[mac4theblind] Mac Backup Strategies for Worldwide Backup Day

From: Sarah Alawami <marrie12@xxxxxxxxx>
To: mack for the blind list <mac4theblind@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Thu, 31 Mar 2011 19:14:56 -0700
This is a really good article.


Today is Worldwide Backup Day, when we celebrate taking precautions so as not 
to lose data (well worth celebrating). The best backup strategies take a 
layered approach to provide different levels of protection. I’m going to focus 
on three layers for protecting your Mac: online, nearline, and offsite backups.
Online Backup
Online backup refers to copies of files that are directly accessible. Some 
examples of online backup would be copying files to USB thumbsticks or an 
external hard drive, and cloning a drive with Carbon Copy Cloner or SuperDuper. 
Online backup is convenient because you don’t need any additional software to 
get access to the backup files and you save the time that would be spent on 
restoring files from some other type of backup archive. Cloning is particularly 
good for system drives because you can boot up your computer and get to work 
right away instead of waiting to reinstall everything or restore files from a 
backup archive like you would with Time Machine.
Examples:USB thumbdriveExternal hard driveSuperDuper! cloneNearline Backup
Nearline backups are usually saved in an archive format that is saved to 
storage that is directly attached to the computer, or available on the same 
local area network. Nearline backups use additional software to manage the 
copies and provide some additional benefits like compression, incremental 
updates, versioning of files, and maybe even centralized administration and 
security. The disadvantage of nearline backups is that you can’t boot from them 
if your startup disk is down and you can’t directly access the files if you 
take the backup drive to another machine. Time Machine is the most familiar 
example for Mac users, but other software like Retrospect can be used this way 
too.
Examples:Time MachineRetrospectTape drivesOffsite Backup
Offsite backups are simply copies that are stored in another physical location 
from the computer. The purpose of offsite backup is to protect you in the case 
of fire, theft, or some other disastrous event like a lightning strike or flood 
that would destroy both the computer and the backup storage next to it. Offsite 
backups, by nature of being physically removed, take time to recover and 
restore and are really only there for catastrophes. You can rotate physical 
drives offsite, use cloud backup service like CrashPlan or a filesync service 
like Dropbox.
Examples:Second Time Machine driveCloned driveCrashPlanDropboxThese different 
layers can be combined to provide you with the right amount of protection for 
your needs. Here are three ways that a casual, moderate and hardcore user might 
implement online, nearline and offsite backup for their important files.
Casual
OnlineCopy your most critical files to a USB thumb drive. Repeat this process 
every quarter.NearlineBuy an external hard drive and turn on Time 
Machine.OffsiteTake a second USB thumb drive with critical files to work.Get a 
free gmail account and email an encrypted disk image (use Disk Utility) of your 
files to yourself (don’t forget the password!).Get a free Dropbox account and 
copy up to 2 GB of files.Moderate
OnlineClone your system drive to an external hard drive with SuperDuper! Update 
your clone at the beginning of every month.NearlineUse Time Capsule for 
automatic network backup. If you have a laptop, don’t underestimate the 
convenience of having Time Machine just run while your computer is on without 
having to remember to plug anything in.OffsiteBuy more storage from Dropbox 
or…Sign up for CrashPlan, possibly the best cloud backup service for Mac 
usersHardcore
OnlineClone your system drive to two different eternal hard drives with 
SuperDuper! Take one clone off site and rotate them every week.NearlineTime 
Machine with Time Capsule.OffsiteCrashPlanDropbox in addition to 
CrashplanSecond cloned driveIf you’re really, really hardcore, set up a second 
Time Machine drive and rotate that offsite as well. You will have to manually 
switch drives in Time Machine preferences each time you rotate the 
drives.Whatever your level of preparedness (or paranoia), there’s a backup 
strategy for you. Take a little time this Worldwide Backup Day to choose one 
and implement it before you have a reason to regret putting it off any longer.


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[mac4theblind] Mac Backup Strategies for Worldwide Backup Day

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