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Happy International Verify Your Backups Day!
Yes, as every self-respecting Cove Apple Club member knows, today (and every Friday the 13th!) has been officially designated (by yours truly) as International Verify Your Backups Day!
Today is the day we set aside every time a Friday the 13th rolls around to carve out a half-hour and go through the process of making sure our triply-redundant Mac backup system is in place, is working properly, and that we actually know how to use it to recover our data, in case the worst ever happens.
So today, I urge you to verify your backups! And to help, let’s recap the basics of a solid, sensible, easy-to-use backup strategy that will keep your priceless, irreplaceable data, photos, videos, contacts, calendars, and so much else safe and secure from glitches, hardware failures, lightning strikes, fires, theft, loss and whatnot.
In short, you need to follow the 3-2-1 approach for protecting your data:
- You need 3 separate copies of all your personal data, including the original copy on your Mac
- And those three copies need to be stored on at least 2 different types of media
- And one of those copies needs to be off-site, far away from the original copy
What that breaks down to for almost all of us is this:
- The first copy of your data is the original copy, usually stored on the hard disk of your Mac
- The second copy of your Mac’s data should be a local, continuous on-site backup, kept on an external hard disk drive. The best and easiest solution to this part of the strategy for all of us Mac users is Apple’s built-in Time Machine software.
- Finally, for the third, off-site copy of your data, you need to set up, pay for, and maintain a secure, unlimited off-site backup of your data in the “cloud.” For over a decade, we have used and recommend BackBlaze. The New York Times WireCutter says it’s their pick, too — as they have for more than eight years running.
We can go into a lot more detail on all of this, but really, our friends at BackBlaze have done a better job of breaking it all down in this very good article.
With those three legs of your backup stool in place, you're covered against anything, up to and possibly including a zombie apocalype.
But all that preparation won't do you any good if you don't know how to recover your data if you ever need to! So that's why today is a great time to practice your backup and recovery procedures. That's why we call it International Verify Your Backups Day!
We’ve made a quick little guide to how you can verify (test) your backup regimen, and you can download it right here. And to put you in the mood, here’s some swanky backup-verification music to enjoy while you verify!
Please join me in observing this special day! And if you need any help getting your fail-safe backup plan in place, don't hesitate to give a holler -- we're happy to lend a hand!
And once again, Happy IVYBD!
Regards,
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