I don’t have my backups setup because I need to replace my mobo (not enough sata slots and the others are blocked by my GImongous GTX 470 card in the case.)
Anyway Google Docs is a good EASY AS CAKE way for “ordinary” people to backup their thesis!

@ Luke Maciak:
I typically buy small batches of hard drives from different manufacturers a couple of weeks apart to restock my shop’s supply of spares. It seems to maximize the possibility of not getting too many hard drives from a bad batch from any one manufacturer.

I also prefer software RAID over hardware RAID for one reason: if your RAID controller flames out (and they do), you may not be able to plug its hard drives into a replacement and be able to recover the array. Most of the controllers I have worked with will only let you wipe the drives and build a new array… the ones Compaq used in their high-end servers around 2002-2005 were an exception. Software RAID has the advantage of storing the array configuration on the drives themselves, outside of the file systems, so you can transplant the drives and boot them right up again (or at least access them using a live CD).

My personal backups are handled this way: http://drwho.virtadpt.net/archive/2009/09/04/leave-nothing-to-chance

I also keep a couple of large USB keys, encrypted with TrueCrypt, that hold copies of very important files (insurance stuff, PGP keyrings, password databases, financials, et al) which are kept elsewhere, on the off chance that where I live burns down. Backups are nice, but offsite backups mean that you’ll still have at least some of your data from a point in time if you lose your site entirely.

I’ve been practicing the 3-2-1 backup mantra for a while now:
3 copies of everything
2 different storage media
1 offline location

( http://blog.wisefaq.com/category/3-2-1/ )

It takes a bit of time, but it’s been a long time since I’ve lost data.

Monthly physical backups to external drives (2 drives, different drive each month). Not ideal as a lot of work can get lost in a month.

Dropbox. Yeah I know I shouldn’t trust the cloud, but it’s seamless and works everywhere.

My important files (uni files, GPG keys, .vimrc, etc) are symlinked to an encfs mountpoint, and the encrypted files are saved to a Dropbox folder.

Secondly, I keep a daily backup system to a home NAS using rsync for the Linux machine and the Windows backup tool for the Windows desktop.

Luke Maciak wrote:

Then again the funny property of RAID is that if the drives were installed at the same time they are likely to fail within days of each other.

Clearly, the solution is to buy one of the drives used, to break the cycle :P

@ jambarama:

Very likely. But in that case this is just a case of “dog ate my homework” excuse. You would think that educators have wised up about this sort of thing. Someone stole my laptop ought to be a poor excuse by now.

@ Eric:

Yes. I never said what I was doing was rational. But you are correct – one local copy and one remote copy should be enough for anyone.

@ Kevin Benko:

I’ve been actually testing Mozy which allows you to do remote and local backup simultaneously. It backs up to the remote server and to my local drive. It has been working very well so far.

I have to say that I love RAID though. Not for backup of course but for this:

Monday morning with RAID: “Hey Luke, the server is beeping… Can you look into that at some point today?”

Monday morning without RAID: “OMG! NOTHING IS WORKING! YOU HAVE TO FIX THIS NOW! WHAT THE FUCK DO I PAY YOU FOR! OMG! WE ARE RUINED. FUUUUUUUUU-“

Then again the funny property of RAID is that if the drives were installed at the same time they are likely to fail within days of each other. :P

I am a follower of the Tao of Backups.

My $HOME directory tree is backed up every 4 hours (via rsync) on one drive, and my $HOME directory tree is backed up daily (via rsync) on another drive. With several USB sticks and remote servers to hold backups of important stuff. (I consider my GPG/PGP keyrings to be important stuff).

On thing that bugs the snot out of me is that some people are under the delusion that RAID is a backup scheme.

Sigh….

RAID does not address:

oops, I just accidentally entered “rm -fr $HOME”

A legitimate backup scheme will save my butt, RAID will not.

That is quiet an overkill, one (regular) back-up is fairly safe and two back-ups should be nearly failsafe – as long as they are stored in different locations.

Keep one copy on a (paid) remote server with (managed backup) and one local backup should be really enough

I think it is at least equally likely the guy had been slacking off on his thesis, lying to his advisor regarding his progress, and finally saw the writing on the wall. This was his way out.

I have similar neuroses when writing major papers – I typically have copies on drop box, google docs or gmail, my thumb drive, laptop, desktop, and file server.