Our home was robbed last night as were 8 other homes in our little neighborhood of 15.
They stole all our computers and the backup drives. I lost several years of data for my research, papers I'm writing, a proposal that was due today, student grades, blah blah blah.
I don't even care about the monetary loss, I want my life back.
[ March 01, 2009, 06:01 PM: Message edited by: The Rabbit ]
Posted by Achilles (Member # 7741) on :
Ouch. Notify all parties and change all your passwords ASAP.
Wait a minute... is this really Rabbit?
Posted by Juxtapose (Member # 8837) on :
Oh, Rabbit, that's awful. I'm sorry. Posted by BannaOj (Member # 3206) on :
I'm so sorry Rabbit. I can't even imagine how horrible it must be.
Posted by Jhai (Member # 5633) on :
That does sound really horrendous. Losing data is one of the worst things ever - I remember we discussed a while back about the different ways to protect data. This is not, in any way, a "I told you so", but just in the future it might be a good idea to backup somewhere online (edit: I had to learn this by being burned a couple of times too, although not at the level it appears you have been). I'd say I hope you can get your data back, but I suspect that's rather futile. Instead, I hope you can move on from this disaster with as little difficulty as possible.
Posted by Tammy (Member # 4119) on :
Ouch! I'm so sorry!
Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :
I had nearly tera terrabyte of data stored Jhai. There is no way to back up that much data on line.
I had two backup drives. Both were stolen.
Posted by Achilles (Member # 7741) on :
This happened to me a couple of years ago. The only thing I never expected was to physically lose all the data storage. I bring my backups home now, but have nowhere near the amount of data you describe.
Importantly, though, secure all your online accounts before they are accessed.
Posted by Jhai (Member # 5633) on :
I know of a few sites, actually, that do. They do cost money, though.
Either way, it's not getting your data back. Losing that much in one go is... unimaginable, really. Or something I would not wish to imagine. You truly have my sympathies.
Posted by scifibum (Member # 7625) on :
That's horrible. So sorry, Rabbit. Posted by Corwin (Member # 5705) on :
Damn, that sucks. Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
That really sucks.
Re: backup, I'm assuming you mean around a single terabyte. Backing that much up would cost around $1800 a year in fees on Amazon's S3, plus the odd bit of transfer costs (probably less than a hundred dollars a year, since the transfer costs are priced for people serving large amounts of data).
And it would be tiny by the sorts of scales they often deal in. Let me know if you'd like some information on how you might set up a backup system like that.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
Posted by BandoCommando (Member # 7746) on :
You have my deepest sympathies. I cannot imagine how that must feel. It almost makes me want to do monthly backups to external drives and put them in a safe deposit box...
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
Couldnt you rent a server farm (like for webhosting) and back up onto that? Some have unlimited HD space.
And I'm sorry for your loss Rabit, I don't know what I would do, I think I would cry.
A possibility is in the future have a special program inbedded into your root that calls home ie sends an email to police with current location if its stolen.
Posted by fugu13 (Member # 2859) on :
Blayne: none of them that say they have unlimited HD space actually do. There are restrictions in the TOS that put explicit or implicit limits on the HD space that can effectively be used.
There are, however, options.
Posted by ketchupqueen (Member # 6877) on :
I'm sorry to hear of it. You must feel violated and angry. I hope you have closure on it and feel safe at some point soon.
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
I'm so sorry Rabbit. I hope that somehow you can get back as much of that stuff as possible. I truly sympathize. Posted by Uprooted (Member # 8353) on :
Rabbit, that's terrible. I am so sorry; I know this will have repercussions for quite some time. Are you still in . . . was it Trinidad?
Posted by Teshi (Member # 5024) on :
I hate how what is simply cash to a thief can be so personal to the owner, and that likely doesn't even factor in the decision of the thief. The real crime is the theft of your personal data, not the theft of your metal-and-plastic.
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
I am sorry, but at least you weren't hurt. Did this happen while you are at home or away?
Posted by Sterling (Member # 8096) on :
Jeez, Rabbit. I'm sorry. That's scary and awful. I don't know anything about what the law enforcement situation in T&T is like, but I hope your things are recovered.
Posted by rollainm (Member # 8318) on :
Sorry to hear that Rabbit. Our apartment was robbed in December, so I can at least relate to the invasive experience. I can't imagine losing that much work, though.
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
That's so terrible. I hope there's some ghost of a chance of recovering it. I'm very sorry for your ordeal, and for the loss of your data. That really sucks.
