On backups

My brother just asked me about backups for his Mac laptop, so I thought I'd share my 2 cents on the matter with everybody --

You really don't need a backup until something goes wrong. And what could go wrong here in America? =)

Lots of stuff. Here are a few things that can go wrong, from most likely to least likely:

1. You accidentally delete/overwrite a file
2. Your hard disk dies
3. Your computer is stolen (or destroyed)
4. Your house is burglarized or burns down
5. A large bomb destroys half of the city
6. An EMP wipes out all electronics in the region

Don't let your kids play with EMPs in the backyard!

With most of those (all except #1), you lose *all* your data, which includes pictures, emails, iTunes songs, etc. So here are a few solutions, and a list of which problems they address:

Option	Easy?	Rough cost	Time to get back up and running	Problems addressed	What gets lost
Backup cloned hard drive connected to your machine (cloned once a week or so)	so so	$100	up and running in minutes	1 (maybe), 2	Up to a week's worth of stuff
Backup time machine hard drive connected to your machine	very easy	$100	up and running in a couple hours	1, 2	up to an hour's worth of stuff
Backup time machine hard drive stored on the other side of town	very easy	$100	up and running in a couple hours (after you drive across town to get it)	1, 2, 3, 4, 5	whatever you've done since the last time you plugged it in
Online backups	cumbersome?	maybe $20/month?	varies, probably many hours	1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 (all depending on the service)	depends on the particulars of the service
DVD backups	very cumbersome	$1-3 per 4.7 GB disc	likely many *many* hours to get back up	1, 2, 3, 6	whatever you haven't burned to discs

My advice? Go with the backup TM drive stored on the other side of town, and periodically make DVD backups of important files. It's cheap, and covers almost everything that can go wrong.

Hope that helps!