My Recommendations for Computer Backups

A friend recently asked me for advice on a straightforward set up for backing up his family laptops.

Here’s my response:

There are a few options, but I don’t have a firm opinion on which is best or most cost-effective.

If you already pay for Dropbox, you can use your existing Dropbox subscription to also perform backups of your data.

Otherwise, you can check out:

Crashplan $10/mo per computer

Backblaze $7/mo per computer

Carbonite $7/mo per computer (if paid annually)

I use Backblaze but only because I was able to create a corporate account and I pay for my dad’s and my in-laws’ accounts (so I don’t get stuck doing data recovery for them). It’s “fine”, and I have no complaints, but I wouldn’t go so far as to say I recommend it over something else.

If I lose data on MY computer, it’s a bit more consequential than family photos, so I also have a local backup to an external hard drive at my office. It runs daily when my laptop is at work, and I use Carbon Copy Cloner for that. If you’re interested in buying a hard drive and keeping local backups, Apple Time Machine is a good way to do it (for free), or Carbon Copy Cloner or Arq Backup.