While modern computers are quite reliable, they are not infallible. Hardware failures can happen and then there’s gravity – a dropped laptop can mean lots of pain with inaccessible data and the cost of repair or replacement. That’s one I’ve faced. And that’s the thing about backups – you only ever take backing up seriously if you’ve suffered a disaster.
I started taking backups far more seriously when a drive failure resulted in the loss of my Photos library. I got lucky as I was able to find an older archive I’d forgotten about and was able to fill in the blanks with the photos on my iPhone.
These days, I have a far more rigorous approach to backups.
How I backup my critical data
I use an approach that is based on the 3-2-1-0 method.
- At least three copies of your data
- Those copies are stored on at least two different media
- One of those copies is stored offsite, away from your main system
- The backups are tested to ensure there are zero errors
In my case, with my data files (the stuff that would be very hard/impossible to reconstruct who’ll something go seriously pear-shaped) I have the following:
- The working copy I use that is local to my machine
- Synchronised copies to iCloud and OneDrive depending on what part of my life/work we are talking about
- Time Machine as a local backup connected to my machine
- Backblaze which backs up my main working Mac and the data on its external drives
- SuperDuper which make a full clone of my Mac every night
That’s five copies of my main files and three of everything else using three external media (cloud sync, external hard drives and cloud backup). Two of those external media are offsite. And I check that I can recover files periodically from Backblaze and I access files on the cloud services almost all day.
This combination might seem like overkill but it means I can
- Access all my working files from any computer via the cloud synchronisations services.
- Using the SuperDuper clone, I can boot my working system up from any Mac
- I can access all the data Backblaze backs up from any other device
- Time Machine ensures that any accidental deletions or file changes can be quickly recovered
File sync services are not really backups
In my backup plan, you’ll notice I use file synchronisation services from Apple and Microsoft for different sets of data. Strictly speaking, these are not backups. A true backup is isolated from your main data so that an erroneous or malicious change to your data is not stored. If something bad happens to one of the files that’s synced to one of those services, that change will be sent to my synchronised copy almost instantly.
This is why Time Machine, SuperDuper and Backblaze are important to me. They allow me to go back to a specific point in time so I can recover a ‘broken’ file from a point in time before it was damaged or corrupted.
That’s important to consider if you rely on a file sync service as a backup.
It’s not just backing up – recovery matters
If you have a backup system that works for you that’s great news. But do you have a recovery plan? Backups are only useful if they enable you to recover your data.
If my Mac dies or is stolen it would be annoying but I could reinstall all my main software in less than a day. The good thing about subscription software and mainly acquiring software thorough the Mac App Store is that I don’t have to find a bunch of serial numbers to get things back up and running. As long as I have my passwords (Keychain to the rescue!) I can get everything up and running.
That feels like a reasonable set of mitigations for the risk I’m likely to face.
And if I grab my nightly clone from SuperDuper, I can simply connect it to another Mac and boot from the external drive and be up and running in minutes.
The way I see it, I’m at greater risk of a hardware failure than anything else. While a malware attack of some sort is always possible, I feel that I have sufficient controls in place to mitigate the risk of that occurring.
Anthony is the founder of Australian Apple News. He is a long-time Apple user and former editor of Australian Macworld. He has contributed to many technology magazines and newspapers as well as appearing regularly on radio and occasionally on TV.