
Averting Disaster – A Guide To Computer Backups (2014) - tambourine_man
http://www.anandtech.com/show/8030/backup-guide
======
yoda_sl
My backup strategy which so far I am happy with: \- on my Macs use Time
Machine even on my MBP using a NiftyDrive with a selected set of folders that
are important since the NiftyDrive is limited (currently I have a 64Gb) \-
remote with CrashPlan which I got a few years back during a Black Friday sale
at a great discounted price (wish they were doing that again)

I had a few times to use both to restore some files and in one case my MBP HD
that went bad... Through CrashPlan I was able to restore everything (it took
almost 12 hours to re download everything) but at the end to my extreme
surprise I lost less than 5 min of work since CrashPlan was quite up to date.

I do use of course Dropbox but I don't consider it as a backup destination and
rather a sync'ing service. I do have for a few months now a FileTransporter
from Connected Data and start to use it more and more since I can store up to
1TB and no monthly fee for it, but not yet done the full jump from Dropbox.

I will be curious to hear anyone else solution.

~~~
alister
> _on my Macs use Time Machine_

Time Machine for the Mac is excellent--I use it myself--but I must say that it
is not sufficient by itself for the following reasons:

(1) Since the Time Machine backup drive is typically online all the time, it
is vulnerable to malware that'll encrypt, corrupt, or erase you backups. (An
example from the Windows world is CryptoLocker:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptolocker](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cryptolocker)
).

(2) I imagine that most Time Machine users will have the Time Machine drive
right next to their Mac. So whatever physical trauma befalls their Mac--fire,
theft, electrical overvoltage--is going to affect their Time Machine drive as
well.

Time Machine users need a real _offline_ backup as well.

(I realize that you said that you use also use CrashPlan, a remote backup
system, so my comment is not directed at you.)

------
hga
While it's a bit dated, this book, _Backup & Recovery: Inexpensive Backup
Solutions for Open Systems_ ([http://www.amazon.com/Backup-Recovery-
Inexpensive-Solutions-...](http://www.amazon.com/Backup-Recovery-Inexpensive-
Solutions-Systems/dp/0596102461/)) is highly recommended. And higher level
programs like BackupPC and Bacula are still excellent solutions.

It's comprehensive, covers off-line bare metal backups (which aren't exactly
changing any time soon), points you at tools like rdiff-backup which you can
use to get reasonably close to continuous data protection (I do it every
hour), etc. etc. Along with a few good and short war stories. And preps you
for the big times, if you're interested.

------
bcl
I've been using BackupPC on a Linux box for years. First with RAID5 and now
with RAID1, using ssh+rsync I can backup my Linux and OSX systems and have
access to older backups via the web interface. For totally irreplaceable items
I also back up a subset to Glacier.

------
userbinator
I think it should be mentioned that any form of high-capacity flash storage
(USB drives, memory cards, SSDs) is not recommended for storing backups that
are to be kept for a long time (>1-2 years); magnetic and optical media are
preferred.

Making sure that your backups actually can be restored is also extremely
important; there's not much worse than thinking that you have backups, but
when you need them, find that they've become corrupted and unusable.

~~~
voltagex_
Is there anything written about the storage lifetime of USB flash drives and
memory cards? I assumed that they'd be better than optical media (which I have
seen degrade in <5 years)

I suspect a combination of optical media and parity data stored (PAR2 or PAR3
if I can find an open implementation) on flash media might be a good choice

~~~
rakoo
> (PAR2 or PAR3 if I can find an open implementation)

You should have no problem finding an open implementation [0] [1]

An other alternative is zfec [2], which has the advantage that you can choose
the level of redundancy you want. It's also much faster.

[0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parchive](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parchive)
[1]
[https://github.com/BlackIkeEagle/par2cmdline](https://github.com/BlackIkeEagle/par2cmdline)
[2]

~~~
voltagex_
Sorry, I meant if I can find an open implementation of PAR3 I'd use that.

zfec looks interesting though.

------
dvhh
For long term backup, too bad that tape backup are still expensive for the
individual user, as they seem to me as the more resilient type of backup
compared to HDD or WORM media. Cloud backup are very dependent on your
connectivity. The best option is to rely on 3rd party cloud provider like
amazon Glacier.

~~~
hga
For those of us stuck on low quota ISP plans, e.g. my AT&T 150 GiB/month,
$10/every additional 50 GiB, 3rd party "cloud" providers are only a solution
for our most "important" data. I use rsync.net (higher price isn't much of an
issue given the much smaller amount of data) and LTO-4 tape.

------
nshepperd
Keep it simple: [http://www.jwz.org/blog/2007/09/psa-
backups/](http://www.jwz.org/blog/2007/09/psa-backups/)

------
middleclick
I use Duplicity + flash drives. Works wonderfully, more so because Duplicity
supports encryption out-of-the-box. Also, incremental backups.

