03/16/2022

How to Back Up Your Digital Life

Backups are boring, but they’ll save your bacon

Making backups is boring, but the alternative—losing your data—is the kind of excitement no one wants. I once lost 80 pages of a novel to a bad hard drive. I had no backups. While most of the world is thankful to have been spared those 80 pages, if that hard drive had lived, who knows? I might be sipping a Mai Tai on a Maine beach with Stephen King right now. 

Nowadays I back up my data at least three times, in three physically separate places. I know what you're thinking—wow, he is really bummed about missing out on that mai tai. It may sound excessive, but it costs next to nothing and happens without me lifting a finger, so why not?

If the perfect backup existed, then sure, three would be overkill, but there is no perfect backup. Things go wrong with backups too. You need to hedge your bets. At the very least, you should have two backups, one local and one remote. For most people, this strikes the best balance between safety, cost, and effort.

Please select this link to read the complete article from WIRED.