ResearchDrive Data Protection

• Data stored on ResearchDrive is automatically backed up daily and replicated offsite to an encrypted storage cluster for additional data protection.
• Snapshots are taken once a day and kept for 14 days and weekly snapshots are kept for five weeks
• These data protection features allow you to recover accidentally deleted files or folders within the past month.
• The snapshots are immutable and the replicas are not user accessible - they cannot be overwritten or deleted by a ransomware attack against your ResearchDrive.
• ResearchDrive is monitored by the UW Cybersecurity Operations Center (CSOC) with the Superna Ransomware Defender security platform. It monitors ResearchDrive storage in real time and sends alerts to CSOC if any ransomware attacks are detected.
• DoIT monitors the backend data protection features of ResearchDrive and gets alerts if there are any failed snapshots. However, DoIT does not perform test restores of customer data.
• It is a ResearchDrive customer responsibility to verify that they have current, comprehensive backups of their data. Users are encouraged to test data backups at least once every 90 days.
• If the default snapshot schedule does not meet your needs, please contact the ResearchDrive team at researchdrive@wisc.edu to discuss a custom data protection strategy.

The following instructions explain how to recover data from snapshots yourself on Windows or Linux computers but do not hesitate to submit a ResearchDrive - Support Request if you need assistance.

Recovering Files/Folders from Snapshots on Windows

1. Open Windows Explorer and go the folder containing the files you wish to recover
2. Right-click on the folder and select Previous Versions.

   

3. Select the appropriate folder to recover the file from using the Date Modified, and click Open.

   

4. Copy the snapshot files to a new location.

Recovering Files/Folders from Snapshots on Linux

1. Open the folder containing the files you wish to recover
2. Navigate to the hidden ".snapshot" folder with "ls -lt .snapshots/*".
3. Select the desired checkpoint and then the files/folder to be recovered.
4. Copy the snapshot files to a new location.

Recovering Files/Folders from Snapshots on Mac OS

At present, due to a software bug, ResearchDrive snapshot recovery is not available from Mac OS computers. Please use a Windows or linux computer to restore the files/folders or refer to ResearchDrive - Requesting Support for assistance recovering the data.