I am a Linux user, so maybe not so relevant. I back up the home directory and email inbox directory on my laptop, and the home directories of my wife's computer. I also have a development system that I don't back up at all, aside from a Windows virtual machine that I backup occasionally (every six months or so).
Everything else, include an area of disk space called "scratch" is not backed up. When considering where to put stuff when downloading or creating it, I think carefully about whether this data is "temporary", and not to be backed up, or something I still want around in the event of catastrophe, and place it appropriately. I back up my laptop daily via a manually launched script to a portable USD hard drive. I have a second USB hard drive plugged into my TV, and copies of photos/videos go there as well. My wife's computer has an inbuilt secondary harddrive, and backups happen automatically via a schedule (ie crontab entry). Finally, every six months or so, I do a full backup onto another hard drive (I have a bunch of SATA harddrives ripped out of the old tower system when it was decommissioned), and a cheap USB adaptor. These I place under the house in what is hopefully a fireproof chamber. So far so good. I've had a handful of "catastrophes", and not lost data yet. The worst was when my wife's IMap email system got corrupted losing 2 weeks of email. I was able to reciver these byrequesting backup copies from gmail, but it is so painful that I've added a daily backup of her IMap account to my laptop backup script. Cheers On Fri, Dec 19, 2025 at 12:48:51PM -0700, Gillian Densmore wrote: > > Greetings! > I are on windows 11 have have a lot of questions on backing up hard drives > apps > and basically many years of digital hoarding to be significantly cheaper and > more doable than if: > at the moment if I were to make a clone it'd be 2 external USb drives (4 tbs) > and then 2 more internal drives (5 tbs each) > I know I don't care about anywhere near all that. So if ya'all can nicely > brainstorm with me: > 1- > Backingup what's important (if anything) > 2: then also having external electronics for: just temporary storage *jack > sparrow and cheesy movies from Tubi, what ever games I'm actively playing (if > any) etc > > Where do I even start? is this a NAS thing? how do folks back up apps, games, > and the Jack Sparrow specials? (if any) cheesy movies from tubi, and stable > diffusion interests (currently) is decent amount. > > Happy Holidays, and thanks a ton in advance! > > .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. / ... > --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-.. > FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv > Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom > https://bit.ly/virtualfriam > to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com > FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ > archives: 5/2017 thru present > https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ > 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/ -- ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr Russell Standish Phone 0425 253119 (mobile) Principal, High Performance Coders [email protected] http://www.hpcoders.com.au ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- .- .-.. .-.. / ..-. --- --- - . .-. ... / .- .-. . / .-- .-. --- -. --. / ... --- -- . / .- .-. . / ..- ... . ..-. ..- .-.. FRIAM Applied Complexity Group listserv Fridays 9a-12p Friday St. Johns Cafe / Thursdays 9a-12p Zoom https://bit.ly/virtualfriam to (un)subscribe http://redfish.com/mailman/listinfo/friam_redfish.com FRIAM-COMIC http://friam-comic.blogspot.com/ archives: 5/2017 thru present https://redfish.com/pipermail/friam_redfish.com/ 1/2003 thru 6/2021 http://friam.383.s1.nabble.com/