Posted by romanylass (Member # 6306) on :
I'm sorry. What a terrible violation- 8 homes! I hope the perp is caught.
Posted by T:man (Member # 11614) on :
Dude that sucks
But really, robbing 8 homes what's he gonna do with all that stuff?
Posted by Mocke (Member # 11963) on :
T:Man Pawn. or auction. Probably wasn't just one guy though. Robbing a home doesn't take that long once you know what is valuable, however to do eight without being noticed at any time of day is a bit of a feat.
Sorry Rabbit, that bites. Any leads on the idiots who did it?
Posted by pooka (Member # 5003) on :
(((Rabbit))) That's a lot of data, equivalent to years of your life that have been stolen, I imagine.
Posted by Starsnuffer (Member # 8116) on :
My sympathies. I hope profoundly that you get your data back.
Posted by erosomniac (Member # 6834) on :
Ugh, I would rather lose my car than my data. I'm so sorry.
Posted by beleaguered (Member # 11983) on :
Yikes!!!! That's terrible news, Rabbit. I'm sorry this happened to you. Your encounter makes me think to buy a safe that is either too heavy for the average thief, or that is physically attached to the house somehow. Those safes are expensive, but I'm sure you'd agree now any price would be acceptable when it comes to so much information. You can also put money in there too.
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
quote:Originally posted by The Rabbit: They stole all our computers and the backup drives. I lost several years of data for my research, papers I'm writing, a proposal that was due today, student grades, blah blah blah.
>_<
Posted by Eaquae Legit (Member # 3063) on :
How horrible! I don't know what I'd do if I lost my data. I'm so, so sorry.
Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :
The police have found our stuff!! Unbelievable!! They recovered most of the stuff stolen late Friday night. I got a call this morning to go in and identify my stuff. They didn't recover everything but they did recover both my computer and my husbands and the hard drive with the complete set of data.
The most amazing part of this story is that the stuff was all found in what the police described as a computer lab and I imagine was more a kind of chop shop for stolen electronics. All the other computers stolen from our neighborhood (and there were quite a few) had had the hard disks reformated. Ours and my externals were the only ones left in tact.
They are currently photographing all the stuff for evidence. They arrested a couple people and I will have to go to court someday but I should have my stuff back by noon tomorrow.
Posted by Corwin (Member # 5705) on :
Wow... That's some amazing luck!
Too bad for the others though...
Posted by T:man (Member # 11614) on :
Thats so cool, you must be really lucky.....
Posted by Starsnuffer (Member # 8116) on :
! Congratulations! That's fantastic news.
Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :
If you are interested. here is the article on the robbery that got published in Saturday's paper. This was prior to the news that the stolen property had been recovered. The article is mostly accurate. We don't have a security guard and our apartments aren't posh, they are very middle class even in Trinidad. But aside from those a few minor errors, they got the big picture right and didn't even badly misquote me.
Posted by scholarette (Member # 11540) on :
That is awesome and dang lucky!
Posted by Sterling (Member # 8096) on :
Get those cops a cake! Glad you got your data back, Rabbit!
Posted by Phanto (Member # 5897) on :
wow! A happy ending! Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
quote:Originally posted by The Rabbit: The police have found our stuff!! Unbelievable!! They recovered most of the stuff stolen late Friday night. I got a call this morning to go in and identify my stuff. They didn't recover everything but they did recover both my computer and my husbands and the hard drive with the complete set of data.
The most amazing part of this story is that the stuff was all found in what the police described as a computer lab and I imagine was more a kind of chop shop for stolen electronics. All the other computers stolen from our neighborhood (and there were quite a few) had had the hard disks reformated. Ours and my externals were the only ones left in tact.
They are currently photographing all the stuff for evidence. They arrested a couple people and I will have to go to court someday but I should have my stuff back by noon tomorrow.
Awesome! Is that all of your stuff?
Posted by Blayne Bradley (Member # 8565) on :
Wait is your name Hangloo or are you Tyler?
Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :
Not all my stuff but all the most important stuff. I'm still missing a cell phone, the second backup drive, a soprano recorder, my husbands wallet and likely a few other things.
But they recovered the irreplaceable data so the other things don't matter right now.
Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :
quote:Originally posted by Corwin: Wow... That's some amazing luck!
Too bad for the others though...
We are hoping stuff will still be recoverable from my neighbors computers once we get them into expert hands. Keep your fingers.
Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :
quote:Originally posted by Blayne Bradley: Wait is your name Hangloo or are you Tyler?
It's a heart ache.
