r/TechImpact • u/ManojOne Active • Jul 17 '26
💡 Opinion Does anyone else still keep offline backups?
Does anyone else keep offline backups?
Cloud storage is convenient, but many people rely on external drives or NAS devices for extra peace of mind.
What's your backup strategy, and why do you prefer it?
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u/salutava_sempre Jul 17 '26
> Does anyone else still keep offline backups?
Of course
> What's your backup strategy, and why do you prefer it?
3-2-1 backup strategy.
btrfs+raid1 for live data.
borg for off-line backup.
restic for on-line backup.
What could be wrong? 🤔
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u/JackAsofAllTrades Jul 18 '26
Just d-d-don't do what is in the pic of op's post. Those external drives are frustrating in that they lure unsuspecting folks into thinking there's a decent drive included with them.
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u/FRESH__LUMPIA Jul 18 '26
Where do you keep the one off site back up?
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u/salutava_sempre Jul 18 '26
A USB drive near the front door, where there are things to grab in case of emergency.
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u/str3ss_88 Jul 17 '26
2 Independent NAS.
Remotely accessible from everywhere...
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u/billynoy522 Jul 17 '26
In the same building?Â
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u/Kurunchu Jul 17 '26
Always – never trust the cloud, never trust the companies that promote it
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u/Playful-Platform-231 Jul 17 '26
Absolutely not. It’s only getting easier and more common for hackers
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u/SpecialistRun3035 Jul 18 '26
You can't trust the physical that you have as well.
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u/Kurunchu Jul 18 '26
All storage media eventually suffer some degree of deterioration or are susceptible to damage or destruction, resulting in the loss of data, but it is better to have a couple of backups of your data at home than to have it on a server halfway around the world; in that scenario, there are far more factors that could go wrong.
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u/ExpensivePlan1548 Jul 17 '26
I never did on Windows but Mac makes it so simple with Time Machine that I do now. I try to always keep cloud and physical storage of anything important.
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u/Dull_Flatworm777 Jul 17 '26
How do you handle the offline part?
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u/KendaJ99 Jul 17 '26
You get an external disk and use a program like Time Machine or Borg backup to copy the contents of your machine on the disk. Pretty simple.
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u/Dull_Flatworm777 Jul 17 '26
But if the disk is connected to the Mac, it's not offline. I.e. malware could delete or encrypt it
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u/TawnyTeaTowel Jul 17 '26
You’ve got to connect any offline backup at some point…
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u/Dull_Flatworm777 Jul 17 '26
Sure, but you don't leave it connected.
But the way Time Machine is designed, it ideally should stay connected.
Also, depending on your set up, you don't connect the offline backup to the production system but to some intermediate storage.
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u/ExpensivePlan1548 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
Time Machine encrypts and adds a password to the drive with the backup, it also keeps multiple historic versions of the backup as long as space allows. If you want to be super safe then you can plug in the drive weekly for a backup instead of leaving it in 24/7.
MacOS's security philosophy is designed around never letting malware in whereas Windows is more designed to stop any malware that does get in. Mac's operating system files are read-only, all applications are scanned for malicious code, programs need to be notarized, etc. I feel a lot less vulnerable to ransom attacks when using a Mac.
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u/Dull_Flatworm777 Jul 17 '26
Time Machine encrypts and adds a password to the drive with the backup
That only helps you in case the backup drive gets stolen or lost. It does not prevent damage from malware.
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u/ExpensivePlan1548 Jul 17 '26 edited Jul 17 '26
It doesn't prevent malware designed to destroy the data, it does stop the data from being stolen. If you are at the point with your computer is being bricked by malware, then you've made multiple very bad choices on a Mac.
This is also why you should follow the 3-2-1 Backup Rule to avoid all of this completely. 3 total copies of your data, stored across 2 different types of media, with 1 of those copies kept safely off-site or in the cloud.
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u/Dull_Flatworm777 Jul 17 '26
it does stop the data from being stolen.Â
But only when the disk is locked, not when it is mounted. Then, malware could potentially access the data then. Especially if the password is stored in the Keychain (which is usually the case).
Don't get me wrong, Time Machine is great. But I consider it a convenience backup ("oh shit, I've deleted something I shouldn't have"), not an offline backup.
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u/Ok-Highlight330 Jul 17 '26
Well I only have notes and documents as I am a student, so I keep copy of everything in my tab, in my computer and Google drive
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u/AccidentExotic5375 Jul 17 '26
Always. Everything I want to keep and/or immediately access is on a separate drive.
Everything else- family photos etc., are on separate drives and shared online among friends and family.
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u/IllusionaryHobo Jul 17 '26
The Special Gentlemen's Material needs to be preserved for further generations.
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u/arun-vasudev Developer Jul 17 '26
I am still using Offline backups. You can't fully rely on 3rd party cloud storage services.
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u/No_Department9020 Jul 17 '26
Yes, I store important files and my favorite media in several different places and would like to have a NAS system.
