How Many Backups of Your Important Data Do You Have? [MakeUseOf Poll]

Last week we asked you how many operating systems you use regularly. Most MakeUseOf readers answered that they use two operating systems in the average week.

Within the 783 votes, we got this breakdown: 32% used two operating systems; 27% used three operating systems; 13% used four operating systems; 12% used one operating system; 7% use 6-9 operating systems; 7% use five operating systems; and 2% use more than 10 operating systems.

Full results and this week’s poll after the jump.

So, most people reading MakeUseOf use two to three operating systems per week.

This week’s poll question is: How Many Backups of Your Important Data Do You Have?

Think about those files of yours you care most about and tell us how many places you’ve backed them up. Is it across multiple computers in your house? At work? Several USB sticks? Emailed to yourself? On a DVD at a friend’s house? In the cloud?

So, tell us about your backup solution. What mix of cloud/offsite/local backup do you consider safe for your important files? How does that compare to what you actually do? Let us know in the comments!

Angela Alcorn

Ange is an Internet Studies & Journalism graduate who spends way too much time messing with social networks (see AngelaAlcorn.com or @smange).

The comments were closed because the article is more than 180 days old.

If you have any questions related to stuff mentioned in the article or need help with any computer issue, just ask it on MakeUseOf Answers.

Hide 14 Comments

  • Charles Rachor April 4, 2011
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    External hard drive and dropbox

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  • TheGift73 April 4, 2011
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    on 2 external HDD’s and Dropbox.

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  • Max Audet April 4, 2011
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    1 local HD and 1 CrashPlan Central !

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  • Anonymous April 4, 2011
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    I have a local HDD(s) (via PogoPlug) for a complete local backup, plus a full backup to CrashPlan Central for each machine. Additionally, I use the 50G DropBox plan to sync & backup my current working files & dev server (XAMPP).

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  • sefcug April 4, 2011
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    External hard drive monthly full backups. Dropbox, Skydrive, for files currently being worked on, with USB thumb drive also in case of no internet access.

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  • pranav April 4, 2011
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    Very nice poll… I prefer to use 2 OS one is Mac and other is Ubuntu one.

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  • mike April 4, 2011
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    2 External hard drives. One for daily backups of the OS and one weekly backup of 1st hard drive stored in my company for disaster recovery

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  • Lisa April 4, 2011
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    Weekly backup to external drive.
    Crashplan to backup online.
    Dropbox for anything I’m working on at the moment.

    This combination has saved me on more than one occasion!
    Cheers.

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  • Josh Gunderson April 4, 2011
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    BitLocked 2TB eSATA @ RAID1.

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  • Anne April 4, 2011
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    Some files in Dropbox, A-Drive, 2 External Hard Drives (as files and as Acronis backup), SkyDrive, DVD

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  • Xyz April 4, 2011
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    Rebit external hard drive and flash drive

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  • Tina April 4, 2011
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    Several external hard drives with one for weekly backups, Dropbox for non-sensitive work projects, one backup computer with a copy of the most important stuff. Browser tabs, bookmarks, and passwords are synced online.

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  • WILLEMIJNS April 7, 2011
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    2 HD
    2 DVD
    4 clouds upload (low speed / only when i’m surfing…)

    More than 10 backups is stupid….

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  • Acronisfan April 27, 2011
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    only full backups on external drive every month, using Acronis

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