Victoria University IT department deletes user files

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Ge0rge

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#283899 18-Mar-2021 18:18

https://i.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/wellington/124582392/victoria-university-computer-maintenance-wipes-staff-and-students-desktop-computers

IT department deletes files from the desktops of students and staff. Some are yet to be able to get their files back. Would seem some may have had a significant amount of research saved on the desktop.

Two is one, one is none. Why, as a student investing so much time, money and effort into your research, would you not have a backup of something so critical?

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#2676694 18-Mar-2021 19:37

I have a relative who kept their only working copy of their PhD thesis on a thumb drive. Some people literally have no idea about these things. Scary stuff!

frankv

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#2676697 18-Mar-2021 20:10

When I did my thesis I was paranoid. Kept copies at home, at work, and a DVD in the car.

But nowadays wouldn't you expect the IT department to keep backups for the users? Because the fact that the files are lost means that they weren't.

Mind you, at work we don't backup files local to PCs... that makes for easy management. Any problems, the PC can just be reimaged. No need for PCs to be left online for backups. We do have a network drive that is available to users that *is* backed up. And is so full of horrendous amounts of trash that we recently deleted 200TB of stuff that hadn't been accessed for 2 years. After backing it up to a cloud glacier archive.

alasta

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#2676703 18-Mar-2021 20:22

Many years ago when I was a student I can remember seeing posters around the University of Canterbury from a student whose laptop had been stolen and they wanted it back. On the posters it was made pretty clear that they didn't actually care about the laptop - they just wanted to retrieve the only copy of their thesis that happened to be on it!

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#2676707 18-Mar-2021 20:29

Many many years ago when I worked for a not much lamented NZ OEM known for gluing components in, I heard a story about someone suing the company because a tech had restored the wrong backup onto the customers computer, the customer had then not turned the PC back on before heading overseas for an extended trip and on return their backups had long since been nuked. Apparently the solitary copy of their PHD had been on the system.

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K8Toledo

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#2676726 18-Mar-2021 21:00

Ge0rge:
https://i.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/wellington/124582392/victoria-university-computer-maintenance-wipes-staff-and-students-desktop-computers

IT department deletes files from the desktops of students and staff. Some are yet to be able to get their files back. Would seem some may have had a significant amount of research saved on the desktop.

Two is one, one is none. Why, as a student investing so much time, money and effort into your research, would you not have a backup of something so critical?

Technically files can't be deleted, only overwritten.

Linux

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#2676727 18-Mar-2021 21:02

This is why files should be saved to a shared drive on a network that is backed up often

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Wakrak

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#2676732 18-Mar-2021 21:15

Lost half a chapter from my thesis last year when my computer popped up with a blue screen. Now everything saves automatically to OneDrive. Don't want to relive that feeling.

PolicyGuy

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#2676747 18-Mar-2021 21:49

Ge0rge:
https://i.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/wellington/124582392/victoria-university-computer-maintenance-wipes-staff-and-students-desktop-computers

IT department deletes files from the desktops of students and staff. Some are yet to be able to get their files back. Would seem some may have had a significant amount of research saved on the desktop.

Reads like an episode of BOFH, eh?
https://www.theregister.com/offbeat/bofh/

ghettomaster

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#2676815 19-Mar-2021 08:23

frankv: But nowadays wouldn't you expect the IT department to keep backups for the users?

I've been doing this sort of work for 25 years and for 25 years the message has never changed. If you store it on a network drive, it's IT's problem. If you don't, it's not.

D.W

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#2676816 19-Mar-2021 08:31

ghettomaster:

frankv: But nowadays wouldn't you expect the IT department to keep backups for the users?

I've been doing this sort of work for 25 years and for 25 years the message has never changed. If you store it on a network drive, it's IT's problem. If you don't, it's not.

I would think it became their problem when they were responsible for deleting it.

alasta

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#2676860 19-Mar-2021 08:50

ghettomaster:

frankv: But nowadays wouldn't you expect the IT department to keep backups for the users?

I've been doing this sort of work for 25 years and for 25 years the message has never changed. If you store it on a network drive, it's IT's problem. If you don't, it's not.

That's fine, as long as the IT department is making some effort to educate people about it. On my computer at work it's not particularly obvious which drives are on the network and which are on the local hard drive, so people who are not IT savvy wouldn't know unless someone tells them.

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kyhwana2

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#2676879 19-Mar-2021 09:21

frankv: When I did my thesis I was paranoid. Kept copies at home, at work, and a DVD in the car.

But nowadays wouldn't you expect the IT department to keep backups for the users? Because the fact that the files are lost means that they weren't.

Mind you, at work we don't backup files local to PCs... that makes for easy management. Any problems, the PC can just be reimaged. No need for PCs to be left online for backups. We do have a network drive that is available to users that *is* backed up. And is so full of horrendous amounts of trash that we recently deleted 200TB of stuff that hadn't been accessed for 2 years. After backing it up to a cloud glacier archive.

As per the VUW policy, local files on the machines aren't backed up, but onedrive/sharepoint and shared network drives were.

Students are advised that files stored on local machines aren't backed up:

"All University related work files should be stored on OneDrive, SharePoint, or the shared or home drive as these storage areas are backed up and replicated to the University's Disaster Recovery Centres. Research and teaching data (SoLAR) is backed up and can be recovered from up to seven days prior.
Local machine C and D drive data cannot be recovered if files are lost or corrupted, therefore they are not recommended storage areas for files or data that are sensitive or cannot be replaced."

From

https://www.wgtn.ac.nz/digital-solutions/staff-services/core-tools-and-services/file-data-storage

1101

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#2677111 19-Mar-2021 11:34

Were these roaming profiles perhaps ?

lxsw20

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#2677115 19-Mar-2021 11:40

Places I've worked before I've sent out an 3 monthly email saying anything that's saved on the desktop should be considered not business critical and is not backed up, with a document on the correct method to save files.

It may not be ITs job, but it certainly is a good CYA and saves a lot of pain for IT.

1101

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#2677117 19-Mar-2021 11:42

alasta:

That's fine, as long as the IT department is making some effort to educate people about it. On my computer at work it's not particularly obvious which drives are on the network and which are on the local hard drive, so people who are not IT savvy wouldn't know unless someone tells them.

IT shouldnt be the ones doing BASIC staff training .
If someone doesnt know NOT to save to the desktop, thats a really low level of work skills .

My experience is no matter how often its mentioned, its in one ear & out the other
Saving to the desktop is often just being lazy .

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