Dear Sophie..
August 25, 2011 5:56 AM Subscribe
As a father of two little snippers and inspired by a recent advert for Google in which emails are sent to a gmail address detailing a childs life to look back on in future years - how good a way is this to create a multi media archive for posterity? Is it possible to archive entire gmail accounts offline for backup? Concerned that the various external HDs I use to backup will fall apart in the sands of time.
Considering how much a company like Google has to lose if their backups get wiped out, it seems to me that they are probably going to be implementing a much more thorough backup plan than you could feasibly do.
Also, the nice thing about using something like GMail is that local backup is really easy -- just set up a POP/IMAP client. You can do it on multiple machines, and almost every client has built-in sync and recovery features (ie. "check mail every X minutes").
posted by bjrubble at 8:32 AM on August 25, 2011
Also, the nice thing about using something like GMail is that local backup is really easy -- just set up a POP/IMAP client. You can do it on multiple machines, and almost every client has built-in sync and recovery features (ie. "check mail every X minutes").
posted by bjrubble at 8:32 AM on August 25, 2011
Dropbox - anything cloud-y really, because of what bjrubble says. (And if you install that dropbox account on multiple computers you'll have a number of 'offsite' backups as well.)
posted by HopStopDon'tShop at 9:51 AM on August 25, 2011
posted by HopStopDon'tShop at 9:51 AM on August 25, 2011
For GMail, you could use POP to retrieve a copy of the mail to a local client (like Outlook or something) and archive that as well.
In general for Google products you want the Data Liberation Front which is a resource for extracting your Google data, for all sorts of purposes including backup and porting to other services. But it's not like you have to close your Google accounts to do any of that.
Here's some info on GMail specifically
(Realistically Google is more likely to maintain backups properly than you, but I can see wanting a hedge against anything there --- and having your own copy is just another layer of protection)
posted by wildcrdj at 12:58 PM on August 25, 2011
In general for Google products you want the Data Liberation Front which is a resource for extracting your Google data, for all sorts of purposes including backup and porting to other services. But it's not like you have to close your Google accounts to do any of that.
Here's some info on GMail specifically
(Realistically Google is more likely to maintain backups properly than you, but I can see wanting a hedge against anything there --- and having your own copy is just another layer of protection)
posted by wildcrdj at 12:58 PM on August 25, 2011
Yes, use POP (or IMAP) to simply download a copy of your gmail. Make sure you know how to keep *that* copy also backed up as well.
Yes, google will be very careful with gmail data. No, that doesn't mean it's a good backup method*. Back it up yourself.
(*Account gets hacked, all emails deleted - small gmail bug that affects a tiny portion of users, happens to nuke your account - your account doesn't use a *real person's real, full legal name* and your gmail gets deleted without warning - there are other scenarios. But they don't matter. Backup!)
Good luck! If I had a gmail that I emailed, plus a local copy via POP, I'd feel reasonably comfortable.
posted by jumpfroggy at 11:50 PM on August 26, 2011
Yes, google will be very careful with gmail data. No, that doesn't mean it's a good backup method*. Back it up yourself.
(*Account gets hacked, all emails deleted - small gmail bug that affects a tiny portion of users, happens to nuke your account - your account doesn't use a *real person's real, full legal name* and your gmail gets deleted without warning - there are other scenarios. But they don't matter. Backup!)
Good luck! If I had a gmail that I emailed, plus a local copy via POP, I'd feel reasonably comfortable.
posted by jumpfroggy at 11:50 PM on August 26, 2011
This thread is closed to new comments.
I can't answer about Gmail specifically, but if you're wanting to store something for a very long time, you should have a good backup strategy in place.
The best overview of backup that I've read is at http://www.dpbestflow.org/backup/backup-overview. They recommend following the 3-2-1 rule: 3 copies of any important file; on 2 different media types; and at least 1 off site.
posted by Gridlock Joe at 7:00 AM on August 25, 2011