Ok, maybe you’ve seen this before… but that’s ok – maybe this will help…

I often get asked how I keep all of my projects backed up…

They always say, “Your not backed up till you have multiple copies in multiple locations.”

For the past two years I have accumulated more than 3 Terabytes of data from video projects, websites, and graphics I have done for my clients. All of that data has been stored on a local Drobo which lived on my desk connected to my iMac. The Drobo is built to create its own redundancy so that I would never loose data but this solution isn’t enough. If someone broke into my home and stole my equipment or a fire destroyed our home, years of work and all of my client’s data would be lost. I had to come up with a true backup solution because the mere thought of loosing that much work and that much information worried me.

My first idea was to use services like backblaze.com, mossy.com, or carbonite.com – each offer online backup solutions. I tried each of theses services on their unlimited data plans and began the process of sending 3 Terabytes of data to their data centers. I lost my patience when after 2 months of nearly constant backup I had not yet fully backed up my 3 Terabytes of data to their data center. If it took this long to run the initial backup, I knew when I added another 1GB video it would take too long to backup to any of those online services. What if I ever lost my local Drobo? It would take too much time to recover my data from these online backup services as well. Clearly this was not the right solution for me.

What I needed was a way to seed another identical Drobo with everything I currently have, then move that Drobo to another location. The problem was how to access the other Drobo remotely…? I didn’t want to have to purchase another computer or setup some kind of complicated VPN connection. That’s when I discovered the Pogoplug. The Pogoplug is an ingenious device that lets you access and share the contents of your external hard drives through the internet. HOLY SMOKES!

The Solution…

I purchased an additional Drobo (Drobo2) and filled it with 4 1TB hard drives (identical to the Drobo I already had).

Next I connected both Drobos to my local iMac and copied all of the data from my existing Drobo (Drobo1) to my new Drobo (Drobo2) thus giving me 2 Drobos with identical data on each.

I purchased 1 Pogoplug $120

I left Drobo1 connected to my iMac on my home network.

I connected Drobo2 to a Pogoplug at a friend’s house.

I installed the Pogoplug Drive Application http://pogoplug.com/downloads/ on my Mac so that any drives attached to my Pogoplug would show up on my machine as if they were locally mounted hard drives.

I purchased and installed ChronoSync $40 http://www.econtechnologies.com/pages/cs/chrono_overview.html

I setup ChronoSync so that Both target drives (Drobo1 and Drobo2) will be monitored for changes. Any changes detected will be copied to the opposite target drive. Basically, if I change, add, or delete a file on my Drobo1 the same file will be changed, added, or deleted from Drobo2 and vise versa. FYI: ChronoSync is the only application that I could find for Mac that would allow me to use the Pogoplug drives as targets.

I have to brag about the Pogoplug a little here… The Pogoplug not only gives me a way to access my files remotely but it allows me to access those files from any computer in the world using the web interface. Additionally there are sharing features so I can share a file on Drobo2 to anyone in the world via, Twitter, Facebook, direct link, etc…!

The Hardware List:
1x iMac 27″
2x Drobos
1x Pogoplug
1x Licensed Copy of ChronoSync

Backup that I don’t have to worry about PRICELESS!

Sooo… How do you stay backed up?