- 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.