Posted: 7/5/2012 2:35:04 PM EDT
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I'm about to revamp my computer and document backup method and need some advice on how I should proceed. Here's how I currently do it:
C: is a 320GB WD Caviar running my operating system and holds all my documents. My wife takes a TON of pictures, so I'm running out of space. Right now I have 60GB free, but I also have a lot of unused applications. E: is an identical hard drive as C: and I use Windows SyncToy to backup all of my documents, pictures, and media to it. It runs everyday. This is basically only done in case of hard drive failure. I use Picasa to automatically resize my pictures and it uploads it to my 20GB of online storage. It only costs $5 per year from Google and has worked great. And finally, all of my important documents are backed up on 2 USB drives and are encrypted with TC. I keep these in locations other than my house. So basically, if my house burns down or lightning hits my computer, I'm not losing any documents or pictures, as long as they've been backed up. Yesterday Newegg had a great deal on a 128GB SSD drive, so I ordered one. The plan is to put a fresh install of W7 Pro and use it for my operating system. What I don't know is if I should keep both of my other hard drives in my computer and keep the same method, or if I should get an enclosure for one of them and use it for backup and keep it offsite. Thanks for the help. |
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If it were me:
1. Smallish SSD for OS. 2. Get a 2 or 4 bay NAS from http://www.synology.com/us/index.php. Back up your OS (incremental) and keep all your files (separate shares for automation but all on same volume use raid 1 at a minimum). 3a. Buy 2 of the most hardcore drives from https://iosafe.com/home. Encrypt them and rotate them out every two weeks to the bank safety deposit box. These are the drives to backup the extremely important files from the NAS to. 3b. Or instead of doing a personal offsite backup, you could roll your own with AWS and S3 http://aws.amazon.com/s3/. 4 . Do both 3a and 3b to have a good layer recoverability. This way your OS is fast, recoverable, and separate from your files. Your files are networked for multiple machines (or over the internet if need be), and backed up to the cloud or the rotating offsite drives. If the house is on fire or floods, the cloud or the rotating drives will have everything. |
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I get $xxx worth of free 'cloud' shit from my employer, so all of my important stuff (music, pictures, docs) all get uploaded there.
At home, they are duplicated across my laptop, my desktop and an external drive connected to my desktop. I use SyncBack to sync folders. It's like synctoy, but more advanced. |
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Quoted:
If it were me: 1. Smallish SSD for OS. 2. Get a 2 or 4 bay NAS from http://www.synology.com/us/index.php. Back up your OS (incremental) and keep all your files (separate shares for automation but all on same volume use raid 1 at a minimum). 3a. Buy 2 of the most hardcore drives from https://iosafe.com/home. Encrypt them and rotate them out every two weeks to the bank safety deposit box. These are the drives to backup the extremely important files from the NAS to. 3b. Or instead of doing a personal offsite backup, you could roll your own with AWS and S3 http://aws.amazon.com/s3/. 4 . Do both 3a and 3b to have a good layer recoverability. This way your OS is fast, recoverable, and separate from your files. Your files are networked for multiple machines (or over the internet if need be), and backed up to the cloud or the rotating offsite drives. If the house is on fire or floods, the cloud or the rotating drives will have everything. This is what I do. 2 bay synology configured for raid 1, AWS S3 bucket for offsite. |
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Quoted:
If it were me: 1. Smallish SSD for OS. 2. Get a 2 or 4 bay NAS from http://www.synology.com/us/index.php. Back up your OS (incremental) and keep all your files (separate shares for automation but all on same volume use raid 1 at a minimum). 3a. Buy 2 of the most hardcore drives from https://iosafe.com/home. Encrypt them and rotate them out every two weeks to the bank safety deposit box. These are the drives to backup the extremely important files from the NAS to. 3b. Or instead of doing a personal offsite backup, you could roll your own with AWS and S3 http://aws.amazon.com/s3/. 4 . Do both 3a and 3b to have a good layer recoverability. This way your OS is fast, recoverable, and separate from your files. Your files are networked for multiple machines (or over the internet if need be), and backed up to the cloud or the rotating offsite drives. If the house is on fire or floods, the cloud or the rotating drives will have everything. The Amazon S3 service looks very interesting. Do you use it? If so, how do you transfer the files? Is there an automated solution? I'd love to keep it encrypted on my end and send an encrypted volume to it automatically every few days. But I doubt that's feasible? |
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Quoted:
Quoted:
If it were me: 1. Smallish SSD for OS. 2. Get a 2 or 4 bay NAS from http://www.synology.com/us/index.php. Back up your OS (incremental) and keep all your files (separate shares for automation but all on same volume use raid 1 at a minimum). 3a. Buy 2 of the most hardcore drives from https://iosafe.com/home. Encrypt them and rotate them out every two weeks to the bank safety deposit box. These are the drives to backup the extremely important files from the NAS to. 3b. Or instead of doing a personal offsite backup, you could roll your own with AWS and S3 http://aws.amazon.com/s3/. 4 . Do both 3a and 3b to have a good layer recoverability. This way your OS is fast, recoverable, and separate from your files. Your files are networked for multiple machines (or over the internet if need be), and backed up to the cloud or the rotating offsite drives. If the house is on fire or floods, the cloud or the rotating drives will have everything. The Amazon S3 service looks very interesting. Do you use it? If so, how do you transfer the files? Is there an automated solution? I'd love to keep it encrypted on my end and send an encrypted volume to it automatically every few days. But I doubt that's feasible? Unless I'm wrong, Carbonite, Mozy and the like all run using S3 as the backbone storage provider. Interestingly enough Netflix also runs off of S3 as well. If you're running windows you can easily transfer to S3 with something like http://s3.codeplex.com/ and a little automation scripting. You can send whatever you want to S3. You can't "browse" the S3 repositories. You can't find the files unless you have the correct path. You can't get in unless you have the right keys. Make sure to check out their cost calculators to see what you would pay. |