Just recently a someone who just found about my homepage via his daughter, asked me a question about how to backup pictures and other data nowadays. The question mainly was what to use: DVD? CD? HDD? Online? Or something completely different?

If you have the need — and I think that is one absolute must — to save your data in case something bad happens it is a combination of all the different systems (redundancy).

DVD and CD

I think that is one old method which should not be used because the safety provided by DVD’s and CD’s is not that great. You need to store them somewhere not to hot and not in sunlight in addition to that many other cases can cause harm to the data. In the end it is just a redundant method (to save your data a second time if you really feel the need to).

HDD — Hard-Drives

I would say that is most common nowadays. Hard-Drives are very cheap and come with many many GB / TB to store your files at. If you are lucky enough to own a Mac with OS X Leopard or Snow Leopard you also have the program TimeMachine.app which makes backing up your Mac and other external drives work like a charm. For Windows I would need to search something simple to use but I am sure there is something (maybe not as simple and shiny as TimeMachine.app.

Online Backup

There is a problem with online backup. Right, it has become very cheap nowadays and it also is save because you give the files to experts who do nothing else. They developed a system — and hopefully go on developing it — to store files safely and redundant. The problem with online backups is that you give your data to someone who you do not know. With some family pictures that may not be a big deal but for business it may be. I would say that most of the companies who provide that kind of online backup like for example CrashPlan.com should be trust worthy but you never know.

What I Use

First of I use a 1000 GB external HDD to backup my MacBook via TimeMachine.app. Also I have several external drives to mirror some data and to store some data externally. First there is one 60GB 1.8″ external HDD which I use as an mirror of important data to carry around. Secondly there is one 250GB 2.5″ external HDD which is used to save some data I do not need all the time on my MacBook (for example downloaded programs, movies and other purchases I do not need available all the time). Third there are two 3.5″ HDD one 300GB and one 160GB to again mirror some of my files (not the system and not on a regular basis but the important stuff on occasion. As an addition I use DropBox (free) for crucial files (mostly documents and some creative work). Also I just started to use CrashPlan.com about one month ago (the trial is near to its end) and am pretty happy with it. I seriously think about purchasing that service cause it makes it easy to backup (you do not even notice it) and are save to go.

And last but not least, I still use DVD/CD as a backup system but just in one particular case: client project is done => the data is burned to hand it — mostly in DVD/CD format — to the client and a copy of that is stored on DVD/CD in my archive (still the data is stored on my HDD’s but just in case).

Conclusion

In the end it depends on your needs and your wallet. If you travel all the time you may not be that well with online backup but still I would say you should backup some things online (important documents and works). But if you are at one place (like most of us) you can run a combination of the things named above. For example TimeMachine.app to an HDD plus online backup to CrashPlan or some other place. I think than you are pretty save that nothing happens and if something happens, at least you have your files on hand than.

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