hot and nearly windless we were glad to be in the shade. Spectating a light air sailboat race is a little like watching grass grow.
Light air race Tommy.jpg


Sailing under genoa and mizzen alone and taking a few photos, I realized at one point we were outpacing much of the fleet. Can you be flying too much sail in some very light conditions? Nah, I extinguished the thought, we must have been in better air.

Wind diminishing further and miles to go for the racers, I was glad to be able to roll up the genoa, start the engine, bring a cooling breeze onboard while we headed to the spot in the previous photo.
 

RoyS

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Jun 3, 2012
1,739
Hunter 33 Steamboat Wharf, Hull, MA
Once had a failed computer with all of my files locked inside. Took it to a computer expert with a storefront business to get my files out. After playing with it for a few days he said the hard drive was toast and my files were lost. Found a device on Amazon called Ultra that claimed to be able to attach to your hard drive (without the rest of the computer) and transfer files to another computer via a USB cable. Simple device worked as advertised and I recovered all of my hopelessly lost files. This was about ten years ago but I suspect it or something similar to Ultra is available. Good luck.
 

dLj

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Mar 23, 2017
3,373
Belliure 41 Sailing back to the Chesapeake
I'm a believer in possession is 9/10's of the law... This makes using cloud backup services unattractive to me. There is also a trust issue that I'll not get into...

So I have two external hard drive back-up systems for my computer's. I've considered putting in a remote backup hard drive, but it's enough work just to maintain these two correctly.

There is a second reason for me doing this system. You need internet access to use cloud backup systems. I don't always have internet access. I'm looking at the logistics of maintaining a good back up system outside of internet access locations because when I retire and head off sailing, I want to keep my photos and data backed up.

dj
 
Jun 14, 2010
2,081
Robertson & Caine 2017 Leopard 40 CT
@dLj IMHO if that's your concern you should get more than 2 drives. At least one should be in another secure location in event of loss/fire/theft. Considering you mentioned trust; you should encrypt your internal "live" drive and each backup so a backup that ends up in the wrong hands can't be misused. Generally, cloud systems are more secure than your own, and you can easily implement 2-Factor Authentication (aka: multi-factor MFA) in cloud systems. If you want to implement 2FA on your own computer it can be done with Yubikey or other hardware/software utilities but I won't delve into the technical details.
If you're concerned about "big brother" it's too late for that.
As for maintaining multiple backups and media, that's what backup software does. It manages it for you and will also manage the encryption of the backups. If you're just using file copy you're not doing it right. I mentioned iDrive above, but you can also look at Acronis, StorageCraft, and if you're on Mac; Time Machine. There are many other good programs.
Edit - one more thing - don't leave your backups connected to your computer. Modern cryptolocker malware usually looks for backups and destroys those before the live files.
 

dLj

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Mar 23, 2017
3,373
Belliure 41 Sailing back to the Chesapeake
Captain Larry-DH, since you went there, I'll tell you the trust issue from my perspective as clearly you missed it on every one of your points. I don't trust that I will have the same access today as, say, 10 years from now. Currently cloud storage is being given away free, up to certain quantities. But I don't trust that will remain the same over a number of years. I don't want another monthly bill cropping up at some point in the future. I don't trust that the current economic structure will continue to exist into the future and I prefer to plan for my own abilities to maintain my files/data.

Solid state hard drives are becoming better and better, and I am very interested in seeing how they handle marine environments. Standard hard drives are not sufficiently robust in that environment, as I understand it.

I am not particularly concerned in big brother looking over my shoulder. I have nothing of interest to either hide or be concerned with. Big brother has methods to look if desired I'll never combat. So I don't concern myself with that issue. They can ask, I'll answer.

The security I'm concerned with is simply loss of data. How do I make sure I don't lose data that I want to keep? And no, I do not leave my external hard drives connected to my computer.

I work daily with duo security cloud computing. I consider it a major PITA. I have no desire to implement such a system on my personal computer network. I also do not want to encrypt my hard drives. In the hopefully unlikely event that I am lost at sea and all that is left are my hard drives, I wish for them to be easily recovered. I do consider using cloud backup as a tertiary form of backup, but as the areas of my main interest in sailing lie outside internet comon access, I don't wish that to be a primary system. Also, see above on the trust issue, so if that access is altered in a way I don't like, I can simply cut it off.

