Principle 4 – History

The apprentice was appreciative of the Master, and had restored all his files from the online backup.  He had learned his lesson.

Six months later he approached the Master saying, “I have backed up all my files, and do so as I work, and make sure to distribute them far and wide.  I no longer have need of your online backup to the remote backup temples for my files.”

“So be it, I will free up my storage, and remand the responsibility to the apprentice,” stated the Master.  “Now, quickly, go and examine your systems.”

The apprentice examined his systems and discovered a virus had infected hundreds of important, but rarely used files.  He restored his day-old backup, but found those files were infected.  He remembered he had made a temporary backup a month before.  He loaded this backup and found it to be corrupt as well.  As he scoured his systems, he found the virus had struck four months before.

He rushed to the Master and said, “Master, your backup temple has the only virus-free backup!”  But the Master had already ordered the storage erased.

The Master stated, “The apprentice must respect and care for his backups, as you respect and care for your elders, for one day he will rely on them to provide wisdom and knowledge.”

Lesson to Learn:  Keep Old Backups