The 3-2-1 rule is the simplest backup strategy that survives real-world failures: keep three copies of your data, on two different kinds of storage, with one copy off-site.
1. Decide what matters
Make a short list of folders you could not recreate: documents, photos, notes, configuration files. Everything else can be reinstalled.
2. Choose a backup tool
Use a tool that encrypts, deduplicates and can verify its own repository. restic and BorgBackup are both mature, free and well documented.
restic init --repo /mnt/backup-disk/restic
restic -r /mnt/backup-disk/restic backup ~/documents ~/photos ~/notes3. Add a second, off-site copy
Send the same repository to a different location — a storage provider or a machine at a relative's house. The point is that one fire, flood or theft cannot take out every copy.
4. Automate it
# every night at 02:30
30 2 * * * restic -r /mnt/backup-disk/restic backup ~/documents ~/photos ~/notes --quiet5. Verify and restore
restic -r /mnt/backup-disk/restic check
restic -r /mnt/backup-disk/restic restore latest --target /tmp/restore-test --include ~/notes
Daniel RenInfrastructure at Bet on Future
Looks after small servers and writes down everything that broke along the way.
