How do you backup?

[Fishrrman]

I keep an "offsite" backup.
In my... car.
Chances are if a disaster destroys the house, the car may still be left "intact enough" to get at the backup (the car is parked outside).

I use an SSD and keep it in a sealable plastic storage bag with some dessicant inside.
It's lasted through the cold of winter and the heat of summer with no problems.

 

[Boyd01]

My primary computer is backed up with Time Machine to a 2012 Mini Server on my LAN and I make bootable Carbon Copy Clones to an external SSD every few days. It is also backed up to the cloud with BackBlaze.

The server is backed up nightly with Carbon Copy and it also has BackBlaze cloud backup.

My media server is cloned nightly to a local disk with Carbon Copy and I rotate the backup disks periodically. It is also backed up to the cloud with BackBlaze.

I got an Apple ][ in 1978, got my first Mac in 1985 and I still have files going that far back. Can't have too many backups! 🙂

 

[BigMcGuire]

My primary computer is backed up with Time Machine to a 2012 Mini Server on my LAN and I make bootable Carbon Copy Clones to an external SSD every few days. It is also backed up to the cloud with BackBlaze.

The server is backed up nightly with Carbon Copy and it also has BackBlaze cloud backup.

My media server is cloned nightly to a local disk with Carbon Copy and I rotate the backup disks periodically. It is also backed up to the cloud with BackBlaze.

I got an Apple ][ in 1978, got my first Mac in 1985 and I still have files going that far back. Can't have too many backups! 🙂

For BackBlaze, do you use the BackBlaze unlimited or B2 with something like Arq?

 

[Boyd01]

I am just using the regular BackBlaze unlimited on each computer. Should probably look at other options, but this was easy and I have other things to do. 🙂

 

[jeyf]

I have a small business but other wise retired. I have employee records, lease agreements etc and personal stuff like photos going back a decade and a half. I have 2 levels of backup but basically:

I never keep anything on my computer. If I am working on my taxes. I pull a top level directory, which has everything for my 2020 taxes, off my NAS box onto my iMac or a MBP. At the end of the day put the directory back onto the NAS box. I have 2 NAS boxes, an old slow one for the backup. I like Synology brand.

Most modern file types; pdf, jpeg do not respond well to compression. maybe they are mostly already compressed. I keep everything on my home network lan so not that interested in encryption.

i do not use anything sparse bundle disk image:
-You loose everything if that disk image becomes corrupt
-given a total crash, to do a restore, i do not want to have to use an application to decode access the disk image.
-i did a home study; for the types of files i have; i used the compression, encryption into a singe disk image and observed it did not give me any better results. it took more space. the backup not that fast.
-i mostly write once and read many. more reliable that way

Home storage is not going away:
-If your spinning rust no guarantee a drive just sitting there will not self destruct. 4example; internal hard drive motor lubricant can creep.
-if you use a cloud backup make sure the entire data path is encrypted
-i put one NAS box in the basement, another in a spare bedroom. Their up time is a few months just now.
-i avoid proprietary cables, io ports. never know where that stuff will be in a few years.

The kitchen IMac controls the backup:
i repurposed my iMac to schedule my backups using ChronoSync. It starts up every morning at 3am and does one portion of my main NAS box. It will back up my /music one morning and do my /photos the next. it splashes up a status history screen for my morning coffee (kitchen iMac). I finally settled on ChronoSync because it is really totally reliable. It can mount all NAS boxes and or computers w/o error. Remove the mount when it is done. If i delete a file it will put the deleted or re named file into a permanent archive but other wise it sync one NAS box into the slower older craigslist NAS box as a backup.

fair to say this works for me and maybe more effort than the Joe Avg wants to do.
i do not represent these products.