If your data is not backed up, it’s not your data.
You don’t need to be a doomsday prepper to care about backups. You just need to care about your work, your memories, and your peace of mind.
This isn’t your grandma’s “drag-and-drop to USB drive” plan. This is a dead-simple, bulletproof system for keeping your digital life safe—without turning into an IT department.
Why Most Backup Plans Suck
Let’s be real. Most people:
- Only back up photos (if that)
- Don’t automate anything
- Have no idea where their data lives
- Find out too late they were never really backed up at all
You? You’re going to do better.
The 3-2-1 Rule (Simplified for Actual Humans)
You need:
- 3 total copies of everything important
- 2 different storage types (local + cloud)
- 1 offsite backup (that lives away from your house)
This rule isn’t trendy. It’s timeless. If one fails, you’ve got two more standing.
What to Back Up
Everything you’d punch a wall over if it disappeared.
Prioritize:
- Personal documents (taxes, IDs, contracts)
- Photos & videos (especially family archives)
- Creative work (music, writing, code, art)
- FLAC/music libraries
- Password manager vaults
- System config files or VM/container backups
Pro tip: Don’t trust your Plex setup without a backup of your playlists and metadata. Been there. It hurts.
Your Backup Stack: ThriveCMD Approved
1. Local Storage (Fast + Cheap)
- Use MergerFS + SnapRAID if you’re already in self-hosting land.
- For Windows/Mac users, external SSDs or RAID-enabled NAS drives work.
Your Goal: Fast recovery. No internet required.
2. Cloud Backup (Offsite + Automated)
- Backblaze Personal – $9/month, unlimited data. Dead simple.
- Google Drive or Dropbox – Good for syncing current docs, not whole archives.
- iCloud – Not a backup. It’s sync with a smile.
Your Goal: Protect against fire, flood, theft, toddler disasters, or your dog “accidentally” unplugging the server.
3. Redundancy Tools (Because Stuff Breaks)
- Rclone – Sync to Google Drive or S3 buckets from the CLI.
- Duplicacy / Restic – Versioned backups with encryption and deduplication.
- Syncthing – Peer-to-peer backups between trusted devices.
The Automation Plan (So You Never Think About It Again)
Daily:
- Auto-backup config files and media library metadata with cron or scheduled tasks.
Weekly:
- Sync active projects to cloud storage.
Monthly:
- Run full parity checks (SnapRAID or your RAID tool of choice).
- Test a random file restore. Make sure it works.
Disaster Scenario Checklist
Ask yourself:
- If your laptop died right now, could you recover within 24 hours?
- If your server caught fire, would you lose family photos?
- If ransomware locked your drives, do you have clean offline versions?
If the answer to any of those is “ugh… maybe?” — fix that today.
Notion Template: Backup Command Center
Track your backup destinations, automation schedules, restore tests, and config notes in one place.
Click to Duplicate – ThriveCMD Backup Tracker Template
Closing Thought
Backups aren’t just for tech nerds—they’re for dads with irreplaceable photos, artists with priceless work, and anyone with a hard drive full of their life.
You don’t need to do it all at once. Just start. One copy. One sync. One step closer to peace of mind.
Next Up:
Article #3 – “Build the Ultimate Retro Gaming Station: Emulators, ROMs, and Vibes”
Because nostalgia hits different when it’s one click away.
Want this formatted into a Notion blog version with embedded media blocks and cloud tools? Or should I keep the momentum and dive right into #3?