Rant - User's data gets pwn3d

[waggy]

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: dullard
I'd say the IT department there sucks bigtime. 7 months and the IT person still hasn't done the job of backing up the business's computers. It takes what, 30 minutes max, to go through a typical computer to find all of the user files, compress them, and to copy it onto another hard drive or other backup source. If the IT person doesn't do that, he/she is a pretty worthless IT person. Compare that to the amount of money that IT person just cost the company in lost data and lost time.

I disagree. The IT department sets the IT rules at a company. If you're told it's up to you to backup your data, well then, it's up to you. If you don't know how to do it, asking for help would probably be a fantastic idea. The user is at fault, not the IT department.

IF the IT department is telling the users to back up the data and transfer it to new machines when they get some then that does not say a lot for the skill of the IT department.

I have never seen a IT department that was able to tell anyone to do such things. They may be able to make recommendations but not dictate how it is done. Especially on something that is as important as backups.

IF there was critical information on that machine he just took from the guy then he cost the company man time and money.

The OP was in the wrong. He decided to show the guy who the boss was. He should have just taken the machine and did what he had to do. I still do not understand why they would leave it up to the user to do. Most users barely know how to turn on the machine let alone make backups or transfer information between machines.

It just seems a waste of time/money and resources.

 

[Hammer]

your entire IT dept sucks. I would outsource all of them.

 

[samgau]

We migrate the user profile from old pc to new pc and also provide a network share for the rest of their data.... when they got new pcs we took away the old ones right away... so they have to move their stuff prior to them getting a new pc...

 

[TravisT]

Dang, i need to get in IT if all I have to do is sit on my thumb and expect everyone to do the IT work themselves. I know our IT department is responsible for fixing anythign that goes wrong, backing up the servers that our data is to be placed on, as we as when we get new machines to ensure everything runs smoothly and the transition is pretty painless in terms of us who do the real work.

 

[blakeatwork]

Why would you not have had autobackups running to begin with? Sorry dude, but you sound like a Nazi, not an admin.. Letting users store data related to the comapny on the own box, and NOT using some sort of network Storage is silly in this day and age... It would have been the same thing if his box crashed, and where would you have been? A user admin with no backups...

not to criticize, but that sounds like poor policy. Granted, I don't have enough and am only basing my statement on the info provided.

 

[iamwiz82]

Originally posted by: blakeatwork
Why would you not have had autobackups running to begin with? Sorry dude, but you sound like a Nazi, not an admin.. Letting users store data related to the comapny on the own box, and NOT using some sort of network Storage is silly in this day and age... It would have been the same thing if his box crashed, and where would you have been? A user admin with no backups...

not to criticize, but that sounds like poor policy. Granted, I don't have enough and am only basing my statement on the info provided.

I agree. All files here automatically default to save locations on the network, which we backup nightly, plus I'll ghost their machines before I have them rebuilt just incase something got misplaced. I'm not here to hurt the company because someone was lazy or made a mistake.

 

[Phoenix86]

IT dept. gets pwn3d.

Losing data us a USER trick. How an IT guy lost it is beyond me, and why they are proud of it is even further beyond my understanding.

 

[waggy]

Originally posted by: Phoenix86
IT dept. gets pwn3d.

Losing data us a USER trick. How an IT guy lost it is beyond me, and why they are proud of it is even further beyond my understanding.

Oh he is not proud he lost the data. he is proud he "owned" the user. He then had to come on ATOT (home of geeks and IT pro's everywhere) and declare how big a E-Penis he has.

 

[Cable God]

Originally posted by: nakedfrog

Originally posted by: dullard
I'd say the IT department there sucks bigtime. 7 months and the IT person still hasn't done the job of backing up the business's computers. It takes what, 30 minutes max, to go through a typical computer to find all of the user files, compress them, and to copy it onto another hard drive or other backup source. If the IT person doesn't do that, he/she is a pretty worthless IT person. Compare that to the amount of money that IT person just cost the company in lost data and lost time.

I disagree. The IT department sets the IT rules at a company. If you're told it's up to you to backup your data, well then, it's up to you. If you don't know how to do it, asking for help would probably be a fantastic idea. The user is at fault, not the IT department.

exactly. We have a bunch of developers here that are top notch world class developers. When you are a one man show managing a network this size you don't have TIME to hold everyone's hand and sing kumbaya. It is severely understaffed (just me) and I do WHAT I CAN. When a new machine comes in, I set it up in the domain, map a drive from his old one to his new one and tell them how to do the rest, most are bright enough to ask for help when they have problems. We don't have a overinflated budget to backup every friggin workstation and laptop we have. We do however back up our servers. Our most important data is there and it is backed up every night and taken off-site every week. He lost a few personal pictures and what not, NOT IMPORTANT company data, so you guys have no right to FLAME me for it. NO COMPANY DATA was lost. He lost some personal pictures and other junk that was NOT important.

