sakshale's Journal: Disaster Recovery for Home Systems

Reading about the JournalSpace disaster got me thinking again about various disaster recovery solutions I've used over the years for my home systems. None of them really worked as well as I would have liked. My question is, "What practical disaster recovery options are available for home users?"

For home users, cost is a key factor, but ease of understanding and use by non-computer experts is a must. My 86 year old father, over 1,000 miles away, has put a lot of information into his system. He periodically makes DVD copies of selected files. However, it is too easy to miss some files that you "thought" were previously copied.

I have Apple's Time Machine running on one of my systems. It is a great backup solution (and would have saved JournalSpace if they had used it on their OS X systems), but the files are sitting on an external USB drive next to my iMac and would disappear in a fire along with the computer.

At the risk of side tracking the discussion; at work I was just told by my vendors that my LTO1 tape libraries are too old and are no longer supportable. I suspect my LTO3 library is next to drop off support. With over 40 terabytes of data to backup, I really don't have an acceptable off site storage solution. (The biggest issue here is lack of a "corporate approved" high speed link to a different site.)

Practical Solutions: What are they?