I don’t know why I didn’t think of this before, but I just decided it was a good idea to keep an extra DJ hard drive in a safe deposit box at my bank. I just went for the first time today to sign the lease for the box and put my newest hard drive in it.
Why Keep Drives In A Safe Deposit Box?
It’s never a bad idea to keep a backup in a secondary location (like a friend’s house, a storage unit, an office, etc) just in case disaster strikes. What if something catastrophic like a flood or fire happens at your home that destroys your computer and your external drives? Or what if someone breaks into your place and steals your laptop and backup drives? We all hope these scenarios never happen to us, but let’s face it: sometimes shit happens. At least now you’ll still have your music and data in another place safe and sound and ready to recover.
A safe deposit box makes an awesome option for a secondary location for one big reason: security. The only person that can access your box is you. Most banks require photo ID to even gain access the deposit box room. Next you’ll need a key that they only issue to you. For an added layer they also keep logs of when you came to access the box. Nothing you can keep at your house will offer you this level of security or peace of mind.
As for a secondary reason, you’re human and you only do things if it’s convenient for you. You most likely have to go to the bank anyway, you might as well take care of your data while you’re there, right?
How Am I Supposed To Keep Regular Backups To This Drive?
Obviously keeping the drive at your bank is going to make it a pain to manage a proper backup schedule. I’m planning to make this a mandatory monthly backup process for myself. If you want to wait longer and are concerned about how long you’ll be in the bank backing up your drive, don’t worry. Most banks let you go off to a separate room when removing the contents of your box. If you’re doing an incremental backup using something like Carbon Copy Cloner then it shouldn’t be a problem for you to wrap up a backup in a few minutes since it’s only going to back up new files to get everything caught up.
If the backup is going to take more time you’ll probably just want to grab the drive and take it home for a couple of hours before returning it back to safety at the bank.
How Much Does This Cost?
The monthly/annual rent for a safety deposit box is going to vary depending on your bank and the dimensions of the box you want to rent. If you’re lucky enough to be a member of a credit union, congrats because they typically have lower rates (my deposit box is $20 year thanks to this). If your bank is expensive just keep in mind that if you have any friends or family members that belong to a credit union they can rent a box and add you to the access list.
Anybody else using a deposit box to store a drive? Or any alternate locations we should be aware of? Let us know in the comments!
