I’ve been thinking a lot about backups recently and am starting to implement what I see as a fairly comprehensive backup system. Since it doesn’t seem like there is enough good information about realistic backups systems and how people really use them, I am going to keep posting anything useful I learn. Before I get in to all the technical bits, I’m going to start with the planning stage.

Before you touch any of the hardware or software, you have to know where you want your data to be. There are basically three types of backups that you need to have:

1. A remote backup to protect against the worst case scenario – fires, bad earthquakes, etc.
2. Semi-frequent snapshots for restoring after a hard disk crash
3. Frequent, portable backups of critical information to minimize lost time after a hard disk failiure

Each of these backups is an essential part of protecting your data, but these will likely not mean three different backup locations.

In the simplest example, the remote backup could be Amazon S3, the local snapshots could be a USB hard drive, and the frequent backups could be an SD card. In most cases, though, one backup medium will cover two or even three of the needed backups. As another example, here is what I am aiming for:

Frequent (every three hours) backups will be made to an SD card that remains in the computer no matter where I go. Snapshots then go to a networked Drobo. Since I live in an area where about the worst we get is thunderstorms, the Drobo in another room is good enough for both the remote and local snapshots.

If you only had a few files to backup, a service like Amazon S3 might even serve all three purposes, provided that you are always around an internet connection.

While everyone’s specific solution will be different, these are the key types of backups that you should have. Obviously, any of these is a huge step up from nothing..

And for anyone out there figuring they’ll just chance it, it won’t work. Only a few months ago my elbow completely wiped out all of my data, not to mention my opinion about Dell’s build quality, in seconds. It might not be your elbow, but something is bound to happen.

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