Why I don't backup my laptop (at least not the way you think)
A friend asked me today if I use Mac OS X's Time Machine for backing up my MacBook Pro. I don't. For most people, including my wife and other people I work with, Time Machine is ideal. For me, it's not really necessary. Here's why.
All my photography (weddings, portraits, commercial stuff, etc.) is stored on an external hard drive and backed up to my personal Amazon S3 account. If my MBP is blown up, all I lose there are my Aperture previews, which can easily be rebuilt.
All of our BIG Folio projects (website, control panel, templates, NextProof, bighelp, etc.) are stored in Subversion repositories on a server. No risk there.
All of our custom work (custom sites and updates) is stored on a company file server.
All my email is IMAP based (via Gmail and Google Apps). If my MBP is run over by a train, my email is still available online.
So, what's left? My iPhone images (in iPhoto), my iTunes library, and an assortment of non-critical documents. I rsync those to a small, portable hard drive every week. But, even if I didn't, I could survive without those things.
There you have it. If I accidentally took my MacBook Pro in the shower at 7am, I would be back to work on a new one by lunch time.
