Time.
That’s the one thing that is truly limited in this world.
Hardware is cheap when compared to the time you spent working on your yearly tax documents.
Hardware is cheap when compared to the opportunity photographing a one-in-a-lifetime family trip.
Hardware is cheap when compared to the countless sleepless nights it took to write your term papers/graduate thesis.
Why backup your data? I don’t need to tell you that. If you value your irreplaceable data (documents, photos, videos, notes, etc), then you back it up.
Hard drives are mechanical devices with moving parts. They WILL fail — not a question of IF, but a question of WHEN. And often times, you do not get advance notice of an impending failure. And you certainly don’t get advance notice of a fire or robbery.
Here’s my backup strategy. It’s somewhat complex, mildly expensive (yet redundant), but it works VERY well for me. Feel free to borrow it or adapt it for your own backup strategy. You do have one…right? RIGHT?
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About My Data
My data is grouped into "sections" of importance, mostly by frequency of access and modification.
Archived items — Files & folders that aren’t modified frequently, often never deleted or edited.
- Examples: Digital photos, older documents, music, movies, program install files, fonts.
Current items — Files that I’m working on NOW.
- Examples: OneNote Notebooks, current work & personal projects.
Important items — Files & folders that regardless of access/change frequency, they’re VERY critical.
- Examples: Tax documents, personal finances, resume, OneNote Notebooks.
As you can see, there can be some overlap. This isn’t meant to be a 100% concise organization of my data, but a general division for backup purposes.
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Software & Hardware Ingredient List
(this is the stuff I use — I’ll explain how I use it below)
- Acronis True Image Home 2010
- 1TB SATA Hard Drive + USB External Dock (Primary backup drive)
- 1TB SATA Hard Drive + USB External Dock (Secondary backup drive)
- Mozy Free Online Backup (2gb storage)
Hardware
I’ll start with my local backup hardware. I have two external USB hard drives. Let’s call them Primary and Secondary. The Primary drive is always here with me, and I’ll get into the details on how I use that below. The Secondary drive is a mirrored copy of the Primary drive — a redundant backup. It is taken off-site (friend, family, work, safe deposit box, etc) whenever not in use — it gets backed up monthly, more or less. This backup is in case of theft or fire — it might not be 100% up to date, but I’d rather have 95% of my data than NONE of it.
Let me say this another way — let’s assume you were burglarized…lost ALL of your computer hardware. Would you be willing to spend $100 at that point to get your data back? HELL YES YOU WOULD. Good, glad you agree with me. So go buy that extra hard drive to store off-site. Cheapest and most practical insurance you’ll ever get.
Software
I love Acronis True Image Home 2010. It allows me to make system images (snapshots of my operating system so I can roll back in case I have a bad program install, etc), and Acronis allows me to schedule file backups. It’s a very flexible program that does quite a bit more than I’ve mentioned here. It’s one of the few pieces of software that is truth worth the purchase price.
Inside my computer, I divide my data and operating system on two separate hard drives (C:\ for Windows, D:\ for my data). I do NOT use "My Documents" — everything is manually saved to the D:\ drive. That way, a restoration of one drive does not affect the other, nor is a backup of one dependant upon the other. It adds to the cost slightly, but makes backups quick and simple. It also increases system performance, but that’s another discussion entirely.
System Image Backups
The most critical part: always have a current, "clean" copy to restore in case of hard drive loss or virus infection.
I generally do these after large changes to the Operating System. For example: first install of the OS, windows updates, application installs, etc. Outside of major changes to the OS, I tend to backup a system image once every 3 months or so. I don’t add/remove applications frequently, so it doesn’t suit my needs to backup my OS more frequently than that.
System images get backed up to the Primary Drive — which eventually gets mirrored to the Secondary Drive.
Data Backups
The most critical part: always have a current, "clean" copy to restore in case of hard drive loss or virus infection. (sound familiar?)
I do a FULL data backup once a week, regardless of any changes. This covers EVERYTHING…archived, current, and important files. Photos, music, documents, notebooks….you name it, they get backed up once a week, every week. More frequently if I’ve made changes to multiple files/folders.
Data backups get placed on the Primary Drive — which eventually gets mirrored to the Secondary Drive.
Mozy Free Online Backup (2gb storage)
I use Mozy as an emergency tertiary backup for only for my MOST IMPORTANT and CURRENT files. Hypothetically, let’s say both of my physical backups die…. or my data was damaged before I was able to make a weekly backup. Mozy covers my butt by doing backups twice a day. Since the online storage is limited and bandwidth limits the speed of the backup, I only upload my MOST important & current files. These are items that I "touch" & modify on an hourly basis (OneNote), or items that I’ve spent literally days working on (resume, personal finances, current projects). A nice benefit is that I can restore this to any computer, via their software.
Posted in Personal, Tutorials
Tags: Data backup
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