Paperless _ Integrity of Archive

So you go paperless, … but remember in the past, … files would sometimes just get zapped by some sort of aberration. Fortunately I cannot remember when this last happened to me, but how do you know your “paperless” files are still all there? You could be missing one important file and not know it? I monitor the number of files in my paperless archive which is not a perfect solution and doesn’t guarantee I can open those files!

Is there a solution to these questions?

The solution to this is versioned backups - ideally something like Time Machine and Backblaze. Then if a file does go missing or get corrupted you’ll be able to backtrack in time until you find a version that is present or not corrupted.

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Backblaze is great, but be aware that by default a Backblaze account keeps only 30 days of version history. If you want more history, you pay more.

This bit me when I went to look for a file that was over a year old and it was gone from Backblaze. I had not changed my account to “forever” retention.

An alternative strategy is Backblaze’s B2 Cloud Storage service, which is intended for storing files that you rarely need to access.

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Good backups that you test periodically. When my Time Machine drives get full they are labeled with the start and end dates and stored in my fire file. I have backups from over 6 years ago. Very rare that you need documents much older than that.

Some documents I keep in electronic form but have to maintain the physical copy. Examples include wills, birth and marriage certificates, and any government document with a seal.

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