How do other people deal with balancing cost, capacity, and reliability of backing up their home data?
( backup advice from wikipedia )
* The more important the data is that is stored on the computer, the greater is the need for backing up this data.
* A backup is only as useful as its associated restore strategy.
* Storing the copy near the original is unwise, since many disasters such as fire, flood, and electrical surges are likely to cause damage to the backup at the same time. In case of theft, you might also lose both your original and backup.
* Automated backup and scheduling should be considered, as manual backups can be affected by human error.
* Backups will fail for a wide variety of reasons. A verification or monitoring strategy is an important part of a successful backup plan.
* It is good to store backed up archives in open/standard formats. This helps with recovery in the future when the software used to make the backup is obsolete. It also allows different software to be used.
I've been struggling with it as of late and am working to overcome the last few issues with my backups. I'm not there quite yet, but home to cover the last few eventualities soon.
