Backing Up Data

It's almost the first of the month - the time when many bloggers remind us to backup our genealogy data. Normally, I ignore those reminders. I ignore them because I feel like I have a good backup plan.

• I backup my RootsMagic database every time I close it after making any changes. (I change the name to add a character or two to reflect the time.)
• My genealogy files are stored on the hard drive of my computer and synced with Dropbox
• I use Second Copy to copy files (documents, pictures and music) to an external USB drive
• I use Backblaze to backup my files off site

Since I am backing up my files in multiple ways, I usually don't worry about the reminders. That was until this morning. When I sat down to my computer this morning, I had a BackBlaze warning that my files hadn't been backed up since May 22nd. 

So, how did my backup system fail? Two factors caused Backblaze to not be current: the weather and the loss of Internet connectivity.

Many would question how I could blame a Backblaze failure on the weather, but it is related. I try to shutdown my computer and unplug it during thunderstorms. Getting tired of this middle of the night task, I started shutting down my computer at bedtime when severe weather threatened. And we have had a lot of severe weather for the past 10 days. Since I have Backblaze and Second Copy set to run at night, neither was backing up my computer until I left it on last night.

Since we didn't have severe weather last night (thank you Lord), the backups should have run. Second Copy did run and the backup to the USB drive is current. However, Backblaze didn't run.

Backblaze couldn't run last night because our Internet was still down from a cut fiber line. Since the fiber line repair was completed this morning, our Internet is back. Thus, Backblaze should run tonight and everything will be backed up again.

The warning this morning reminded me to PAY ATTENTION to whether my backups complete as expected.