As I now have a laptop, I’ve been putting some thought into managing proper backups. While they’re important for any system, laptops are especially at risk due both accidental damage and theft. While there are a number of options, I’ve settled on two.
Firstly, I use CrashPlan for my primary backups. The service is reasonably priced and allows me to upload ‘everything’ from both my laptop and desktop so that in the event of drive failure, I’m set. Now It is worth noting that apparently the CrashPlan drives are not redundant, so should they suffer a drive failure you could lose your files. What this means for me is that I’ll simply keep a local copy as well. It’s a big step up from no backups at all and that’s enough for me. If you’re really paranoid or have especially important data, You’ll want a third backup as well.
Now CrashPlan is pretty good for what it does, but it doesn’t appear to do file syncing. As such, I’m using DropBox to share important files between my systems. This gives me the best of both worlds and I’m fairly comfortable with this setup. It should allow me to survive any drive failures on my end and the price is very reasonable so it’s not a huge expense.
Questions about either service? Feel free to leave a comment and I’ll answer them to the best of my abilities.
Disclaimer: The DropBox link is an affiliate link which will provide me with free space if you use it. I am not otherwise compensated by either company.
