I don’t compress or encrypt my data when doing a backup – I want it to be as easy to access in my backup storage device as my workstation’s HD. I use FolderMatch for copying the files (www.FileMatch.com) which does a fine job.

My question to those storing their backups “in the cloud” is “How fast can you retrieve your data?” One person told me that while Carbonite seems like a great solution, if you have a large amount of data you need to retrieve it can take a very long time to get it as the downstream speed is fairly limited.

Copy a snapshot onto a DVD once a week.

Having the file/folder in source control also works.

It also amazes me that there are developers not using source control. But that is a topic for another post.

It’s amazing, the number of software developers who don’t take backups at all, let alone use the many good backup techniques mentioned in your post and the comments.

A related point, also surprisingly common, is how often developers lose work (i.e. code that’s already done and is working, or mostly working), in their haste to make changes, or to fix some bugs – I’m talking about when they end up deleting fragments of working code or introducing new bugs into it through their edits; they don’t bother to take local backups, or better, use a source control tool like CVS, SVN, git, etc., to make a snapshot of the files to be modified, before modifying them, so that changes can be rolled back if needed.

Andy: What’s your solution for this point you mentioned:

>-a corruption or deletion that gets synch’ed to your backup drives (e.g. you delete a folder and then decide a week later you need it back)

Boofus: Those Tao / Zen Master stories are good :) See some of the ones about UNIX, here, in Eric Raymond’s book The Art of UNIX Programming:

http://www.faqs.org/docs/artu/unix_koans.html

- Vasudev

The novice asked the backup master: “Master, now that my backups have good coverage, are taken frequently, are archived, and are distributed to the four corners of the earth, I have supreme confidence in them. Have I achieved enlightenment? Surely now I comprehend the Tao Of Backup?”

The master paused for one minute, then suddenly produced an axe and smashed the novice’s disk drive to pieces. Calmly he said: “To believe in one’s backups is one thing. To have to use them is another.”

The novice looked very worried.

You don’t have a backup until you’ve tested it.

My development, personal, family and servers get backed up (using SyncBackSE versioning) to a backup drive (on the server). It is all in native data formats.

The backup drive gets mirrored every night to a NAS running in my workshop/shed about 300ft away on the property. Syncback has email on backup error so I know if it detected something wrong.

I test recover from server backups and NAS once or twice a month.

Nadya,
CloudBerry Lab team