I can attest that I personally know people working in the NHS here in the UK that were dealing with the fall out from this.
All my family have their docs, pictures and music backed up to my Nextcloud which is backed up to another drive then synced to Crashplan and I'm still nervous about it. Just buy a cheap NAS drive, plug it into his router and configure his PC to back up to it.
then unplug it.
Hey man
I think the problem is not the technical or logical side of having backups but rather in your relationship.
For some reason my father doesnt listen to any advice of mine either no matter how how i try to tell him or how bulletproof the facts are.
(short story: He uses that stupid wireless Apple trackpad because its similar to his Laptop Trackpad. At least for the last year, I have tried to get him to trie out a traditional mouse even just for an hour without any success in sight!)
Eventually I learned that You can't Help people if they don't let you!!!
It wont make a difference if you show him a CNN segment on the ransomware because it sounds like for some psychologic reason he can't listen to your advice.
I also belive that doing it behind his back or getting Theatrical will almost ceartainly backfire. Because when (not if) he finds out He will get angry at you instead of changing your mind.
I know its a hard thing to do but mabe you just have to accept that your dad is as stubbern as he is.
And Please please please don't hunt your dads approval and try to impress him but live your life your way (if you aren't doing that already)
PS: Take this with a grain of salt because i might be projecting my relationship with my dad onto yours
This sounds very similar to problems I have trying to help my father-in-law.
I doubt depression is an issue, more likely hypernormalisation . There is a good documentary about this by Adam Curtis from BBC (really good exception to usual BBC state propaganda). Wouldn't expect your dad would watch over 2 hours, let alone be able to process it.
Aside from that, your father is a probably a 'digital immigrant' struggling to keep up with the modern world that you likely grew up with as common place - 'digital native'.
Most of the reality your father grew up believing was true has gone. You do not want to be the one held responsible if his reality gets broken more.
Suggest you try to get backups of as much family data as possible, but think carefully before copying anything personal like tax records. You may save him a lot of grief by saving the data, but long-term he may resent you invading his privacy
It was wrong of me to diagnose your Dad based on a post, but I saw that other troll as being a bully against a disabled person and that is much wronger.
I am sorry.
who do you mean? Please clarify
No.
That would be "feeding the trolls". Don't worry, I wasn't referring to you.
Honestly, until someone faces the prospect of all their data is lost they will never take backing up data as a serious thing, I've seen it over and over from individual users to businesses, until that data is gone any form of data protection is just too much trouble.
All of us are guilty, we have all lost data from time to time, but everyone here for the most part know it's our fault and our responsibility for not having a backup plan in place, in my opinion until he loses his data he will never take it seriously, of course once its gone....its gone.
Actually, that's probably the closest short description thus far, arguing with him is like arguing with a brick wall, at least that's what he always tells me after he starts the arguing in the first place, so I think it's borderline the pot calling the kettle black, but whatever.
Yeah that article I linked in post 7 is what helped me come to a few realizations and I know now that I won't ever be able to impress him unless it's by something he actively wants to be impressed by.
It's fine, I'm not upset or anything, just letting you know that your diagnosis is a bit off.
Also, thought I'd mention that I tried a test run of the sneaky route, installed veeam onto my mom's computer, was in a hurry to leave but I setup the backup, checked "run job when I click finish" turned the monitor off and then left, later when we got back the control panel must have opened a few minutes after the job started, so she immediately discovered it half through a backup, she however was more upset over the fact I put something on computer more so than anything else, so otherwise it went well and I created a full volume backup.
(pretty typical of her, she doesn't like anyone messing with her computer as in, installing stuff, for some reason she thinks installing chrome breaks her PC.)
Basically, when she asked about it I compared her data to a sheet of paper, where she can have as many pictures or copies of them on it, but if anything happens to it they're gone, so you want a copy on more than sheet of paper.
(something funny to note: before I got to the explanation she said "but I have system restore" kinda sweet how some people over simplify computers, which btw no she didn't have system restore, it was disabled for some reason...)
Holy shit that is one fucked up story
Getting a stubborn user to backup?
1)they have to lose all of their data. It cannot be a fake Because this makes them think it can just be recovered like before.
It is a bit like trying to tell someone not to tailgate other people they don't REALLY know it until they have rear-ended someone.
2) the best WAY to get them to back up, is to make it as simple as possible. There is a DIY guy on YT that created a button on the case of the machine that does everything automatically. So, This is the way to go if you want to avoid number one.
"Now that the 51/4" floppy has replaced the cassette tape there is no reason not to back up your data"
From 1900 to the 1950's every car engine had a dipstick, finally manufacturers threw up there hands trying to convince people to check the oil. Shortly afterwards "the idiot light" was invented
The absolute best possible way? Say nothing... then introduce their computer to a moderately powerful electromagnetic flux generator. Then tell them, "See what I mean?..."
Agreed, let them live in ignorance, and when it happens, they'll certainly have a backup from then on.
Pretty much agree with everyone who said do nothing.
you've said your thing. Now move on. When they lose data, help them and remind them if you want, and then move on. They will listen once they'be lost things valuable to them.
U did more than I would've.. Let him learn the hard way. Experience is the best learning tool IMO
What is stubbern?
As a Geek Squad Agent(yes I know, don't make fun of me. It's just a temporary position while I go to school), I've dealt with people who have lost ALL of their stuff. They are religious about backing up after that. People who haven't lost anything yet, think I'm crazy when I tell them to back up. (especially the old people who expect a computer to last 20 years without maintenance). You just have to let them learn the hard way.
Actually... I just remembered not too long ago, that they have lost data before (I think) because when I was a kid they had their Dell Pentium 4 machine die on them at least once or twice, I dunno maybe they recovered it both times, either way they should absolutely know the importance of backups by now, which he does have a 160GB external drive but I don't think it's even been powered on in 5 years, so I have doubts he'll ever learn.