 

[blakeatwork]

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: Phoenix86
IT dept. gets pwn3d.

Losing data us a USER trick. How an IT guy lost it is beyond me, and why they are proud of it is even further beyond my understanding.

Oh he is not proud he lost the data. he is proud he "owned" the user. He then had to come on ATOT (home of geeks and IT pro's everywhere) and declare how big a E-Penis he has.

*snicker*

You said penis...

Man, If I tried something like that, even being Dept Manager for IT, I'd have my ass in a sling and out the door. It's one thing to be tough on user policies, and making sure they're enforced; it's another thing entirely to ignore the users request for saving their data..

Another question: Who the hell takes 7 months to swap out a workstation? Did work interfere with CS or UT by chance? Is the OP just some kid who runs cables, and knows how to power on the PC's?

 

[bunker]

We're actually nice to our users .

Whenever someone gets a new machine we store an image of their old one for a long long time.

 

[Anonemous]

So if the user's all knew how to handle their computers and back them up what's the point of an IT dept...

 

[Cable God]

Originally posted by: blakeatwork

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: Phoenix86
IT dept. gets pwn3d.

Losing data us a USER trick. How an IT guy lost it is beyond me, and why they are proud of it is even further beyond my understanding.

Oh he is not proud he lost the data. he is proud he "owned" the user. He then had to come on ATOT (home of geeks and IT pro's everywhere) and declare how big a E-Penis he has.

*snicker*

You said penis...

Man, If I tried something like that, even being Dept Manager for IT, I'd have my ass in a sling and out the door. It's one thing to be tough on user policies, and making sure they're enforced; it's another thing entirely to ignore the users request for saving their data..

Another question: Who the hell takes 7 months to swap out a workstation? Did work interfere with CS or UT by chance? Is the OP just some kid who runs cables, and knows how to power on the PC's?

Blake, the swap wasn't 7 months long. I setup his new one 7 months ago and showed him how to do the rest, we had no plans for his old PC and it sat in our QA lab ever since doing nothing. It was needed last week and he was out as a matter of fact. Getting this problem resolved by using his old pc was FAR more important than anything personal he had on it or his new one. I run the entire LAN and WAN for this company and have been doing it for the last 6 years and built it from the ground up and I have NO help of any kind. There are very rarely any outages of any sort. This particular user really has no responsibilities, and just goofs off 95% of the day waiting for something to do. There was nothing important on his machine.

 

[Cable God]

Originally posted by: Anonemous


So if the user's all knew how to handle their computers and back them up what's the point of an IT dept...

switching, routing, voip, security, server backups, wireless, the list goes on and on.

 

[PanzerIV]

Cable, I see your point even if nobody else does. All the dumbass had to do was get some personal pics and non work related crap off his PC in a seven months time span and he didn't. Hopefully his lazy ass will have learned a lesson.

 

[blakeatwork]

Originally posted by: Cable God

Originally posted by: blakeatwork

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: Phoenix86
IT dept. gets pwn3d.

Losing data us a USER trick. How an IT guy lost it is beyond me, and why they are proud of it is even further beyond my understanding.

Oh he is not proud he lost the data. he is proud he "owned" the user. He then had to come on ATOT (home of geeks and IT pro's everywhere) and declare how big a E-Penis he has.

*snicker*

You said penis...

Man, If I tried something like that, even being Dept Manager for IT, I'd have my ass in a sling and out the door. It's one thing to be tough on user policies, and making sure they're enforced; it's another thing entirely to ignore the users request for saving their data..

Another question: Who the hell takes 7 months to swap out a workstation? Did work interfere with CS or UT by chance? Is the OP just some kid who runs cables, and knows how to power on the PC's?

Blake, the swap wasn't 7 months long. I setup his new one 7 months ago and showed him how to do the rest, we had no plans for his old PC and it sat in our QA lab ever since doing nothing. It was needed last week and he was out as a matter of fact. Getting this problem resolved by using his old pc was FAR more important than anything personal he had on it or his new one. I run the entire LAN and WAN for this company and have been doing it for the last 6 years and built it from the ground up and I have NO help of any kind. There are very rarely any outages of any sort. This particular user really has no responsibilities, and just goofs off 95% of the day waiting for something to do. There was nothing important on his machine.

Like I had said, there wasn't enough info to base replies from.

Speaking personally, and professionally, never leave the task of data migration to the user. they'll either screw it up, or not do it period. Ocassionally you'll get a user who is proficient, and can do the task, but then, you've already probably hired them for the IT dept.

Being a one-man show, you really should automate some of the more mundane tasks, like backups. i would have told the user that the PC isn't for personal information, and he's out of luck, IF the Policy was in place in the Employee handbook/P&P Manual, and given them a 24-hour window to get everything off and into their network storage. If's it's too big, and personal, tough luck. If it's business-related, it should be on the network storage anyways.

