Customer's Data backup
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computergeek1
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yes as long as they sign it, or you could get your terms and conditions printed up and use that, they sign that as well, as long as you state that you are not responseable for data loss and they sign you will be covered.
netpros
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I agree. Also, for my business clients, I copy their backup image
to my home server (usually once a week). I also ensure offsite
backup (or at least a weekly swap of their USB external drive).
A weeks old data is better than NO data to lots of folks.... but best
to perhaps overnight differential backups to ibackup (or mozy).
to my home server (usually once a week). I also ensure offsite
backup (or at least a weekly swap of their USB external drive).
A weeks old data is better than NO data to lots of folks.... but best
to perhaps overnight differential backups to ibackup (or mozy).
@ncient geek
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Definately yes (and he will), although the answer is rather complex. If you really wish I can go into this in more detail but generally you should consult with a lawyer specializing inthis field and from your state.
The simple fact of having your client sign a document will unfortunately NOT PROTECT YOU !!!
There is a big misunderstanding regularly practiced on this site about the validity of "informed consent". The fact that you have a customer sign a workorder limiting the scope of your responsability will not limit this responsability within a given legal boundary.
There is a huge difference in what the law will accept as simply careless for a private citizen and for a professional. As a professional YOU ARE ALWAYS LIABLE !!
krutoi
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I assume "informed consent" is better than nothing, and would be interested in hearing what other steps can and should be taken (or at least a brief outline) to protect against legal action.
@ncient geek
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@ACG
I have been working in the states for many years before moving into retirement in Europe. My children (9) are still running my businesses in the states. Many years ago, when I got my first very big customers, I decided to get myself an inhouse lawyer. This was by far the wisest decision I have made in all my years. Today we (well, my kids
) have six full time lawyers with one of my daughters running the show. I have learned the hard way that what I state is unfortunately true in most cases.As a professional, courts are generally very much inclined to decide against you and in favor of the customer as long as this customer is a private person or small company.
On a larger scale what you say is very true, as in most cases settlements will avoid going to court.
We have recently had a case where a service tech dropped the external hard drive on which he had performed his backups before wiping the disk of a private customer. Data recovery was impossible. The client was awarded $8000 for his lost pictures and documents by the court (in fact, he insisted on going to court, I believe he thought he would get much more money out of this). On top of that, the insurance did not pay a cent.
Doctor Micro
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@ncient geek
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@ncient geek
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No, the data was irrecoverable.
We did naturally file the claim with the insurance, the customer got himself a lawyer and went to small claims. Judge ruled insufficient precaution in handling irreplacable data. $6500 for the customer, $1500 cost the lawyer.
Insurance refused to pay because of the judgement, bill came to us. We paid.
@ncient geek
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Well, not really. Experience shows that this happens quite often and with very many insurance companies. I have found that when the sums of dispute are high, little problems arise with insurance. On the contrary, many companies will haggle over small amounts of money. They know that you will not go through all the procedures that will take months and months of your time.
This is why I believe that especially startups in the computer industry should be very careful about the insurance companies they treat with.
BTW, our insurance company is one of the largest world wide (AXA CSI). Our yearly premiums are HUGE
anonymous Mac Tech
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I believe the customers are held responsible for their own backups. When the manufacturers do repairs they will wipe a drive on a whim, even without warning. I've seen Apple do it several times even when an archive and install was just as viable as a reformat. Even so we never take chances.
purple_minion
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Personally I agree 100%. If you hand me the only actual dinosaur fossil known in the world that might cure cancer, and it's not encased in foam with a chain attached and I drop it, well then you're just stupid as can be. Maybe loose cash on a windy day would be another example. There is nothing you can do that will protect it 100%. You might do SSD but then what if you have a power surge, or a computer that zaps it. Same with HDD's. What if you're car jacked, or get into an accident.
I also find it extremely unlikely that a parked drive was irrecoverable, especially after hearing that you could get data back from the molten slag of platters. A three foot drop should be a cake walk, unless you turned it on and it ground your platters as the heads moved back and forth repeatedly.
This is part of the reason I've been thinking of a mirrored external drive for backups, though filesystem corruption wouldn't be solved with such a system. Perhaps a parity archive or recovery archives.
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