My main focus is how to bring with me lots of movies, music, information etc. such that I can access it anywhere without having internet access. I also want to store all the data files, photos etc. that I'll generate while along the way. I'm not interested in sailing into the historic past, but rather use technology to provide me with what I want in the way I want it. I find that mainstream thinking is not providing what I feel I'll need, namely access to large amounts of data (that would especially mean movies) in remote non-internet access locations.

dj
 
Last edited:
Sep 22, 2018
1,869
Hunter 216 Kingston
@TomY and @dLj
I would offer that you might want to look into a NAS (Network Attached Storage) drive(s) solution. Basically a box you can connect to in a variety of ways that has one or more drives in it. It can be internet and/or intranet connected. The drives can be ‘mirrored” so in the event one fails, you change the bad drive out and carry on without loosing anything. I have dozens of individual backup drives that I would be hard pressed to tell you what was on any particular one. Cheap storage is somewhat a blessing and a curse ;)
 
Jun 14, 2010
2,081
Robertson & Caine 2017 Leopard 40 CT
I use drop box
Love it!
Drop Box is replication, not backup. If you got a crypto-locker virus your Drop Box files would also be encrypted. There would be no bulk rollback to an earlier point in time. Check out iDrive, and use both.
 

dLj

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Mar 23, 2017
3,373
Belliure 41 Sailing back to the Chesapeake
Drop Box is replication, not backup. If you got a crypto-locker virus your Drop Box files would also be encrypted. There would be no bulk rollback to an earlier point in time. Check out iDrive, and use both.
Idrive is cloud backup service with a monthly cost. I'm not interested. See above.

I'm looking for a good stand-alone system independent of all monthly costs and all requirements for internet access.

The NAS (Network Attached Storage) drive(s) solution sounds interesting, although all of those seem to be hard drive based, some are mighty pricey. I'm also not sure I want to go through a wireless network, hard wiring is preferred.

Solid state, mirrored, hardwired, easy to use, robust and provides complete back up properties. If my computer dies, I can buy another and do a complete restore. No lost data, full compatibility, can restore an attacked computer with complete confidence. Those are essentially my requirements as I understand them at this point. Still looking.

dj
 
Sep 22, 2018
1,869
Hunter 216 Kingston
@dLj
The NAS “box” connects to the network via an Ethernet cable(s) so in most cases that means it is plugged into the back of the router either directly or via a switch, your computer can be hard wired to the router as well so you could have a hard wired solution.
All of that would be kind of clunky if you want to move it from home to your boat and back so likely not a good solution.

Western Digital has a broad range of devices that might be a good fit for you. I think they are bundling in Acronis drive image with their products now. You might find that you are limited in storage capacity with SSD and/or the connector on you computer not providing a fast connection to the drive.
 

dLj

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Mar 23, 2017
3,373
Belliure 41 Sailing back to the Chesapeake
The problem with hard drives is they are not very salt water compatible.

dj
 
Sep 22, 2018
1,869
Hunter 216 Kingston
The problem with hard drives is they are not very salt water compatible.

dj
I’m not challenging your position just don’t understand why a SSD drive would be more resistant?
 
Jun 14, 2010
2,081
Robertson & Caine 2017 Leopard 40 CT
why a SSD drive would be more resistant
It's not mechanical. Contacts are usually gold plated. However, unless they are sealed somehow (and circuits conformally coated) everything is subject to salt air corrosion over a long term.
 
Jun 14, 2010
2,081
Robertson & Caine 2017 Leopard 40 CT
can restore an attacked computer with complete confidence
I think the problem with your approach is that it depends too much on manual process, is vulnerable to physical loss/fire/theft, persistent "attacked computer" threat and physical loss of non-encrypted data.
I prefer a more automated and distributed approach that relies on physical redundancy, automated point in time archival, and distributed encryption (where I control the encryption keys).
(BTW the concern about paying iDrive subscriptions is trivial at roughly $1 per week. Most Americans pay more for coffee)