Sharing backup info ChemIT staff have come across which may help others backing up their personal computers.

Hard drives will fail

• https://www.backblaze.com/blog/hard-drive-reliability-update-september-2014/
• Stolen laptop, with your data
• If data is important to you, you must have it in more than

Strategy

1. Establish an automatic method for backups.
   • See below for Cornell-funded services good for doing this.
   • If you have to think about copying files, such as manually copying files to a USB drive when you think of it, "it's not backup".
2. Verify your backups, perhaps with calendar entry reminders to check.
   
   1. Often, with cloud-based sync services such as the Cornell-funded services below, this is easy.

Examples using Cornell-funded services

These are loud-based, sync client-enabled services, similar to Dropbox.com.

NOTE: For students and many others, these services go away when you leave Cornell.

• OneDrive for Business (as of Dec 2015, not ideal for Mac users)
  
  • About:
    • http://www.it.cornell.edu/services/onedrive/
  • Login:
    
    • http://outlook.cornell.edu/
• Box (good for Macs or Windows)
  • About:
    
    • http://www.it.cornell.edu/services/box/
  • Login:
    
    • http://cornell.box.com/

Examples some folks have had experience with

• CrashPlan

Other examples we'd like to hear others have had experience with

• https://www.backblaze.com/best-online-backup-service.html

Other resources

Mac users can especially benefit from this one-page cheat-sheet, or get the entire book:

• http://www.takecontrolbooks.com/backing-up

Guide from a vendor:

• https://www.backblaze.com/data-backup/backup-your-computer.html