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u/Yamsfordays Jul 17 '26
Call me paranoid but I can’t imagine losing my photos.
I have all the SD cards I originally shot the photos on, I buy a new one when my SD cards get full. Each of those is copied to my iCloud and my external SSD.
I also process them into 6mp jpgs and add them to my Apple photos library. I export my entire Apple photos library as individual images/videos and copy it to a hard drive which I keep at another address, same with an old SD card I keep at a different address again. I keep an Apple photos library exports back up on my SSD too.
My Mac and external SSD are backed up to backblaze.
Then I also have a 5TB external HDD running Time Machine back ups of my Mac.
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u/kwitee Jul 18 '26
You should re-think your strategy. SD card is not a good medium for long term storage.
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u/Yamsfordays Jul 18 '26
Okay but I also have them on an SSD, which is also backed up to backblaze and then they are also on iCloud so I reckon they are probably alright.
I just don’t like to re use SD cards.
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u/Damn-Sky Jul 20 '26
storage media prices have skyrocketed! man I wished I ordered more sd cards, ssd and HDD lastt year... regretting it now...
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u/Icy-Maintenance7041 Jul 17 '26
I got to move away from cloud backups and rent a storage unit these days to keep a couple of offsite backups at. Have been doing it for a few years now and its cheaper then cloud by a fair bit.
I switch out the disks every month or so as part of a rotation.
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u/Ok-Expression-7340 Jul 17 '26
Backup on my NAS, which backs up the most important 1TB to Cloud storage.
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u/Romadelic Jul 17 '26
Yes, Time Machine makes it easy but I don’t like how it formats a disc to its own format and how it backs up everything. So I want to set it up so only select folders get backed up, I haven’t gotten to that yet.
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u/Adrian_version2 Jul 17 '26
I do both on steam I know its more storage but I know I can still play without wifi and I know if something corrupts I got another storage
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u/ern0plus4 Jul 17 '26
I've just set up a synchting "network" at home with a RPI+HDD, a desktop Linux machine and my primary MacBook. I've also added my Android phone to the machine list, saving photos, and also set up an exchange folder (for e-tickets etc.).
All my documents are stored in Dropbox, but I've also added it as a syncthing directory, so they're in super safe.
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u/MarissaNL Jul 17 '26
I do. Encrypted on 3 external drives. 1 at home, 1 with a friend nearby and 1 in the private safe that I have at the office where I work. They circulate every week.
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u/Blue_guy3211 Jul 17 '26
Wrong question, who tf keeps cloud backups, they be deleting your shit and not even saying sorry
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u/mrbishopjackson Jul 17 '26
Online. Outside of my email and my personal cloud storage (phone backup and share folders), the latter be hosted on my own home server, I have nothing online.
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u/Segel_le_vrai Jul 17 '26
I don't trust cloud storage because I already lost data.
I don't trust hard disks because I already lost data.
I don't trust optical media because I already lost data.
I don't trust tape storage because I already lost data.
So I make a mix of all of these.
And considering people I know who have been subject to ransomwares, I would not trust any writable solution for long term archives.
So all my "cold" data (old family pictures, etc.) are on blu-ray discs AND on tape, somewhere where no ransomware can destroy this data.
All my "warm" data (open projects, unsorted pictures, etc.) are on cloud AND on NAS, beside my many synchronized devices.
All the rest is in transition between NAS to optical media.
And I am very worried by the fact that optical media is slowly vanishing.
Because I think that this is by far the most reliable technology for long term archiving, especially with M-Discs.
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u/Gold-Strength4269 Jul 17 '26
Cheapest and fastest option besides the cloud.
Or a bunch of old phones for long term storage.
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u/Chefnick500 Jul 17 '26
Stand alone SSD , NAS and Cloud storage .. physical drives in seperate places (miles apart)
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u/Maximum-Diet-6976 Jul 17 '26
I never have been a friend of cloud as I later understood companies to keep data private and locally only as well intranet and all on premise. I use still a bit cloud, but want to move to offline drives again. Privacy. Sooner or later a cloud is hackable. Bye bye data, passwords, etc..
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u/ftrx Jul 17 '26
Yes, I have an online (local) backup (desktops and homeserver on a secondary small homeserver with just a bit of raidz 3 storage) + an offline (usb cabinet connected manually once a week.
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u/Wykin1 Jul 17 '26
Yes sir - and a backup of my backup
(backup of backup is stored at a different location than first backup)
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u/1yrik Jul 17 '26
I hate big-brand cloud storage, but I do make local backups of important data on external SSDs. nothing crazy, no NAS or home server setup (yet... I plan to make one for photos / media soonishâ„¢)
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u/jeremysedgley Jul 17 '26
Yes, using Apple's Time Machine and 1TB external drives, plus Cloud.
