Goldin++

There’s one thing I’m usually a bit paranoid .. or obsessive about. It is a backup. Whatever I do and whenever I work there’s alaways this little thought running on the back of mind: “Is there a backup? What happens if the disk goes down tomorrow morning?” Over time I have developed some straightforward and simple backup techniques I felt like sharing with you.

I’ll describe what do I backup and how. With so many “datas” surrounding us (cellphone numbers, browser settings, delicious links?) it is easy to miss important things so I hope my list of “what” may give you an idea or two. Of course, your feedback is much appreciated in case something is still missing!

“What”:

• Local data: movies, music, e-books, photos, documents, desktop links
• Online data: Gmail, Google Reader, delicious, Nozbe, WordPress, Zoho, Wiki, Mindomo, Dropbox
• “evgeny-goldin.com”
• Cellphone numbers and calls, in case you record them
• Browser settings and favorites
• Installed applications setting

It may surprise you I backup my online data that is probably backed up by service providers anyway. What for? The reason is I don’t trust them.

I assume anything can go wrong with my Gmail account or my Nozbe notes. It only takes a little effort to export the data and most services provide a convenient “export” option just for that. For that purpose I keep an “Export” folder in Chrome allowing me to run all exports at once.

Can’t be easier!

 

“How”:

There are on-line and off-line backups.

Off-line backups start with external drives, kept off-site.

Remember: no backup is real if data stays in the same building.

A fire or a blown pipe, however surprising, can destroy it all and then it’ll be really painful. I have 2 external drives, 1Tb each and one of them is strictly for off-site backups, kept someplace else.

That’s where all my music, movies, photos and e-books go to. The other 1Tb drive serves mostly the same purpose but as I keep it at home I consider it a “temporal” backup.

For on-line backup anything less than 1Gb goes straight away to Dropbox. Later, I backup my Dropbox folder to the same external drives mentioned above. Mmm .. a backup to backup ?

 

“The Devil is in the details”:

• Zoho, Wiki, Mindomo: When I work with Zoho I export documents as "*.doc" files at the end of the day. Similarly, when I finish editing Wiki articles I save the text markup. Free Mindomo version allows to export mindmaps as "*.png" images.
• Gmail: I used to run Gmail Backup to backup my Gmail account but have recently switched to a Thunderbird installed locally. It is started weekly, 4AM every Saturday and by the morning I surely have it synced with my Gmail account and all messages downloaded to external drive.
• “evgeny-goldin.com”: I use hoster backup service to backup the whole site. In addition, I copy some files manually, when needed.
• Cellphone: To backup cellphone data I use Nokia PC Suite backup + contacts export. It’s important to export the contacts in plain text in addition to standard Nokia backup. This way they can be printed, another way of off-line backup, and I won’t be tied to Nokia when restoring the data.
• Chrome: To backup FireFox settings I used to run MozBackup, an excellent tool! But for Chrome I now use Google Chrome Backup. Chrome’s built-in syncing helps a lot here though I also use Xmarks Bookmarks Sync .. just to feel better, I guess :)
• When I type this post I keep pressing “Save Draft” ever so often! WordPress allows to click “Save Draft” and then “Preview” to run both of them simultaneously, which I do quite a lot on post writing final stages.

 

Now, what did I miss?

 

P.S.
WP 3.0 visual editor isn’t really usable as it destroys some of original HTML formatting, much like Confluence :( Well, I guess I’ll never start using visual editors. Nothing beats good old HTML or wiki markup.