(This is a partial copy of today’s  post on GrannyPam )

There is a little buzz over at Geneabloggers, and Geneabloggers on Facebook about data backup day, which is a great idea which Thomas put out there.  Since my data situation may be a little more complicated than most peoples, I though I would outline my backup plan here.  This is a plan for the data on our computers here at home, and does not include our blogs and websites.  That’s a separate plan, which most Geneabloggers wouldn’t need to duplicate.

I actually have two 500 gb fixed drives for backup, one in my desktop, and one in Papa’s old desktop.  (These are not the hard drive that the computers came with, I added second hard drives to both desktops.)  Papa uses his laptop exclusively, but I keep the desktop on, and have it backup our data every day,  It doesn’t slow me down, Papa isn’t here on weekdays so it doesn’t bother him.  I don’t backup my laptop, since it is just a mirror of my desktop genealogy data, I re-write the gene data to my laptop before each library or research trip.  Here is the backup scheme, in case you need advice.

OK,  for our four computers, 2 desktops and 2 laptops here’s the system:

Our data consists of:

1. Papa’s personal files, e-mail files and recent photo files on his laptop
2. A copy of the above on the main drive of his desktop
3. A photo archive (before 2007)  and a copy of (1) above on a backup drive on desktop (we never delete anything on this drive, just add new)
4. Granny’s personal files, e-mail files, genealogy data and scanned family photos on my desktop
5. A sometimes up-to date copy of a portion of the above on my laptop.

So, our backup data is pretty obvious, to a point:

• Papa’s personal, e-mail and recent photos exist on his laptop, the main drive of his desktop and on his backup drive.  The backup plan for this is:
  • Backup  laptop data to desktop C:\ daily
  • Backup desktop data to backup drive daily, this drive contains the old photo archive, in addition to the news ones
  • Backup the  backup drive to the backup drive on Granny’s computer weekly

• Granny’s personal, e-mail, genealogy and family history exist on my desktop.
  • Copy gene data to laptop before a research trip
  • Backup Desktop to backup drive daily
  • Backup the backup drive to the backup drive on Papa’s computer weekly.

I hope all this duplication will keep our data safe, but just in case, I we are going to purchase external backup drives to archive our times on monthly.  There will be two, and one will be kept somewhere besides our home. When a months ends or begins, I will backup both archive files onto the other drive, and trade it out.  So, we will always have a backup within a month of data off site.

Overkill?  Perhaps.  But I never worry about our computer files.

Have a good day, and do back up!