[mironathetin]

Mac: Carbon Copy Cloner and Time Machine on separate usb disks. I use the system scheduler to wake the machine at night, mount the disks, start both backups, unmount and sleep the Macbook again. Rock solid, runs every night since years. Even swapping the harddrive is a matter of 30 minutes to play back the latest ccc clone.

I have to find a similar backup solution now also for my Linux based Thinkpad. I am looking into Mondo rescue, because it promises to create a bootable image on an external drive (just like Carbon Copy cloner). For me, it still fails, but this is Linux. Needs more time and research.

This is a personal backup of one computer only. I have bad experiences with centralised backup solutions. In every case you need to reinstall the operating system at least before you can access the backup. I also forgot my password once, because access to the backup is not frequently needed and well meaning admins constructed crazy pw rules. So even though I had a backup, it was not accessible any more.

[systemtest]

I would suggest always having one of the three disks in a seperate location. Never have the three disks physically close together, not even when swapping them out.

Also, have an offline backup that is not connected to power. Power surge at night and all your data is gone.

[mironathetin]

Well, yes and no. People who take their backup drives away from the computer tend to have - a completely outdated backup. There is no 100% safety. If power fails while the backup is done, well there is still the original disk. How high is the possibility that it crashes in the same moment?

[systemtest]

It talking about a power spike. If lightning strikes you could toast your computer and the connected backup drives. That is why offline storage is important.