Ronny A. Nilsen

Ronny A. Nilsen

My goal is to create images that portray the nature and landscape as I see it.

Backup

1 minute read

Whetever you know it or not: you need a solid backup strategy for all your data.

TL;DR1

Real men don’t take backups, but they cry a lot.

Problems you need protection from

Hard drive failure

Hard drive reliability

\[ AFR = 1 - e^{(-\frac{1year}{MTTF[h]})} = 1 - e^{(-\frac{8760h}{MTTF[h]})} \approx 0.00872 \]

\[ AFR[\%] = \frac{1year}{MTTF[h]} * 100 = \frac{8760h}{1 * 10^6h} \approx 0.876 \]

File server failure

Your house burning

Yourself

Hacking

Backup Strategies

To protect yourself from the problems above, you need more than one backup plan or strategy. You need a layered and combined strategy that protects you from all the different error mentioned above, if you want to keep all your images for as long as you live.

If you don’t have a good backup strategy implemented, I can promise you that it will end in tears.

RAID 5/6

Snapshots

External drives

Spare parts

Offsite copies

Summary

Here are some general suggestions for a good backup strategy for data at home:

  1. Determine the types of data you need to back up: This might include documents, photos, music, videos, and any other digital files that are important to you.

  2. Choose a backup method: There are several ways to backup your data, including physical backup (external hard drive, USB drive, CDs/DVDs), cloud backup (services like Google Drive, Dropbox, iCloud), or a combination of both.

  3. Schedule regular backups: Depending on how often you update or create new data, you should schedule regular backups — daily, weekly, or monthly.

  4. Store backups in a secure location: Whether you’re using physical or cloud backup, it’s essential to store them in a secure location. Keep physical backups in a safe or a locked cabinet, and use two-factor authentication for cloud backups.

  5. Test your backups: Regularly test your backups to make sure they’re working correctly and you can quickly access your data in case of an emergency.

  6. Use encryption: Protect your data from unauthorized access using encryption as an extra layer of protection.

  7. Make multiple copies: Make at least two copies of your backups in different locations to ensure you always have access to your critical data.

Ronny A. Nilsen

  1. TL;DR or TLDR is an acronym that stands for “Too Long Didn’t Read.” While originally the acronym was was an insult to criticize a piece of writing as overly long, tl;dr have now taken on a second meaning as a shorthand for a “summary,” frequently called the tl;dr version of a longer account or article. Like it is used here. ↩

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