Posted by Shigosei (Member # 3831) on :
Rabbit, I'm so glad to hear that your data was intact. And it's pretty impressive what recovery programs can do -- I know someone who managed to recover a fair amount of data from a formatted hard drive using some relatively inexpensive software. So here's hoping your neighbors' stuff can be restored as well.
Posted by Corwin (Member # 5705) on :
quote:Originally posted by The Rabbit:
quote:Originally posted by Corwin: Wow... That's some amazing luck!
Too bad for the others though...
We are hoping stuff will still be recoverable from my neighbors computers once we get them into expert hands. Keep your fingers.
:fingers crossed:
I keep forgetting how unerasable our digital traces are...
Posted by Samprimary (Member # 8561) on :
quote:Originally posted by The Rabbit: The most amazing part of this story is that the stuff was all found in what the police described as a computer lab and I imagine was more a kind of chop shop for stolen electronics. All the other computers stolen from our neighborhood (and there were quite a few) had had the hard disks reformated. Ours and my externals were the only ones left in tact.
Woo. The question is: were they not reformatted due to lucky timing, or had the thieves left your stuff unformatted because they looked at it and thought some of the stuff contained within was valuable?
Posted by Jhai (Member # 5633) on :
YAY! That's great!
Posted by Shigosei (Member # 3831) on :
quote:I keep forgetting how unerasable our digital traces are...
That's why there are also programs for erasing drives when you want to make sure the data is gone. As far as I know, they write stuff onto the drive repeatedly.
Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :
I suspect that our computers weren't reformatted yet because they were Macs and the others were all windows machines. I don't know if they just started with the windows machines and hadn't got to the Macs yet or if they didn't have the software on hand to reformat the Macs. The external drive could have been reformatted in windows, but I guess they just hadn't got to it yet.
Either way, we are very lucky the police found them so fast.
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
quote:Originally posted by Shigosei: Rabbit, I'm so glad to hear that your data was intact. And it's pretty impressive what recovery programs can do -- I know someone who managed to recover a fair amount of data from a formatted hard drive using some relatively inexpensive software. So here's hoping your neighbors' stuff can be restored as well.
What she said. Posted by Corwin (Member # 5705) on :
quote:Originally posted by Shigosei:
quote:I keep forgetting how unerasable our digital traces are...
That's why there are also programs for erasing drives when you want to make sure the data is gone. As far as I know, they write stuff onto the drive repeatedly.
Yeah, fully re-writing the hard-disk should to the trick, making sure it's actually trying to write in each possible location.
Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :
In case you are interest, here is an article on the recovery from today's paper.
Posted by Uprooted (Member # 8353) on :
That's fantastic, so glad to hear you have your data and equipment!
Posted by ClaudiaTherese (Member # 923) on :
Wonderful.
Posted by Mocke (Member # 11963) on :
Woohoo! Glad you got your stuff back!
Posted by Tatiana (Member # 6776) on :
That is so great! I'm really pleased that you didn't lose your lifetime of work. Time to burn a bunch of DVDs or something. Man, that was so lucky!
Posted by rivka (Member # 4859) on :
That would be a freaking lot of DVDs.
Posted by BlackBlade (Member # 8376) on :
Glad you were able to get back so much more than you were expecting! I'm sure the feeling of relief exceeds the frustration you must have been feeling days ago. Posted by Achilles (Member # 7741) on :
Right on Rabbit! 8)
Posted by lobo (Member # 1761) on :
Cool. Like a total eclipse of the heart.
Posted by Uprooted (Member # 8353) on :
Looks like holding out for a hero worked.
Posted by Juxtapose (Member # 8837) on :
That's fantastic news, Rabbit. I'm glad to hear it.
Posted by The Rabbit (Member # 671) on :
quote:Originally posted by Uprooted: Looks like holding out for a hero worked.
Posted by beleaguered (Member # 11983) on :
Great news! Congratulations for entering the we've been robbed but we got our stuff back club. You know, thieves are pretty terrible people. How can someone look at themselves in the mirror, after having stolen something they knew was valuable even personal to another? Thievery creates trust issues- since anyone known to have been a thief must work extra hard to gain a person's trust. Thievery also causes an inflation on product prices from merchants, since the act of taking something from a store shelf also takes the would-be profits from the merchant, causing the merchant to raise the price all all the other like items to balance things out. They are terrible and selfish people!
Posted by Lyrhawn (Member # 7039) on :
Excellent news.
I can barely imagine what it would feel like to lose all my data.
Posted by Bob_Scopatz (Member # 1227) on :
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I'm so sorry Rabbit. I can't even imagine how horrible it must be.
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