My Personal Backup Strategy

I’ve written about why you should back up your computer and some ways how to do it, but what do I do?  My personal backup strategy is a little more complex due to my needs, budget, and overall paranoia (I live in an earthquake prone area).

What I Do

I list every device I own that contains information or data I would hate to lose (computers, phones) and answer these questions:

• Where is its local backup located?
  • How often is it backed up locally?
• Where is its offsite/cloud backup located?
  • How often is it backed up offsite/to the cloud?

By surveying my devices in this manner, I can easily find out if I need to change/update my backup strategy.

The Current State of My Strategy

Desktop iMac

• Local backup #1 – Time Machine (to external hard drive)
  • Frequency – after I add new photos (should be constantly plugged in!)
• Local backup #2 – Synology server
  • Frequency – before traveling
• Offsite/Cloud backup – Backblaze
  • Frequency – continuous

Synology Server (contains “archived” data from across all devices)

• Local backup #1- cloned to external hard drive connected to Desktop iMac (via Carbon Copy Cloner software)
  • Frequency – weekly
• Local backup #2 – cloned to external hard drive
  • Frequency – sometimes
• Offsite/Cloud backup – Backblaze “workaround” (Backblaze backs up external hard drives connected to my Desktop iMac)
  • Frequency – weekly (after local backup #1 completes)
• Offsite/Cloud backup – cloned external hard drive (local backup #2) taken to work
  • Frequency – sometimes

My (Old) Mac Laptop

• Local backup – Time Machine (to external hard drive)
  • Frequency – before traveling
• Offsite/Cloud backup – none (nothing important isn’t already on Synology server)
  • Frequency – none

Wife’s PC Laptop

• Local backup – File History (to Synology server)
  • Frequency – continuous
• Offsite/Cloud backup – Backblaze “workaround” (Synology server cloned to external hard drive connected to Desktop iMac)
  • Frequency – weekly

My iPhone

• Local backup – none
  • Frequency – none
• Offsite/Cloud backup – iCloud
  • Frequency – nightly (when charging and connected to WiFi)

Wife’s iPhone

• Local backup – none
  • Frequency – none
• Offsite/Cloud backup – iCloud
  • Frequency – nightly (when charging and connected to WiFi)

Dad’s PC Laptop

• Local backup – File History (to external hard drive)
  • Frequency – whenever visiting (2-3 times per year)
• Offsite/Cloud backup – none
  • Frequency – none

With my personal backup strategy, everything has at least some sort of frequent backup. Therefore data loss would be minimal to none in the event of a hard drive failure or disaster. But as you can see, there is room for improvement!

What is your backup strategy?

Leave a comment below and share what you do.