OK, here's my truly OCD plan that I've been using a while now:

[img]http://drop.io/vsycimv/asset/diskplan-jpg[/img]

It look smore complicated than it is. basically, every day, I pull a disk out of my backpack, put it into a drawer at work, and put the disk that was was in the drawer in the backpack.

When I get home, I pull out the disk in my backpack, hook it to my laptop, start a full backup, and when that starts, I take the disk on the desk in put that into my backpack.

This is just for incremental, day to day stuff. There's also a Deep-storage server which is a Snap server for now, but will soon be a NAS. I don't trust optical storage after my 2003 photos on CD developed oxidation. The magnetic media still read fine. Currently, I deep-store to a combination of flash drives and magnetic media, and about every 18 months, I push files onto newer hardware. I know it's obsessive, but it's simply the care level needed for data like family photos and videos, which as irreplaceable and too important for me to push into some online service that might vanish one day.

Automation is the key to successful backup strategies. People, no matter how well intentioned, are usually not disciplined enough to keep things seemless.

Here is my Plan A,B,C,D & E. Zero intervention by me, except to make sure it is working.

Our business is all on computers, so I am a little paranoid...

Plan A: Our server is RAID5. Spare drives are standing by.

Plan B: Every day, our main server backups up to a second RAID5 server that is enabled to run our business at a moments notice. We also have backup Internet service.

Plan C: Every day, our main server is backed up to a large portable HD that is strategically located near the exit where I would be leaving in case of an emergency....my GRAB-N-GO hard drive.

Plan D: Every day our main server is backed up to a third RAID5 server located in another building on our property about 500' away from the main building(house) where the BO-RV is stored. This server can be ready to go at a moments notice too and is permanently installed in our BO-RV. When we vacation, we run our business from this server on the road.

Plan E: We use an on-line service.

All of the systems are e-mail enabled to notify me of problems. Backup jobs run at different times throughout the day.

The online backup service is the belt worn with suspenders...

Even so. What happens if there are several other people trying to do a restore at the same time, i.e. a hurricane hit the area, or enough phone lines are down.

Loosing a hard drive or cd can be worked around by having more than one.

Remember also those $50 a year backup services are a limited amoutn of data, it would cost me a lot more to back up all mine.

No. Carbonite is unlimited data $50 per year.

Again, this is plan E for me. Having a local backup or four is a good idea too.

A reliable, up-to-date, OFF-SITE backup is the part most people skip.

Also, if a hurricane turns your house into toothpicks, I would rather bet on the off-site, on-line storage than anything on-site.

The Carbonite service sounds quite good. Also the price is reasonable.
The service I am also interested in is Amazon S3. Unlimited storage, you pay only for the space and tranfer you use, the price is low. Amazon is big and stable company - yes, it can disappear from the business but it´s not very likely.
Another big and stable company (HP) started to offer unlimited storage services - HP Upline .

Another thing I thought could be worth the money is buying some disaster proof storage. I don´t know much about it - this is just one of the examples that came out of the search engine: http://www.iosafe.com/ . Maybe it could be hidden well enough in order for possible thievs not to find it.

The important thing is to test the recovery procedure from your backup systems/archives to see if it works at all. Some backup files/archives can be corrupted, some backup software might backup with errors etc. I have read about one company that had purchased complete backup solution (I believe it was backup to tapes), they had turned it on and had not care anymore. When their primary storage hardware failed they wanted to recover the data from the backups. Only to find out that the software had been running in some sort of preview/test mode all the time and had not backed up any real data.

I have to look into the iosafe. Cool idea! Thanks

No problem, GarlyDog. I am looking into it right now too. Here are some videos from the tests:
http://www.hddfiresafe.com/data_recovery/fire-disaster-data-loss.htm

And here are some pictures with description how the protection against a fire works: http://www.klsecurity.com/disaster_ready_drive_iosafe.htm (bottom of the page)

I saw a while back that Sentry makes a waterproof and fire protected HDD.
Sentry hard disk products

I don't know anything about these other than seeing them referenced in an article a while back. Just wanted to point the group to another possible tool.

I had not seen the iosafe before. The price on iosafe seems much better (500GB for about $150 currently) where sentry seems very pricey (250GB for $400 MSRP).

I use a external HD to back up My Docs, pictures, music all that stuff. Programs can be replaced, personal stuff not so much. I actually just started exporting my emails for backup too. I can't believe it took me so long to do that.

I also started backing up my online Bookmarks.

I have copies of my passport, DL, CC's and contact numbers on a thumb drive in case I lose any of that.

Its also good to back up your cell phone using your sim card or some of the new phones can be downloaded at the store.

I don't know about other services, but Verizon offers on-line dynamic backup of contacts from cell phones. I'm using their "Backup Assistant" app. Supposedly if I get a new (verizon) cell it will enable me to transfer all my contacts. At a minimum I can go on-line and print all my contacts.

Why/how would you back up the sim card? I don't understand cell technology, so just wondering what the point would be.