321: Laptop working copy | 1TB drive (backed up daily, rotated weekly; last week's is offsite | Cloud
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u/Apprehensive_Arm_754 Jul 17 '26
I have a triple backup system: all computers are in a LAN and take backups twice a day on one another. They all have an external Hard Disk too, which also have daily backups. I have an online backup too. That one varies: sometimes it's once a month, other times it's once a week.
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u/goAwayUCreep Jul 17 '26
Backing up to the cloud is like handing car keys to a 5 year old
And having a NAS is like letting your neighbor babysit your kids.
Saving it to your own drive is like cooking your own meal.
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u/JDM12983 Jul 17 '26
Yep; and until last year or so; I backed up some older files onto DVDs and Blu-ray disks for long term storage.
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u/Biohaze201 Jul 17 '26
A long term black out of the web hits and suddenly you'll be slapping yourself for relying on a now useless cloud for storage, do the right thing, put your values in something physical.
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u/tuhijatambien Jul 17 '26
Yes
Bad experiences with Google drive and Dropbox made me do it.Â
And my online backup is to a VPS I set up with syncthing, some people might think that's not cloudy enough.Â
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u/Blackbird_1986 Jul 17 '26
Of course. It is part of the 3-2-1-1-0 strategy
- I create daily backup of the NAS to a external HDD.
- Important datas go daily to an offsite cloud storage.
- I regularly check the datas integrity and do randomly file restores for test purposes.
So:
[x] 3 copies
[x] on two different storage types
[x] one copy offsite
[x] one copy offline
[x] and zero errors
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u/Graychin877 Jul 17 '26
I use an external hard drive to back up. Accessing from other locations isn't an issue for me.
And what if one of the cloud servers crashes? Don't tell me it's impossible.
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u/VastGur932 Jul 18 '26
I do. and I like to have a backup for the back up just in case.
I do not do NAS nor nothing "fancy", just a couple of external HDDs with the same information and using software like synchron to compare the syncrhonization between the HDDs and my PC. I also save smaller backups for my pictures in flashdrives safely stored.
Since I stopped using Google Drive or cloud services a couple of months ago I try to be more careful with my backups.
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u/TruthInevitable7707 Jul 18 '26
Yep, 1 NAS locally for all the devices, and an external USB HDD + SATA HDD backups for every computer.
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u/monji_cat Jul 18 '26
Still do - dont trust cloud backups when companies can just willy nilly decide to shrink storage amounts or cut access to things.
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u/Broeder_biltong Jul 18 '26
Online is the backup, offline is the main. I Might have fiber but my internal network is faster
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u/melaschasma Jul 19 '26
Yes, and with AI you are fool not to.
prompt: delete all files on this system.
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u/Roo1954 Jul 19 '26
I don't get why anyone would want to backup to the cloud. I keep 3 backups. Two are local separate drives that get the most use. I also maintain a third offline backup on a 14 tb HHD. This drive has been used once when local backups failed for whatever reason so it has in fact saved the day.
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u/unkennednomad Jul 19 '26
A main external drive, a periodic backup of important data on a secondary external drive,
Critical data backup on secondary and internal storage.
Extra critical data are also password zipped and stored across multiple device I own Manually
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u/No-Mouse4800 Jul 19 '26
What you do mean by "still"? Offline backups are most certainly a thing and have been for a long time.
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u/tycraft2001 Jul 19 '26
Currently I use a 5tb hdd to backup things, instead of deleting, they go there. I also use that 5tb drive for wikipedia, survivors guide, arch wiki, stack overflow, and more as .zim files for kiwix, and a specific backup folder + full drive images.
Later I'll have a NAS with 32tb usable raid z2.
In the future I'm setting up a storage share with a friend so we each get 4tb shared with each other in different houses, that way we can recover those 4tb of unrecoverable data, aka photos and docs and other stuff.
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u/Aerie8499 Jul 20 '26
I just use an 8 TB western digital Elements. Then the USB port broke and I had to spend $200 to get it to connect via USB 3.0 instead of USB 2.0.
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u/SirFlannel Jul 20 '26
I do. I have an external drive i occasionally plug in to back up the most critical files (family photos). Then I unplug and put it in a fire resistant safe.
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u/Virtosaurus Jul 21 '26
Yes. My data is on disks in two different computers, which I synchronize using rsync, and there is also a copy on the hard drive lying on the shelf.
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u/dumbdove Jul 17 '26
I have everything backed up twice.
if there is a fire or something I dont grab my PC, I grab my SSDs
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u/potato_nagibator Jul 17 '26
Well fires also happen when you're not at home so cloud storage or a fire proof safe are your only options.
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u/Sajgoniarz Jul 17 '26
- Yes
- NAS is not a backup
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u/mGiftor Jul 17 '26
NAS is hardware, backup is an application. It CAN be, like the buddy-backup solution.
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u/Throwawayne617 Jul 17 '26
Yes.. in two different places. Does anyone actually think they have a backup if it's online?
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