Best Method of Backup

[Scubacollie]

Hi Guys,

Ive got to the stage now that I need a secure, reliable, and quick method of backing up my files.

I made the switch to digital media around 9 years ago (where does the time go) and as such I have 9 years worth and growing of digital family media consisting of photos and videos.

Due to smartphones, I now find myself taking even more photos and videos of my family/children and I have now reached the stage where I need to sit down and make some plans to ensure the safety of my digital media.

I have around 15 dvds full up with digital photos, and an additional 250gb on my hard drive.

I understand that dvd's/cd's are not a reliable form of storage and can erase over time depending on their storage, at the moment they are kept away from direct sunlight.

I have a seagate external hard drive, however it takes forever to take a copy of my hard drive files each time, what would you recommend as a decent back up system which is reliable, secure, and quick?

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

There are basically two "broad" methods of backing up one's data these days. Those are backs which are stored locally, and backups which are stored on the Internet (i.e., "cloud-based" backups). Each one then branches into various different types of technologies, mechanisms and use cases, but those tend to vary based on what exactly you want to do, as well as factors such as backup time, restore time and cost of the solution, to name a few.

I do not have much experience with cloud-based backup solutions, but I have been interested in backing up my data locally for quite some time, and discussed my solution in an earlier message thread here on Neowin.

Also, I wrote a white paper called Options for Backing Up Your Computer [PDF, 862KB] which gives a broad overview of local backup solutions. It is completely agnostic (e.g., doesn't mention any vendors at all?just the technologies involved). You might find that of interest as well.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

[+BudMan MVC]

"I have a seagate external hard drive, however it takes forever to take a copy of my hard drive files each time"

Confused about this - are you making new copies of everything, or just the new/modified stuff? What do you consider forever, since clearly its not literally that or you would never have a copy completed ;)

Maybe there is something wrong with your external - or your on usb 1?

When it comes to family photos/videos - you should be more concerned with a full DR plan vs just backup. I have my photos/videos on 2 different systems here at house. I then have them in 2 different systems online - one being lower quality used to share the them over the internet, but it does count as a worse case scenario copy.

The other copy is original format 1080p 60fps.

I then also have a copy on optical media here in the house and copy at my sons place - just in case a tornado took my house to OZ, my 2 HDD copies and optical copies would be gone. I personally would not take optical media copy out of your solution.. I am thinking of moving to the new 1000 year disks to remove the concern of bad optical media. http://www.m-disc.com/

The other issue that comes to mind is not just backup of the files but that you can read/play the files no matter what media its on. So you have this .mp4 file encoded with h.264 -- are you going to be able to play that in 20 years? Even if you move the file to current media as it changes? At somepoint I would have to think conversion to newer format is also going to have to happen.

I think of these things as I have my 2 year old grand daughters videos, and wanting to make they will be around for her to show her grand kids.

[+Warwagon MVC]

For me personally, I tend to go a little overboard, but then again I don?t think you can ever have too many backups.

Inside my computer I have 6 hard drives. 1 of which is used for backup. Every night all of my important things get backed up to that hard drive. At the same time I also have a carbonite subscription which I have about 20GB worth of information that gets backed up there.

Then I also bought 2 regular 3.5 3TB hard drives, to backup every drive on my system. I use it in conjunction with a Sata dock. 1 of the 3TB drives stays in my office, while the other drive gets put in a safety deposit box at the bank. Both drives get swapped monthly and both drives are never at my house at the same time.

The Sata dock via esata gives you native Sata speeds, thus making for a much faster backup.

The software I use is syncback SE, it?s configured never to delete from the backup and to update files which are new or that have changed. Thus the very first backup takes the longest, after that, not so much. It's also set the create 7 different versions of my quickbook company file.

[+Warwagon MVC]

Hello,

Also, I wrote a white paper called Options for Backing Up Your Computer [PDF, 862KB] which gives a broad overview of local backup solutions. It is completely agnostic (e.g., doesn't mention any vendors at all?just the technologies involved). You might find that of interest as well.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

Great job on the PDF, I might even give this to some of my customers.

[Arceles]

For me personally, I tend to go a little overboard, but then again I don?t think you can ever have too many backups.

Inside my computer I have 6 hard drives. 1 of which is used for backup. Every night all of my important things get backed up to that hard drive. At the same time I also have a carbonite subscription which I have about 20GB worth of information that gets backed up there.

Then I also bought 2 regular 3.5 3TB hard drives, to backup every drive on my system. I use it in conjunction with a Sata dock. 1 of the 3TB drives stays in my office, while the other drive gets put in a safety deposit box at the bank. Both drives get swapped monthly and both drives are never at my house at the same time.

The Sata dock via esata gives you native Sata speeds, thus making for a much faster backup.

The software I use is syncback SE, it?s configured never to delete from the backup and to update files which are new or that have changed. Thus the very first backup takes the longest, after that, not so much. It's also set the create 7 different versions of my quickbook company file.

That's.... quite overkill don't you think? I mean, swapping HDDs at your bank... if data is replicable, I don't exactly see the point on that...

[+Warwagon MVC]

That's.... quite overkill don't you think? I mean, swapping HDDs at your bank... if data is replicable, I don't exactly see the point on that...

The bank is off site backup. In case disaster strikes and my house burns down or something. The 3TB here at the house is for convenience and the one at the bank is for Disaster Recovery. Some things on those drives are not backed up on carbonite because they VERY large in size.

I only swap the drive at the bank once a month, I don't do it every week.

I also print out all my roboform passwords and keep it in the box as well.

[Arceles]

The bank is off site backup. In case disaster strikes and my house burns down or something. The 3TB here at the house is for convenience and the one at the bank is for Disaster Recovery. Some things on those drives are not backed up on carbonite because they VERY large in size.

I only swap the drive at the bank once a month, I don't do it every week.

I also print out all my roboform passwords and keep it in the box as well.

Pr0n in Bank, what can take so much size in a HDD? pr0n HD only :D (no offense)

[+Warwagon MVC]

Pr0n in Bank, what can take so much size in a HDD? pr0n HD only :D (no offense)

"if data is replicable, I don't exactly see the point on that..."

Hard drives are VERY easy for backing stuff up, so there really should be no reason to loose ANY of your data no mater how replicable it is....and yes, if someone has porn, then why loose it if it's easy to backup?

On a previous thread while a go I was surprised on some of the mindset of some of the members of this form, which was.... more or less

"Hard drives crash, you loose your data, it's a part of life"

[Ambroos]

I just have all my important data on Dropbox, is around 10GB. I trust their (aka Amazon's) backup facilities will do just fine.

All my photos are on a local 1TB disk that gets mirrored to an identical disk every week. Every 6 months I do a full copy of that disk to a third 1TB disk that is stored at my grandparents house :)

[Praetor]

That's.... quite overkill don't you think? I mean, swapping HDDs at your bank... if data is replicable, I don't exactly see the point on that...

that's warwagon we are talking about... :laugh:

now seriously, i'm just as paranoid about backups, after losing a whole disk volume because of a bad partition change. :angry:

@Goretsky: good job on that paper, very well explained and clear. :)

[goretsky Supervisor]

Hello,

Thank you. I really strove to cover all the physical technologies and backup scenarios on that one. I may publish a small update to cover SD Cards and pros and cons of the various file systems for direct access storage.

Regards,

Aryeh Goretsky

Great job on the PDF, I might even give this to some of my customers.