A Surrey, B.C. man is suing Apple for $25,000 after his Time Capsule backup drive crashed, losing what he claims was a year of photographs including those showing the birth of his first child.
CBC NewsIn his suit filed in B.C.’s small claims court, Perminder Tung says he bought the Apple Time Capsule in June 2009 and used it to back up two MacBooks and an iPhone. It failed last month, he alleges, and when he took it back to the Apple Store, he was told the data was lost and irretrievable.
Tung also alleges that he was told at the store that the product had numerous issues related to defects in the design and the power supply.
Tung, who is a lawyer, says he’s since learned of many other Time Capsule failures, which have spawned online forums, a memorial register and fix-it yourself videos.
Tung is suing Apple Canada for just over $25,000 to replace the hardware and to compensate him for the loss of his memories of his first born child.
“The defect with the Time Capsules, which invariably destroyed the stored data, amounts to a fundamental and total breach of contract. The alleged ‘Time Capsule’ did not encapsulate and protect the information it was intended to secure. The breach destroyed the workable character of the thing sold,” says Tung in his claim.
Here’s the question I have, “When is a backup not a backup?” Answer: When it’s the only copy of something. If this lawyer was truly backing up the data, that means he’d still have a copy on his original hard drive. Merely copying something to another hard drive is not a backup. A backup is when you have duplicate data on different drives!
Welcome to another exhibit for the ever popular lawsuit category of, “I screwed up, now I want someone else to pay for it!”
People, it’s not a case of “if” a hard drive is going to fail, it’s a matter of “when” a hard drive is going to fail! Backup up your data! Don’t copy it to another hard drive and then delete it from the original hard drive, like a Canadian lawyer would.
Always follow the 3-2-1 Backup Rule:
- Keep 3 copies of any important file (a primary and two backups)
- Have the files on 2 different media types (such as hard drive and optical media), to protect against different types of hazards.
- Store 1 copy offsite (or at least offline).
Online storage is free or amazingly cheap, keep your memories backed up!
