I thought we should start a thread pertaining to back ups so the community can share ideas and policies they have in place.

For my servers: I use SoftRaid - set as mirrors plus I clone the drives nightly with CCC latest version seems to work well for me, Made an auto script in CCC to clone the drives.

I love SoftRAID Software RAID for Mac (http://softraid.com) - it allows me to partition a mirror after the RAID 1 is set, plus you can set the raid software to server, workstation, or digital photograph so it knows which format it should be for the best performance..

So far it saved me from a disaster..as I had a pop up appear saying" your drive will fail within 2 months" - when I reformatted the questionable drive in disk utility it said it was fine..seems soft raid found an issue with the drive before apple's utility.

For my personal computer I use time machine and an external clone - monthly.

I used to use data back up pro - but it kept crashing after updates or OS updates or not even back up.. so I switched CCC.

I've been doing bootable CCC backups, and clones of important drives now for awhile. Typically every week, or when I work on something important. I leave them unplugged on a shelf when not in use.

Even when the HD prices spiked for a bit, they were, to me at least, still traditionally inexpensive (i remember paying $400+ for a 2 gig drive...).

I use Time Machine with a lot of exclusions, for the most part it only covers personal documents, OS and apps. I find it fairly convenient for that.

I use apertures vaults for photos, with three targets. My workflow includes updating the vaults before I close anything, so I'm not overly concerned about loss (and I only delete my current batch of photos off of my memory card when the vaults have been updated.)

For my iTunes library, I typically use rSync, since files I delete from my library I typically don't want saved. I like to keep the backups lean since my library is quite extensive. Time Machine simply bloats like mad (seemingly even if just changing metadata) if I back iTunes there.

I once lost all data and never again.

A 2 TB external HD partitioned 50/50, one for a CCC clone and the other for a Time Machine backup. Backed up daily.

A second 500 GB external for a second Super Duper Clone, stored off-site. Backed up daily.

An 8 GB Flash drive with all my working files for my web site (also on each clone and on Time Machine). Backed up daily and in my pocket.

If when on the road without an internet connection, I am assured of a backup if either CCC or SD corrupt leaving me stranded.

You can never have too much backup.

I once lost all data and never again.

A 2 TB external HD partitioned 50/50, one for a CCC clone and the other for a Time Machine backup. Backed up daily.

A second 500 GB external for a second Super Duper Clone, stored off-site. Backed up daily.

An 8 GB Flash drive with all my working files for my web site (also on each clone and on Time Machine). Backed up daily and in my pocket.

If when on the road without an internet connection, I am assured of a backup if either CCC or SD corrupt leaving me stranded.

You can never have too much backup.

wow, scary and sad helpless feeling it is..
it some what happened to me. I lost about 2 weeks of invoices..
luckily i called a few clients went through my emails and recovered all but 8 entries..
I vowed for it to never happen again.. after that I set up servers in secure offsite racks and I double back up everything.. [ Hosted Filemaker and Hosted emails for me ]

As much as my clients are honest I called all of the 8 invoiced clients [ I could find record of ] up and asked they PDF it back to me.

but SINC you are seriously backing up.. but for those who have not had to pay for recovery or lost files - like you said never have enough..

Time Machine only - been flawless in backing up the Mac. I don't need a bootable clone of my main drive, and I have a very basic second volume (hard drive) that is bootable w/ utilities just in case that I can work from if need be.

Time Machine for our machines...plus iCloud for email/contacts/iCal etc

One SuperDuper clone (nightly) and one SuperDuper clone (weekly). Also another clone that gets made periodically, for on the road with my MBP. At the moment, my new MBP is a clone of my Mac Pro, or was, until I started working on it a couple of weeks ago. When I return home at the end of the summer, I'll probably clone it back to one of the Mac Pro's internal drives, test things out and then go from there. If all ok, that will be a fairly painless way to move from 10.6 to 10.8 on that 'puter.

At any rate, at any given time, I have no fewer than 3 clones. I keep meaning to do one for off-site storage as well, but haven't gotten to that yet.

I've lost hard drives a few times - but I've always been up and running again in 5 minutes because of the multiple clones. I would never consider working without a backup.

I still haven't used Time Machine - gave it a try once or twice, but my clones seem to do the job just fine for me.

I use Dropbox to sync 1Password and will likely start using iCloud to sync iCal, address book etc.

One SuperDuper clone (nightly) and one SuperDuper clone (weekly).

This is a risky methodology?! When developing, I can easily do a 12+ hour day; if my drive catastrophically failed before my nightly backup, I would lose a whole days work ($1000+?). Unless you don't do enough during the day that you could easily reproduce it (1 hour or less, IMHO), or all your work is stored off drive with a more regular backup, this is a risky scenario...

Interesting discussion. Lots of good suggestions, but seemingly little use of cloud-based backups.

I have a regular CCC schedule to make a bootable clone my drive, but I rely mostly on a combination of Dropbox, Google Drive and Gmail. My working and archived documents and emails are what's most important to me and this strategy ensures that everything is securely backed up and always available to me using any device at any location.

My laptop also acts as a bit of a backup, as it's always in sync with most of what's on my desktop (excluding personal video files).

When my external backup drives started getting full I picked up a NAS (Synology DiskStation 411j). I populated it with 4x 2TB drives in a RAID5 config and plugged it into my Airport Extreme. I use Time Machine on my iMac and MBP to backup to the NAS. You can set TM quotas so it keeps TM "sprawl" in check.

I have also migrated the iMac library to the device. Because it connected through my AE, I also have it activated the personal Cloud features so I can have access to it while I am on the road.

It was a little pricey full up, but it should future-proof me - at least for a while.

Interesting discussion. Lots of good suggestions, but seemingly little use of cloud-based backups.

I have a regular CCC schedule to make a bootable clone my drive, but I rely mostly on a combination of Dropbox, Google Drive and Gmail. My working and archived documents and emails are what's most important to me and this strategy ensures that everything is securely backed up and always available to me using any device at any location.

My laptop also acts as a bit of a backup, as it's always in sync with most of what's on my desktop (excluding personal video files).

technically my hosted filemaker, hosted emails are on the cloud, as I have my server in a rack/colo.. but that said.. Cloud Back ups are great idea but only if you can afford it..[A little costly currently.]
Not to mention, they are suitable if they are your secondary backup not your primary, if anything happens, image trying to recover 8 GBs over cloud.. so for emails and databases etc the cloud is fine - wouldn't use it for primary but a great 2nd or 3rd backup it is viable.

(i remember paying $400+ for a 2 gig drive...).

I'll never forget my very first Hard drive, Micro-Science 20 MB $1100. And yes that is megabytes.

It is my thought that the only way to have a "true" back up is to have it "off site"
I used Mozy for a while until they increased their prices and I am now currently using Crash Plan.
It does take a while to back up your system(especially if it is large), but the fact is that I feel saver knowing that if anything were to happen to my home I could still get all my data back.
I think it is a small price to pay for the comfort.

DeadZone.

TimeMachine to a G-Safe which has two mirrored removable drives. I have a third drive unit that I rotate with the two drives in the G-Safe that is stored in a fireproof safe.

Sadly the plant that was making some of the components for the G-Safe was destroyed in the tsunami and G-Tech hasn't come up with a replacement yet, so the discontinued the G-Safe model.

Somewhat related: I can send an invitation code for a 3-month trial of the Dropbox 100GB Pro account.
Just PM me with your email address.

This isn't a referral program; I don't get anything out of this. Just passing along for anyone considering upgrading to a pro account.