The next step in my backup chain is regular daily backups using Intego Personal Backup. (Disclaimer: I have written documentation for Intego.) I have a backup of my Users folder scheduled for every four hours, and this backup is stored on one of my external hard disks. It’s a set-it-and-forget-it system, like Time Machine, where I don’t even notice the backups.

In a way, it’s a backup to Time Machine, whose hourly backups protect me against immediate data loss, but also provide older files. I only have this backup store four versions, so I’m covered for a day or so.

But those backup methods are nowhere near enough. I use one of my external hard disks for regular clones of my entire startup volume, again using Personal Backup. I run this backup every few days, and I run it manually before any major OS X update. (I don’t want this to run automatically, in case something I installed causes problems, and I only discover the problems after my clone has been overwritten with the new software.) This doesn’t take long, as the backups are incremental—they only copy new or changed files.