Backup Your Backup

Something too many people take for granted is the safety of their content.  Anything and everything on any of your hard drives could disappear right now.  The question is, would you be ok with that?

Backing up is a relatively simple process, but can become complex if you don't have a method in place.  Simply copying files to another drive isn't enough.  Neither is using a single hard drive as a clone backup, or a Time Machine drive.  In order to be completely confident your data is safe, you need to follow what is simply known as the "3-2-1 Rule", something I picked up from Leo Laporte.  The basic premise is as follows:

Three backups, on two different storage mediums, one of them off-site

Simple enough, but I bet very few people have more than one backup of their data at any one point.

Using external hard drives with products such as ChronoSync, Synchronize Pro X, or even Time Machine, you can easily create your first local backup.  The second can be burned to DVD's or BluRay Discs, for longer term storage.

The off-site backup is where you'll run into quite a few options.  A service like DropBox provides an excellent form of off-site backup that is constantly changing.  It keeps your files locally as well as in the cloud.  Highly useful if you have multiple computers and like to keep certain files synchronized across all of them.  Services like Carbonite and Mozy offer an online backup utility that automatically backs up your computer to the cloud in the background, so you know your data is safe.

There are many options out there, and many ways to do it.  Even if you don't use a full backup system that includes the 3-2-1 method, at least have some kind of backup.  The saying goes, if you only have one copy, it may as well not exist.