We’ve talked about backup solutions recently, and I got some good opinions on how other people handle such things as off-site storage for their respective companies, but now I want to talk about a slightly different variety of off-site backup storage: the personal kind.

As sad as it really is, my file server here at home has more storage than our main file server at work (1.2TB and 983GB, respectively) [and note that mine is not RAID, while work is RAID5, making up the loss of space there with the same number of drives]. While a good deal of that consists of rips of somewhat easily replaceable stuff (DVDs, software install ISOs, MP3s of CDs, etc.), there is a good bit of original material that wouldn’t be easily (if at all) replaced, should something happen to it (like the house went up in smoke).

Now granted that if the house went up in smoke, the archive of my previous [and much more poorly coded] web projects would probably be one of the last things on my mind. In reality, I would probably be freaking out over where I’d watch my porn that night… Still, at some point after the rich family living in Southern California took me in and let me live in their pool house and bought me everything my heart desired, I would start to miss that archive of previous code, from which I still steal functions and procedures from time-to-time.

So, what do you guys do? Do you do any kind of off-site backups of your personal data? If so, where do you put them? What format of storage? How often is it updated? Let’s remember that I’ve got far tighter budget constraints than our company did (although I whine about spending money less than they do). Also remember that I’m using a residential DSL connection with about 40kb/s of upload capacity, so any kind of internet-based storage would take quite a while to update, depending on the number of changes made on a regular basis.

Some things that I thought about while I was pondering the content of this post, and which may get you thinking in a new direction were:

• CD or DVD-burned copies of vital documents and files
  While this would be the simplest and by far cheapest solution, it does have downsides – such as the rumored CD / DVD lifespan problems of late, a relatively low amount of storage space, and backup speed issues. Still, it’s also the most portable and flexible of the solutions.
• Tape backup
  This is the most expensive and complex solution, but a classic none-the-less. Once upon a time I did have a tape drive (back in ye olden times), but these days they are so expensive (and pretty damn slow) that it doesn’t seem practical for any purposes, much less my home data. Also consider environmental conditions where you’re storing it. At work, our tapes say require a storage temperature between 60 and 90 degrees F. The fireproof box in the garage is probably out during winter nights and summer afternoons.
• Hard drive-based backup
  This would offer the most storage, speed, and ease of backup. Just plug in the drive via USB or Firewire and start a sync script running to duplicate all my precious data. Unfortunately, there can be some pretty strict environmental conditions needed for storage of a hard drive (albeit perhaps less strict than the tapes mentioned above). Since this is our life-safer copy, we don’t want to risk not being able to access half of it because we left it out in the cold one night.

Those should get you started thinking, if you haven’t already got a solution you think I should check out. If you have bright ideas or any further comments on my suggested approaches above, please let me know…