Thu 1/01 My Backup Strategy
My backup strategy is simple. I have two computers, in two different locations, synchronized in real time with the web via Dropbox, and backed up hourly on two separate Time Machine backups.
If I mistakenly delete or overwrite a file on either computer I have thirty days worth of revisions on Dropbox, and twenty four hours worth of hourly revisions on two Time Machine backups.
If Dropbox fails to synchronize or inadvertently deletes files from both of my computers I still have two Time Machine backups in two different locations.
If my house burns down I may have lost a computer and a Time Machine backup, but I will still have all of my files backed up to the web via Dropbox, and a second computer with a working Time Machine backup.
If the city of Boston burns down I may have lost both of my computers and both of my Time Machine backups, but I will still have all of my files backed up to the web via Dropbox.
Keeping an updated clone of either of my computer’s hard disks is not important to me due to the very fact I have two computers. As a former Mac Genius I am capable of rebuilding either of my computers, with all of my data and applications restored, in under two hours.
Maintaining my data on a single RAID is not the same as having a backup. When files are deleted from first drive they are by definition deleted from the second drive. There is no such things as revisions in a RAID. It is not uncommon for the RAID controller to fail, and data loss on both hard drives to occur. If a RAID protects you from anything it is a single hard disk failure.
If I wanted to strengthen by backup strategy I might include a separate off site backup made at regular intervals independent of Dropbox. I might conduct my Time Machine backups on more redundant backup media like a RAID or a Drobo. No backup strategy is failure proof, but having your data reside across three remote locations is a goal worth achieving.