[RichieP]

What digital systems and hardware do you have on hand to prevent crises such as lost files or lack of access to work files and programs, and other crucial data?

I've been working from my laptop while I travel, and my backup system has been this:

-Occasionally download a backup of all my sites and work files, put them on dropbox and a couple of USB cards I carry with me

I've realised though that for real peace of mind, ideally I'd have in place:

1) Either continuous daily backups, or some sort of "cloud" desktop that syncs daily, where I can access all my work stuff and other crucial data from any computer.

2) A cheap backup laptop / netbook on hand, just incase my laptop gives up, so in an emergency I can pull it out and keep working for a while without having to do work in internet cafes or scramble to fix my laptop.

What about you guys who need to get work done on the road? What are your data safety nets, and do you carry backup hardware (laptop, netbook, etc) with you?

[Beyond Borders]

I just use dropbox. You shouldn't have to ocaissonally download - you can sync it to your computer so the files update every time you connect to the web.

I want to get a cheap backup laptop as well. Very convenient. Just get a small one so it doesn't add much weight and keep savings somewhere, if possible, to get a nice one quickly if the first string laptop breaks.

[RichieP]

Ah nice - yep syncing Dropbox is a great idea.

Yeah I'm looking into netbook options. They dont actually seem that cheap, although there's these dirt-cheap 7" Androids kicking around, which might work in a pinch. Have to look into it more.

[Soma]

I've been using CrashPlan for a couple years and am very happy with it. For about $50/year I have >100GB backup up to their cloud system. Whatever OS you have (Win/Mac/Linux) it continually runs in the background and automatically updates every 15min, you don't have to think about anything. You can access every version of a file you've ever backup up. Highly recommended.