In recent years, a new trend has emerged in the world of preparedness and self sufficiency. Digital Prepping, the practice of gathering and storing digital information, such as e-books, articles, videos, and software, with the intention of having access to this knowledge in case of a disaster or catastrophic event. Proponents of digital prepping argue that having a vast library of digital information can be a valuable resource in times of crisis, providing critical knowledge and skills for survival. Digital preppers, like myself, often use various methods to collect and store their data, including downloading files from the internet, scanning physical books and documents, and using cloud storage services. Some digital preppers also create their own digital archives, using tools like USB drives, external hard drives, and even custom built servers.
As digital prepping has gained popularity, a concerning trend has emerged: data hoarding. Data hoarding refers to the practice of collecting and storing large amounts of digital data without any clear purpose or intention of using it. Unlike digital prepping, which is focused on gathering useful information for preparedness, data hoarding involves accumulating vast amounts of data simply for the sake of having it. Data hoarders often use automated tools to scrape the internet for files, downloading everything from copyrighted materials to sensitive personal data. This has raised serious concerns about copyright infringement, privacy violations, and the potential for malicious use of stolen data. However the need to maintain and collect these files, I feel, are necessary for any future prep scenario. If you are bugging in, you need to find a way to entertain yourself and family for potentially months as well as keep purposeful and useful documents that you can print, share, and save for the future.
Begin with collecting from your local thrift stores. Most common devices like Laptops and Desktop computers that are 10+ years old can be amazing backups for digital media. Currently most of my entertainment comes from a repurposed laptop that runs my emulations, TV for media, local server that connects to my NAS, and several more for backups or other small tasks. These laptops, while missing or damaged screen, chargers, or through just age may not be useful to the seller, are perfect devices for off-grid living. They connect easily to solar generators and have pre-build in backup batteries. With a small Live-USB or local install of your favorite linux distribution, you have the perfect device to run your entire digital network.
Along side the hardware comes the storage. Every device in the thrift store will often have the old hard-drive left in. These can range from 180GB to 1TB of storage based on the age of the machine. You can also buy hard-drives in bulk and place them in a NAS or DAS for RAID systems or isolate each type of media to separate backup hard-rives. Currently I have 6 8TB hard-drives. 2 in a RAID 0 DAS, 2 in a RAID 0 NAS, and 2 I keep isolated from the others with periodic (once every few months) backup. I keep another 1TB portable hard-drive that is a backup of my current system. I have my current system backed up as a bootable USB live environment that I routinely backup (about once a week) and a large number of live USB ISOs. The higher the storage threshold, the larger amount of parity points you will need to work from in case of data corruption or damage.
As mentioned above, the larger amount of storage, the larger your backup parity has to be. When you begin your digital prep journey I would highly recommend backing up your personal documents and maintaining physical copies in a binder. Store that binder in a fireproof safe that is isolated from your main safe or storage.
As mentioned these should be copies both digitally backed up and maintain physical copies that are in a Go-Bag or safe, separate from the original copies.
Inventory is going to be a boring but essential task during SHTF. One of the best reasons to keep an SHTF computer on hand is to keep track of your supplies. There are free inventory management software programs to download for operating systems. Open Office and Libre-Office can offer some spreadsheets for basic inventory management. Whether you are doing an inventory on food, water, bullets or cooking fuel, this is going to be a great for your preps.
Starting off with digital media collecting, I recommend YT-DLP a feature rich and heavily updated online video downloader. Without getting too deep into the Man-pages, you can download Videos, Audio, Edit formats, and Download entire You-Tube Channels from the terminal to save on your computer. I recommend downloading any and every channel you find interesting into universal formats that multiple operating systems can watch. Music into MP3 or your format of choice, and any content that may be removed from the internet.
For website archives I recommend WGET for any personal website or web pages you want to save. Often I will download articles for DIY projects and interesting blogs I want to keep for the future.
This is going to be fairly direct and something that you may see on my site, PDF backups. These are copies of books, offline game / board game scans. I have books that range from the Gutenberg library, Educational Textbooks, Military Publications, Self-help books, and Author collections from authors I enjoy reading. I would also recommend download cookbooks, magazine and manga collections, medical textbooks and emergency guides, etc.
I feel like this is the most published off-grid resource that is often shilled by grifters in an attempt to take your money. You can just as easily create your own Kiwix instance with the Kiwix Program for your Linux Distro or Browser. There is a very extensive library already available so you can begin your archive collection of Wikipedia and wiki like websites. You can also convert your favorite sites to the zim format.
Open Street Maps is an open-source mapping project that is community driven. OSM has many Desktop and Mobile software platforms. You can also directly download the entirety of OBS in its current state and have it readily available for sharing or printing into physical copies.
Listening to radio or having several programs in your digital arsenal outside of analog alternatives is great. This is a small collection of Radio Programs to listen to existing radio stations online.
I would also recommend downloading several Software Defined Radio application and Radio Programming applications in the instance you have (and should have) an analog programmable radio like a Baofeng or alternative. Programs like CHIRP allows you to program your radio off grid. Some additional software for other SDR hardware I would recommend is...
Yes, you will probably have a phone that records and most laptops came with a web cam. You can use this built in web cam as a way to document what is going on around you or to document certain processes. For instance, documenting how to connect all of your solar components together on video is a pretty good way to ensure you do not get electrocuted or fry your equipment. You can also use the webcam as a mirror to see wounds or weight loss. Sometimes having a bigger screen makes things easier. Using your native video program or having one at the ready can be useful for journal entries or daily moment and saving those moments to a shared drive.
Now how are you going to power this off grid set up for your family? Solar of course. Solar is by far the cheapest option in the current state of affairs and readily available in hardware stores and online. Some small back up camping generators can easily power a laptop or cell phone. However for more larger set ups like mine, I would highly recommend something in the range of 2 Day back up solution to 1 Week. Some brands and solar generators I would recommend exploring would be...
You can also look into Wind Turbines like the Ninilady 3000W Horizontal Wind Turbine or the Pikasola 400W Wind Turbine but these are more complex to install and set up for backup energy solutions that the pre-existing solar generators available today. They can be used in tandem with each other however.
In exploring resilient computing, I have developed and learned it is more than owning gizmos and gadgets. It is choosing and setting up devices to last and stay reliable when times get tough. I looked at tough hardware, finding the impressive pieces that withstood years of abuse and neglect. Just a little care in the restoration of these discarded computers can give them a complete 180 in quality of life. Most often they offer long battery lives and easy to find replacement parts.
When it comes to software, there are large amounts of free and open source software that allow you to maintain a varying level of connectivity, entertainment, and security for your SHTF digital prepping backup. Getting the right equipment is a continuous effort to tackle new threats and that being prepared is essential for survival in unpredictable situations.