I've been using Backblaze for 11 years now and only just had my first full disk-loss event. A 10TB drive decided to give up the ghost entirely. Indeed, I had checked before to confirm the disk was being backed up and tested recovery with their web restore option, so this made the full-disk restore fairly trivial. I opted to do their sneakernet option: they ship you a drive (up to 8TB) of your restored contents. I had 9TB backed up on this disk, so I needed two disks, which they obliged, for $200 per, which I'll get back when they receive the returned disks.

Was very happy to see the process go off without a hitch, and you can't beat 19TB backed up for $7.60/mo anywhere.

If you've not periodically restored and run from your backup, do you even have backups?

The real moral of the story is never offer to fix anything, because then everything involved with it is your fault forever.

Obviously the money is in delivering a program that just runs 'exit 0' and simply promising the client that it does something useful (system check, virus scan, backup--take your pick). By the time someone technical on their end actually discovers the ruse, you'll be long gone!

I see it more like this: It's worth helping people, and sometimes you have to help them manage their expectations of technology.

By volunteering your time, you can make a huge positive impact in their life, like saving their business.

Sometimes people can be grumpy, and you have to be ready for it.