Three copies of the data, Two different medias (HDD & Cloud for example), One offsite
Dealing with the aftermath of Helene and Milton. Client had ~300,000 songs (~9-10TB) on an NVMe NAS (Raid 5). We had an on-site cold/air gapped HDD we periodically backed up to ~once a quarter or so. In addition I (thought) I had an offsite backup on my office server. Milton took out the NAS and Backup HDD with unexpected surge. My server backup apparently failed when I made it a year ago so I only have about 1/3rd. Thankfully most of it was just DL’d live concert archives and I have many of the original CDs to rip (most weren’t damaged) but a lot of work.
Moral of the story: Backup often, verify the backups, and keep a copy offsite/in cloud (ideally both).
Couldn’t agree more but wouldn’t simply moving the vulnerable kit have helped , I have never experienced such bad weather so am not qualified to comment.
I live in Johannesburg and are open to lots of lightening storms during our summer. At the first hint of a storm all computers and hi fi are unplugged until the storm has passed. May not be as nasty as yours but they are pretty much daily .
My main libraries are held on a PC , synced to the NUC/ROCK and BU to 2 x USB HDD. (so 4 x copies) I don’t really have access to an off site store so I just store at home . Flooding is unlikely.
Hurricane surge sent ~4’ of water through the house in the span of an hour or so . . . Clients had lived there for ~60 years and never had water make it to their front door. Could they have moved it? sure. . . but there were soo many other things going on through their minds and they had no idea where the flood levels would stop. . . . similarly they were also on the second flood when the water was up to the first floor landing. . . so they were completely trapped. . . .
We are lucky our weather patterns in JHB and never outrageous and are fairly predictable. That said many of our coastal areas have take a battering this year.
I appreciate it was not top of mind, we once got caught in a flash fire on Table Mountain when we lived in Cape Town, we evacuated but what do you cram into one car !! Certainly concentrates the mind. In this instance the wind just changed and panic over but it was close.