 

[Rudee]

I'm with the end-user on this one. You should never leave the responsibility of backup of business machines to the user. It's IT's responsibility. Cable God - you screwed the pooch this time.

 

[Cable God]

Originally posted by: blakeatwork

Originally posted by: Cable God

Originally posted by: blakeatwork

Originally posted by: waggy

Originally posted by: Phoenix86
IT dept. gets pwn3d.

Losing data us a USER trick. How an IT guy lost it is beyond me, and why they are proud of it is even further beyond my understanding.

Oh he is not proud he lost the data. he is proud he "owned" the user. He then had to come on ATOT (home of geeks and IT pro's everywhere) and declare how big a E-Penis he has.

*snicker*

You said penis...

Man, If I tried something like that, even being Dept Manager for IT, I'd have my ass in a sling and out the door. It's one thing to be tough on user policies, and making sure they're enforced; it's another thing entirely to ignore the users request for saving their data..

Another question: Who the hell takes 7 months to swap out a workstation? Did work interfere with CS or UT by chance? Is the OP just some kid who runs cables, and knows how to power on the PC's?

Blake, the swap wasn't 7 months long. I setup his new one 7 months ago and showed him how to do the rest, we had no plans for his old PC and it sat in our QA lab ever since doing nothing. It was needed last week and he was out as a matter of fact. Getting this problem resolved by using his old pc was FAR more important than anything personal he had on it or his new one. I run the entire LAN and WAN for this company and have been doing it for the last 6 years and built it from the ground up and I have NO help of any kind. There are very rarely any outages of any sort. This particular user really has no responsibilities, and just goofs off 95% of the day waiting for something to do. There was nothing important on his machine.

Like I had said, there wasn't enough info to base replies from.

Speaking personally, and professionally, never leave the task of data migration to the user. they'll either screw it up, or not do it period. Ocassionally you'll get a user who is proficient, and can do the task, but then, you've already probably hired them for the IT dept.

Being a one-man show, you really should automate some of the more mundane tasks, like backups. i would have told the user that the PC isn't for personal information, and he's out of luck, IF the Policy was in place in the Employee handbook/P&P Manual, and given them a 24-hour window to get everything off and into their network storage. If's it's too big, and personal, tough luck. If it's business-related, it should be on the network storage anyways.

Blake, I would LIKE to backup our user's machines regularly, but I am backing up over 3TB of server data and oracle databases each night (automated). It is 100% clear to everyone here that important data is stored on servers and nothing you can afford to lose should be kept on workstations or laptops. I DO have a base image of each user's desktop and or laptop just to save time in the event of a hardware failure (OS with all the software they use) and that's it. We don't have the resources to back them up on a regular basis and my budget will not allow it. I do a great job of managing this all by myself and haven't had any issues like this before. Upper management is well aware of this and they have drove home the point of data safety time and time again and the majority of our users are developers who understand it and follow it.

 

[Cable God]

Originally posted by: Rudee
I'm with the end-user on this one. You should never leave the responsibility of backup of business machines to the user. It's IT's responsibility. Cable God - you screwed the pooch this time.

did you even read the rest of the thread or just the first post? No "business" data is to be stored ON anything except for our servers. Everyone here knows it, and he lost "personal" data.

 

[Buck Armstrong]

Originally posted by: werk
I can't claim to know your job responsibilites, but whenever I set up a new user's workstation, it's expected to return to the state the previous machine was. Files, programs, profile, etc. The Files & Settings transfer wizard isn't hard to use...run it and walk away. It'll save headaches like these...

I am also the entire IT department at my job, and I'm expected to make sure all their files get transferred over to the new PC. If the user volunteers to do so or I have an intern to boss around, great, but otherwise, its my problem since my boss knows they're all too dumb to handle such things themselves, and of course thats why he pays me.

Whether the OP should be held responsible or not, its a sure thing the offended employee will blame it on him.

 

[dullard]

Originally posted by: Cable God
No "business" data is to be stored ON anything except for our servers. Everyone here knows it, and he lost "personal" data.

Next time, would you please list this very critical bit of information in your first post. Everyone here reamed you since we all figured when data is lost on a business machine that it was buisness data. Thus wanton distruction of that data is a very bad thing to do. Now that you say that you backed up the buisness data and let the personal trash get deleted, it is a whole other story. We would have all been here cheering you on if you would have simply stated that to begin with.

 

[mobobuff]

If the guy seemed to be content without his information for 7 months, then it can't be that important.

 

[Steve]

That is true. Cable God is in the right.

 

[PELarson]

Originally posted by: sm8000
That is true. Cable God is in the right.

No, Cable Guy was lucky in his stupidity! Imaging software is your friend.

 

[Cable God]

Originally posted by: PELarson

Originally posted by: sm8000
That is true. Cable God is in the right.

No, Cable Guy was lucky in his stupidity! Imaging software is your friend.

No, it's obvious you didn't read the whole thread in your own stupidity.