- Site: sive.rs - By: - Date published: 2024-02-27 - Date read: [[2024-03-07]] - [Read Original](https://sive.rs/backup) - [Read on Omnivore](https://omnivore.app/me/how-i-backup-derek-sivers-18dea2377a5) - Tags: #Technology #Backups - Notes: **Note:** Below is the text from the article, with any ==highlights== done by me. None of the writing below is by me. # Article text Some people have asked, so here is how I do my backups. It takes me about **ten seconds per day** and **five minutes per month** to maintain. It works well for me, but I’m always open to suggestions. Just [email me](https://sive.rs/contact) with any ideas or questions. ## every-day documents (\~40 GB) Files I use and change every day: documents, emails, code, diary, ideas, website, accounts, etc. * I have a desktop and a laptop, so I keep this \~40 GB directory cloned with rsync every day or so between them. Whenever I turn on one computer, I sync it from the other. * Daily rsync to an encrypted Linux USB stick attached to the desktop. * Daily rsync to an encrypted MacOS USB stick attached to the laptop. * Daily rsync to an encrypted ZFS SSD inside the desktop. * Daily rsync to OpenBSD remote attached storage at vultr.com as [described at my “Tech Independence” page](https://sive.rs/ti). I’ve written shortcuts for these rsync commands so it’s really as simple as me typing `bkz` or `bkstick` in the terminal as I’m working anyway. I do it a few times a day, especially if I’ve just made or saved something of value. And always right before I shut down the computer, which I do almost any time I step away from it for more than a few minutes. That’s why I say it’s like ten seconds a day, just typing that command occasionally. ## keepsakes (\~3 TB) Rarely-accessed files I want to keep forever: videos and photos of my kid, music and film collection. * Three different external 4TB 2.5" drives, in three different formats: ZFS, OpenBSD, MacOS. * Every month or so, I connect them via USB cable, and rsync everything to each of them, bringing one down to a safe deposit box downtown, and taking out the one that was there from my last visit. * 5TB at [Hetzner Storage Box](https://www.hetzner.com/storage/storage-box), I rsync remotely. * 4TB at [ZFS.rent](https://zfs.rent/), a ZFS encrypted clone. So that’s five copies of my keepsakes in four different locations. Each one also has a recent copy of my every-day documents from above. So a few minutes a month to connect the USB drives, and I only do the safe deposit box when I’m going that way anyway, and only takes a couple minutes.