I'd be devastated if I lost all my work, or even a tiny part of it, because of a hard drive dying. And it's sad that hard drives are probably the least reliable component in a computer, and yet they're the one we rely on most.
So I've come to rely on a couple really great tools for my backups, and I sleep a lot easier knowing they're takin' care of business (to quote a fellow Winnipegger). These are:
Dropbox
If you haven't heard of Dropbox, it's the best thing since sliced bread. That's being modest. Dropbox is an automatic online backup and computer synching tool. It's the only online storage service I've seen get it right (and I ran one myself a few years back, I should know). It works on any OS and seamlessly syncs your files behind-the-scenes.Some nice features are change histories, so if you overwrite or delete a file you can get the changes back from Dropbox, and easy synching not just between your own computers, but sharing specific folders with others. I use this all the time to collaborate with people. Just save the file and they'll have it on their end before you've called to let them know.
If you refer a handful of people to Dropbox (see link below), you can get up to 6GB of free storage. 50GB is less than $10/month and goes a long way. Totally worth it.
https://www.getdropbox.com/referrals/NTE0NzMxOQ
(use the link and they'll also give you an extra 250MB of extra space too)
Backblaze
As a pure backup app, Backblaze does a great job. I use it in addition to Dropbox (because I'm paranoid), but if I had to choose one it would be Dropbox all the way.Backblaze is only $5/month for your whole machine, including external drives (even an ipod!). That's a sweet deal. And if you need to restore, you just log into their site and you can get your data in one of 2 ways: Zip file download, or a DVD or USB drive in the mail.
The first option is free, and lets you grab all your files or just the ones you need, but the other option can cost quite a bit since you're paying for shipping and for the physical storage to be sent to you. 100GB+ of data on DVDs will add up since each only holds about 4GB. Download is perfect for most people though.
The one issue I had with Backblaze was that because uploading takes time, it took quite a while for the initial backup to finish, during which time you're not backed up and safe yet. That made me nervous. But you can throttle it and give it more bandwidth to upload while you're away, then lower it again while you're working so it doesn't slow you down noticeably.
And unlike Dropbox, Backblaze doesn't do synching or sharing. Instead it just does backups and tries to do that one thing well. Another disadvantage over Dropbox is there's no change history. If you update a file, it's updated in the backups too. In my mind, Backblaze is best used in tandem with Dropbox for a full double-safe setup.
Check out Backblaze at http://www.backblaze.com/
Time Machine or other local backups
I don't trust local backups. What if there's a fire? Your shit's gone, son. Online backups from places like these use top-notch security, and you can get your data back easily. And you don't need to setup an off-site backup system like some businesses use, which are a pain in the ass believe me.The big complaint I had about Time Machine (being a Mac user) was that it would run whenever it felt like it. You can't control that, except by disabling it entirely, which got annoying to do before and after every recording session. I work at night mostly, which completely conflicted with Time Machine's schedule.
Anyway, this post is longer than I expected, but it's an important topic for artists to consider. These options have worked great for me, and hopefully they help you out too.
