Today, March 31, is World Backup Day. It’s a reminder for all of us to back up our important files. I am backing up my photos, videos, and personal documents as I write this blog, and I try to back up my files on a monthly basis.
My current process is to back up my files onto 2 external hard drives, each of which has 8 TB of storage capacity, which is currently sufficient to store all of my files. However, I recently learned about the “3-2-1 Plan” which is described at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce website and in many other online sources. In summary, you should have:
- 3 copies of your data
- 2 different kinds of media for your backups
- 1 backup copy that is offsite
The idea behind the 3-2-1 Plan is to diversify your backups to avoid having a single point of failure. For example, you could have 3 copies of your data, but if they are all in 1 place and there is a fire, flood, or theft, then that single event could potentially destroy all of your data despite you having backups.
Admittedly my backup approach does involve 3 copies of data (internal SSD and 2 external hard drives) and 2 kinds of media (if you count SSD and hard drives as being “different” kinds of media), but I do to have 1 backup copy that is offsite. For many years I have contemplated bringing 1 of my 2 external hard drives to my parents’ house each time I visit them, but I have never executed on that plan. Maybe it’s time for the to re-think my approach.
How well does your backup plan stack up against the 3-2-1 plan?
No comments:
Post a Comment