I hit on a bit of a work-around using OS X’s incredible Time Machine application today. AgencyND operates off a central server where our job files are stored and backed up. We try not to work locally. Time Machine, as you are probably aware, only archives files on the Macintosh Hard Drive, so while it does a great job backing up my iTunes library and whatever files I have laying around the desktop, it does very little in the way of serving as a quick back up application for my all-important work documents. 

Today it occurred to me that if, instead of packaging InDesign jobs directly to the server, I wrote the package folder to the desktop first and then dragged it into the appropriate folder on the server using the finder, I’d leave behind an exact copy of the Package folder on the desktop for Time Machine to grab and back up. The trick is to only work from the server files, never the desktop files and to make sure to delete the files off the desktop fairly frequently (like every night before leaving the office, for example).

Now I get the best of both worlds: a central, back up server that diligently archives my most valuable files, AND Time Machine which is there to catch me on the rare but devastating occasions when deleted file emergencies develop.