# PKM backup strategy Created On: 08-23-2022 21:12 Up:: [[My Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) (MOC)]] Tags:: #note/evergreen🌲 Topics:: [[Second Brain]] Related:: --- Given that this knowledge base/second brain/vault is something that I intend to keep and maintain for years to come, I felt it was appropriate to build a distributed backup strategy to ensure it survives. This page serves a means to document that current strategy. ## Goal A successful backup strategy: * Two+ online backups * An on-prem and always on backup * A local hard disk/USB backup ## Obsidian Sync This is the foundational mechanism for vault syncing. It is a [proprietary service](https://obsidian.md/sync) that is offered by [[Obsidian]] and serves as the backbone to persisting the remote vault across all of my connected devices: work computer, personal desktop, mobile phone, iPad/tablet. It is snappy, applies updates intelligently and I have yet to experience any issues with it. However, as I intend to maintain this for years, I still prefer keeping multiple copies myself. ## Google Drive The local vault on my work computer is stored in my personal Google Drive folder. The vault backup can be found at the following path: `Root > Obsidian Vault's > Mason's Second Brain`. #todo <-- update information While not tested, I anticipate Google Drive is *only* updated when mutations from Obsidian Sync are processed on my work computer (since my Desktop PC is stored in Documents). This is worth testing. This simply won't be possible to do on IOS, at least at this time (apps don't have access to external file services, only iCloud). ## Git/Github Utilizing the [Obsidian Git plugin](https://github.com/denolehov/obsidian-git), a git-based backup lives as a private repo under my Github account: [masonfox/second-brain](https://github.com/masonfox/second-brain). ## Personal Replication As described above, in the ideal form, multiple forms of personalized backups exist, especially locally. This gives me more control than relying on big corporations (that may cease to exist over time) to manage this data. ### NAS, USB, & External HDD Backup While these are technical two separate backup destinations, one on our home network attached storage device and one that is locally attached to my PC, their execution is the same. I have a `vaultbackup.bat` file on my desktop PC (`C:\Users\mason\Desktop\Vault Backup Script`) that has an associated scheduled task that runs several [robocopy](https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/windows-server/administration/windows-commands/robocopy) commands on a set schedule. If this folder and or script is ever lost, a remote version of the script contents can be found in this Github [gist](https://gist.github.com/masonfox/5b53e1cebcb67428c1bb4e890792f6e0). The current backup task schedule is daily at 10:00 AM, 3:30 PM, and 9:30 PM. *Note*, the PC must be turned on during these times for the backups to run.