Backup Strategies

Another one of those posts that will interest only those folks who find computers interesting… but should be interesting to anyone who uses one.

Just sayin’.

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I’ve been using personal computers for better than a couple of decades now, though only intensively for the past sixteen or seventeen years. Before that, I could take or leave ’em, pretty much. In that time, I’ve had my fair share of disk crashes that threatened my data with extinction. But only threatened. Because I learned–at least eventually–that backing up my computer was a lot less hassle than recreating my data.

For some folks, NOT backing their computers up has meant disaster.

Here are some decent strategies for backups that cover the most typical backup choices, though certainly not all.

Disk Imaging: using an imaging program such as Symantec’s Ghost or Acronis True Image (for Windows) or something like PartImage in Linux, one can save an exact image of a hard drive to another location (a network storage device, a server, an external hard drive or even spanned across several CDRs or DVDRs) and restore that image should something catestrophic occur. This would allow a complete duplicate of a hard drive to be restored, including the operating system.

Backup Software: use this to save copies of files and folders (usually in a compressed format) to another location (again, a network storage device, a server, an external hard drive or even spanned across several CDRs or DVDRs). This is certainly the traditional choice most folks are led to implement. There are so many different backup software choices, listing even a few might not touch on one that suits you best, so if you find this sort of option appealing, just google it.

A variation of the category of backup software are online backup services. Again, there are many different services, search for one that appeals to you.

I take a rather casual approach to backups. Casual and paranoid all at once. I’ve used “automatic” backup software… that failed. So, while I take backups seriously, I’m not locked in to one of the usual suspects. Since I try whenever possible to use free software–preferably FOSS (Free, Open Source Software, though I’m not always able to find FOSS software that meets my needs)–I never do full disk backups. If I have an OS or disk crash, I’m perfectly willing to do a fresh install of the OS and all of my software. It’s my own personal data–data that is uniquely mine: my emails, my personally generated documents (of all kinds, including my own musical comps and arrangements)–that most concerns me. So, I regularly copy my data folders to several external media: CDRs, DVDRs, online storage and external hard drives.

My email is easiest, and is a good example. I don’t like to use webmail, so I use an email client, Thunderbird, to download my “real” email (not from “junk” email accounts), but I don’t use an email client installed on my computer.

*huh?!?*

That’s right. I use Portable Thunderbird, which is “installed” on a USB flash drive. Not only can I take ALL my email with me and use Portable Thunderbird to download and send email from nearly ANY computer (with an enabled USB port), but backing up EVERYTHING email related is a snap. Preferences, contacts, filters and emails and the application itself: all can be “backed up” by simply copying the Portable Thunderbird folder from the flash drive to another location. Any location. Online, another hard drive, a CDR–whatever. Just drag and drop and all those things that can be a nightmare to back up with many email clients are backed up.

Nice.

Other than that, I have all my personal data–including passwords, personally generated documents of all kinds, etc., in standard folders on all my computers and simply zipping them up and dropping the sipped files in the desired backup locations and… bob’s your uncle: everything I WANT to have backed up is backed up.

For me, doing this about once a week is all the protection I really need. Perhaps it would be suitable for your needs as well; just zip up whatever you want saved and store it elsewhere.

But do note: at least one offsite backup of all the data you want to preserve is HIGHLY recommended. It’ll do you no good if you save all your precious data to an external drive and some DVDRs if your house burns down and takes the data with it.

(If my house and my hosting company burned to the ground on the same day, I’d be in a world of hurt. *heh* Well, except for the data in my “fireproof” safe, perhaps.)

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Heck, while I’m at it, consider how safe your important hardcopy documents like birth certificate, etc., are. Are they at least in a fire-rated safe?