backing up main data file

[Mike or Penny Novack]

Jason Ahrens wrote:

>And remember, most fire safes are made to protect PAPER data. Most will
>not protect electronics/plastics from the high temperatures of a "house
>fire" or similar.
>
>So while having a backup of your critical data is very important, having
>a copy stored "off site" becomes a critical part of the strategy.
>
>Be sure you know for sure that wherever you store your backup will
>survive. A small bank deposit box may be an option, for example.
>  
>
Quite correct. In fact a home grade "fire safe" isn't even going to 
protect paper from a major fire. However the risk isn't just a house 
fire big enough to take the whole house. Even in a fire where just one 
room actually burns, the fire department gets there fast enough to put 
it out, likely temperatures would get hot enough and conditions smoky 
enough to take out backups that were just sitting unprotected on a 
shelf. That's how we lost all of ours and a fire safe would have 
prevented it.

I might add that our new fire safe isn't deployed "in" the house per se. 
This is New England where old farm houses often has a covered passage 
leading to "the little house outside". Since that facility has long been 
retired from its original purpose, that's where our fire safe lives. 
Probably not enough structure to make a hot enough, long burning enough 
fire to get the insides of the fire safe too hot for medium. BUT (a big 
but) check the ratings. Your fire safe should have specifications 
indicating for how long the inside temperature will still below X when 
the outside temperature has been Y for Z amount of time.

Michael