friedport

Backing up my files

I've just spent the past 48 hours reorganizing my files and backing them up to external SSD drives.

Here's what my setup looks like:

Hot Device / Daily Driver

My hot device is a portable SSD that can easily fit in my pocket. I think of this as my working drive. I take it with me wherever I go and work directly on it.

I use the drive in tandem with Obsidian for daily writing and note taking. The majority of my written files on my drive are written in either markdown or plain text for maximum digital preservation and portability.

Folder Structure

Inside my Hot Device I use have four main folders that help organize my files, these include:

  1. Archive: This is where I keep family memories, old videos, work, photos, and any other random files.

  2. Ongoing: This is my active folder where I keep things like my TBR list, my personal website, shopping lists, notes and anything else that never really ends.

  3. Projects: This folder keeps the projects I'm actively working on. These are usually long-term commitments that require months or even years of work. So it's nice having them easily accessible.

  4. Resources: This is the hub for useful bits of information like study notes, terminal commands I forget, personal documents like resumes, birth certificates, lists of interesting websites and anything else I might want to refer to later.

This folder structure is mirrored directly onto my next drive using rsync.

Cold Storage / Vault

As mentioned above this SSD keeps a 1/1 copy of my first drive. I don't do any work off this and keep it solely as a backup disk at home, while my Hot Device comes with me everyday.

Cloud Storage

I've yet to set this up but now that I have two copies of my files, I need one final place to remotely store my digital belongings.

I don't want to use anything like Google Drive or Dropbox. However, I'm currently considering spending $199 USD to purchase 1TB worth of lifetime storage on pCloud. I will update this section with what I choose later on.

Bonus

I'm also considering buying a 3-5 TB HDD I can leave with my parents as one last backup for optimal digital preservation.

Although I've been on the computer my whole life, this is the first time I'm genuinely taking my digital hygiene seriously. Hence why I'm writing this in the first place to consolidate my thinking.

If you want more technical advice and suggestions I'd recommend you read Derek Sivers blog post, How I backup.