CJ on Tech

I had for a long time, been too lax about protecting my data. Not from hackers, but from corruption and loss.

Following some significant changes in my personal life, it was high time to make sure my data was protected no matter what. First, some background. I have always been a proponent of the 3-2-1 backup rule. Three copies of every backup, in at least 2 places, with at least 1 off-site (we’ll unpack this one a little later).

No matter the method used for backups, manual, automated, tape, or cloud storage; every one of those backups needs to have 3 copies. The original copy of the backup stored locally for quick access when needed. A second copy, which may or may not be local, but protection from some type of failure of the first location. The third copy, at the very least should be stored off-site. This also includes your data from home. Yes, I am aware that might not be easy or cheap on the surface, but stick with me on this.

Given that background, let’s get into the methodology I use. Not all data should be treated the same, and not all of our data is completely irreplaceable. I use several categories for our data, and each category has a backup strategy.

Those 3 categories are:
3. Replaceable, Unchanged digital data. This is digitized movies and music in your library. The data that cames from another source and is relatively easy to replace. The CD library from the physical media can be replaced by digitizing that physical media again. A little work, but this is data that may have frequent additions, but doesn’t change. This data doesn’t become part of the frequent backups. IT IS, however, included in having another digital copy stored somewhere safe. Perhaps a very large portable drive that gets a mirrored copy of this data on a monthly basis. Within that month, as long as the physical media is still available, low risk of data loss.

2. Archive, infrequently changed data. This is data that you need to have access to, but not immiedately, and though it may change, does not change frequently. Your tax information. Once your taxes are filed, you may not even look at this data again until the following year. But you would need this data if there was and audit. This category gets backed up, automatically, but infrequently (when the contents are changed or added too). For this category, the first “backup” is a secondary copy, available on other media. Perhaps the main copy is stored on a large external hard drive on your desk, and the other copy is another large external drive on your partners computer or at another family members house.

1. Critical, frequently changed, frequently used data. Thisis the data that is uised everyday, perhaps for your job. The pictures you take of family, vacations, and the things going on in your life. This category is backed up no less than once a day, perhaps more depending on how quickly it grows and is completely automatic.

I have a large NAS at home. Currently 10+ Terabytes (TB). I keep data from all categories on the NAS, which I can access from any of our devices, anytime, anywhere. Just like cloud storage from one of the big vendors (AWS, Google, etc.) It should be noted, that using cloud storage is also part of my strategy.

All of my digital movies, music, etc. that were made from physical media is also on a portable external drive. All of these are copied to the external drive when this type of content has grown significantly, which, beyond the initial work to digitize this, isn’t very often. That portable drive is stored in a firebox. This is all Category 3 data

Next, I have another older NAS unit, that is online at a remote location. Category 1 & 2 data is automatically copied/synced to that system. This meets the multiple copy rule (at least 2 copies of every backup), and the off-site rule (at least 1 off-site)

Lastly, I also use cloud storage for the category 1 data. Most of this data is synced to my NAS at home with Dropbox and/or OneDrive. Both also keep versions wehen this data changes. I don’t have to do anything. 3 copies (Primary NAS, Secondary NAS, and cloud storage), in at-least 2 places (on-prem storage AND cloud storage), with at-least 1 off-site (remote NAS AND cloud)

You might have caught the fact that I stated “Most of this data is synced to my NAS’. I have some devices at home, such as Home Assistant, that do automated backups on there own. The main copy of the devices/systems that do that is stored on the local NAS (so it is also synced to the remote NAS), but these stored another copy of those backups, automatically in the cloud using Google Drive, OneDrive, etc.)

All of our portable devices, laptops, phones, tablets, etc. have their data synced to the NAS at home via an app, so everything opn the portable devices is now also backed up. Frankly, I could hand my phone to someone, they reset it erasing all of the data, and when I get a new phone, I will not have lost anything.

Besides the cost of purchasing my NAS units (the older unit I got off ebay for a fraction of the cost of new. The drives are slower disks also, which saves cost. I paid about $100 for a unit that would be over $1000 new.) I don’t spend anything on Google Drive because I stay below the 15GB limit for those configurations, making it free. I do pay monthly for Dropbox for 2TB worth of storage, but my frequently changed data is less than that 2TB. I did spend more on my primary unit, but that is a one time cost.

All in all, I have all my data backed up and in multiple locations that is alomst fully automated, so I am confident that any single failure would be more an inconvenience than anything else.