mix - only the pros (like you) or the paranoid old-timers like me have the time and dedication to do proper tried-and-tested multiple on and off-site backup like that.
For Windows the best advice I can give to home users is to get a couple of 3TB external drives and put them (well separated) in a steel cabinet with a bit of fiberglass insulation. Preferably in another room (drill a hole in the wall).
Disk 1 is for standard Windows Backups (and System Image) weekly
Disk 2 is for Totally Essential Files (money and whatnot) that need to be copied every day/hour if they have changed. Best to put them in the same TEF Folder (you can still use subfolders) - XXCopy -
XXCOPY, A Versatile File Management Utility --- Boldly Extended Xcopy is free, works very reliably and will verify after copy. Command-line only - RTFM.
Mirrorfolder costs a bit of money -
MirrorFolder: A real-time folder synchronization and backup software - but is rock solid.
Dropbox is another alternative if you have the bandwidth (we don't)
This is
NOT the system that I use but at least it is a good simple start.
(fyi I have a NAS at home and at work that can talk to each other + on and off-site NAS backup drives for both + ReadyNAS Vault + Dropbox)
Don't forget good-old fc
Mac
PS: Despite your scepticism I think bit-rot is as much (and possibly more) a problem than total data loss. I had to retrieve a very old DOS executable from my archives the other day and it was corrupted (as was a backup copy). Eventually repaired with a disk editor after much swearing, but I think that ZFS, with its emphasis on data integrity is the way to go. I know that right now it still needs a bit of fiddling with parameters to get right, but it
is the way to go.)
