4 ms·

Ask HN: What's your personal backup solution?

3 points by backitup 3y ago

What are you doing for managing personal backups? How about managing login credentials? Do you have a plan to restore after your house burns down and all your electronics are destroyed?

Dutchie987 3y ago
My solution for the backup problem is simple. 1) Remove as much data as possible: you don't have to worry about data you don't have 2) Print important documents and store in fireproof safe or bank box 3) What remains fits on a USB stick, just make a monthly copy. TL;DR: declutter first, only then think about backups.
simonblack 3y ago
Split your files into "what I MUST keep long-term", "what I would like to keep long-term" and "what I am currently working on". "what I MUST keep long-term": tax records, MySQL databases, important documents like passports, marriage certificates, wills, land titles. (Write once, keep forever.) "what I would like to keep long term": music, videos, photos, manuals or user-guides, memorabilia. (Also write once, keep forever.) "what I am currently working on": system config files, programs in development, current year's tax records, travel plans, etc. (Keep only as long as necessary, a week, a month or a year) You then recalibrate that to "what I must keep long-term plus what I am currently working on" and "what I would like to keep long-term". On a daily basis, rsync several copies of the "what I would like to keep long term". It's possible to lose one or more copies of that, but very unlikely you'd lose all of them. These archives are currently about 6 TB. On a daily basis make a snapshot which contains all of the 'Must keep' and the 'current work' stuff. Make several copies of that. Hold those snapshots for quite a long time. Delete older ones progressively exponentially. (You retain some very old snapshots, and more and more of the recent ones.) I try to keep my snapshots under about 12 gigs per day. In the case of a complete disk crash, I can rebuild my 'daily driver' to where it was at the time of backup last night in under two hours. I can plug in one of my "like to keep" backups until that can get copied back across too, while I can keep running normally.

3 points by backitup 3y ago

What are you doing for managing personal backups? How about managing login credentials? Do you have a plan to restore after your house burns down and all your electronics are destroyed?

Dutchie987 3y ago

My solution for the backup problem is simple. 1) Remove as much data as possible: you don't have to worry about data you don't have 2) Print important documents and store in fireproof safe or bank box 3) What remains fits on a USB stick, just make a monthly copy. TL;DR: declutter first, only then think about backups.

simonblack 3y ago

Split your files into "what I MUST keep long-term", "what I would like to keep long-term" and "what I am currently working on". "what I MUST keep long-term": tax records, MySQL databases, important documents like passports, marriage certificates, wills, land titles. (Write once, keep forever.) "what I would like to keep long term": music, videos, photos, manuals or user-guides, memorabilia. (Also write once, keep forever.) "what I am currently working on": system config files, programs in development, current year's tax records, travel plans, etc. (Keep only as long as necessary, a week, a month or a year) You then recalibrate that to "what I must keep long-term plus what I am currently working on" and "what I would like to keep long-term". On a daily basis, rsync several copies of the "what I would like to keep long term". It's possible to lose one or more copies of that, but very unlikely you'd lose all of them. These archives are currently about 6 TB. On a daily basis make a snapshot which contains all of the 'Must keep' and the 'current work' stuff. Make several copies of that. Hold those snapshots for quite a long time. Delete older ones progressively exponentially. (You retain some very old snapshots, and more and more of the recent ones.) I try to keep my snapshots under about 12 gigs per day. In the case of a complete disk crash, I can rebuild my 'daily driver' to where it was at the time of backup last night in under two hours. I can plug in one of my "like to keep" backups until that can get copied back across too, while I can keep running normally.