RE: Archiving .fcs Data

We have always archived data as a service to our users. Our policy is
that we will attempt to store data for as long as we have a computer
that can access the media type, but the customer should also backup
anything that is especially important because CD's and DVD's scratch and
hard drives fail.

 

Currently we are using a program called Backup4all from backup4all.com.
All of our PC controlled instruments are scheduled to backup data at
night to a shared 1 terabyte  external hard drive (My Book from Western
Digital) on a lab computer. The 1 terabyte drive is then automatically
copied by a matching external hard drive using the software supplied
with the My Book drives to provide a duplicate of the backup.

 

Any customer who requests access to the data is given read-only
permission and can access the data from any computer on the campus
system. 

 

All data is saved to a common folder on the instrument hard drives to
facilitate this automated backup system. 

We request that all files be named using the Principal Investigator's
name, the date, and then an extension number. 95% of our customers file
this naming convention and any files that are not named in this fashion
or not in the common data folder may not be archived. 

 

This system has been in use for about 6 months. It was suggested by our
IT department, but we set it up ourselves. It was surprisingly easy and
inexpensive. A standard copy of Backup4all costs $30 and the external
drives are about $250 each.

 

Karen Helm

University of Colorado Cancer Center

Flow Cytometry Core

________________________________

From: Robert Wadley [mailto:rbwadley@hotmail.com] 
Sent: Monday, April 28, 2008 12:59 AM
To: cyto-inbox
Subject: Archiving .fcs Data

 

Dear Flow-ers,
 
I have been asked to gather a consensus about what to do with data.
 
I have always preferred to say it is the responsibility of the user to
save & store/archive their own data.
 
However, the IT users group here are suggesting that there should be
some sort of formal archiving.
 
I am currently working with my IT department to create a Cytometry
mini-server.  All the data generated from the Calibur, LSR II, Aria,
Fluostar, Confocal, and the fluorescent microscope would be saved to the
server. and the server would be backed up at regular intervals.  User's
would then extract their data from the server for saving, analysis or
other manipulation.  Presumably any archiving would be via the
mini-server too.
 
What do other research labs do?  
 
I know many have a similar approach to me - its all up to the user.  One
lab I visited simply trashed data when their drives were full,
automatically assuming the users had backed-up.  This is probably a
little too harsh!!
 
Regards
 
Rob Wadley
Cytometry & imaging Suite
MMRI
Brisbane. Australia

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