Posted: 9/12/2012 6:34:35 AM EDT
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Ok guys. After reading the SSD thread in GD Here, I have determined that I need to back up my information.
It's been a while since I've done computer stuff so if you guys could push me in the right direction I'd appreciate it. I currently have most of my media on an external 1TB harddrive. I had a large internal harddrive in college that died which had pretty much 6 years worth of music and other stuff on it ~160 gigs of music alone. Other than offsite back up, which I will take recommendations for, what is the best way to do back up at home? Get another large external hard drive and just copy all the files to it? Raid array? If Raid what set up, how to set it up, etc. Anyway to make it so my laptop, desktop, and "media center" all backup? Thanks! |
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RAID is not backup. Fair enough. Can someone spell out what a raid array does? My primative understanding was that it spread information over a few hard drives so if one died not all was lost. That is correct (with some flavors of RAID). The reason though that RAID is not backup is that the two drives have the same data on them and are right next to eachother. So if your house burns down then the RAID array is gone. If you delete a file it is deleted from both drives at the same time. RAID is more about speed and uptime. |
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I vote get THIS then buy a $30 off of $150 coupon on ebay to make it $120.
Then get a program like Acronis True Image. I have full Disk backups of all my PC's from when they were a fresh install of windows plus necessary updates and general programs installed. Then if you wish you can setup Acronis to backup everything else several other different way. It will backup everything on a certain chedule that you setup. I personally just copy and past everything over when it comes to most stuff. I dont have any scheduled task running. Here are some speeds I get with this via USB. Its actually faster then my internal WD black drive! Writing to my SSD from the drive. 
Copying from my SSD to the drive 
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I vote get THIS then buy a $30 off of $150 coupon on ebay to make it $120. Then get a program like Acronis True Image. I have full Disk backups of all my PC's from when they were a fresh install of windows plus necessary updates and general programs installed. Then if you wish you can setup Acronis to backup everything else several other different way. It will backup everything on a certain chedule that you setup. I personally just copy and past everything over when it comes to most stuff. I dont have any scheduled task running. Here are some speeds I get with this via USB. Its actually faster then my internal WD black drive! Writing to my SSD from the drive. http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g165/InfiniteGrim/CopytoSSD.jpg Copying from my SSD to the drive http://i56.photobucket.com/albums/g165/InfiniteGrim/copyto3tb.png Forgot to point out that the neatest thing with this drive, is that you are actually get a USB 3.0 SATA HDD dock. The top part is an enclosure with the HDD in it, the bottom part is a dock, so you can detach the drive and store it somewhere and you can use the dock on both 2.5" and 3.5" internal harddrives! |
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I have several large external HDs that I keep in a constant rotation. Always at least one at home, at work, and in the safe deposit box and I routinely update/exchange them all with my files from all locations. I believe in redundancy. (I'm sure there are easier ways to do it, but that works for me so far...) CAVEAT: I don't keep all of my music/movies/etc. on computer media, so this naturally may not work for some of you big-memory hounds. Also, I just back up my files, not the programs and not the entire HDs. |
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It comes down to how much data are you backing up for me to recommend something. If you aren't backing much up, something like Mozy might be the best way.
If you are backing up a TB or more of data it will get expensive and cumbersome to backup and restore. For instance 125GB is $9.99/month through Mozy. But if you restore, you've got to pull that back down your connection at home. What is your download speed, 1-2mbps probably? A rotation of external drives stored off site at either work or a safety deposit box might be your best bet if you have a large amount of data and are concerned with the restore time. I would use a minimum of two drives in case one fails. |
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lots of different options. check http://www.ar15.com/forums/t_1_124/1364521_best_way_to_sync_multiple_drives_in_windows7_.html for some ideas raid is great, but would either require it built into the motherboard or an add on card, without details of your current computer system it's kind of hard to tell here are some different options 1. mozy (pay for backup) 2. dropbox (what i use, and like it quite a bit, has 8gb or so for free, can sync folders across multiple machines/smartphones/ipads) 3. pogoplug - this plugs into your network and a usb external hard drive. similar to drop box but you plug in your own hard drive and doesn't have monthly costs. i can't speak to internal network speeds, may not be best for media distribution within your home intranet. 4. put a second external hard in one of your machines 5. get some sort of NAS (Network Attached Storage) unit, this can be anything from a dedicated computer to a NAS enclosure from Buffalo or Dlink to a modified Raspberry Pi unit (see http://elinux.org/R-Pi_NAS or http://nasberrypi.org) if you plan to access your media content from a tv, ipad or dvd player one thing to keep in mind is "does your storage device support DLNA"?
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RAID is not backup. Fair enough. Can someone spell out what a raid array does? My primative understanding was that it spread information over a few hard drives so if one died not all was lost. There are different implementations of RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks), but the basic point is to protect against drive failure. RAID 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, and 6 split data between disks using different methods. In the event of a drive failure, the lost data on the failed disk can be rebuilt using the remaining, operational disks. The amount of data that can be recovered depends on the particular RAID configuration. RAID 0 offers no redundancy (and I don't know why it is part of RedundantAID). It is usually used to increase performance. You can also create a single, large logical disk out of multiple, physical disks. The disks do not have to be of the same capacity to use RAID 0. RAID 10 is a set of RAID 0 arrays combined into a RAID 1. RAID 0 + 1 is the same, but flipped: a set of RAID 1 arrays combined into a RAID 0. |
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Quoted: I have several large external HDs that I keep in a constant rotation. Always at least one at home, at work, and in the safe deposit box and I routinely update/exchange them all with my files from all locations. I believe in redundancy. (I'm sure there are easier ways to do it, but that works for me so far...) CAVEAT: I don't keep all of my music/movies/etc. on computer media, so this naturally may not work for some of you big-memory hounds. Also, I just back up my files, not the programs and not the entire HDs. Good plan. Mirror your fresh OS install with all your apps and store it. Use external media to save your files. I am lacking on the redundancy part. |
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I have several large external HDs that I keep in a constant rotation. Always at least one at home, at work, and in the safe deposit box and I routinely update/exchange them all with my files from all locations. I believe in redundancy. (I'm sure there are easier ways to do it, but that works for me so far...) CAVEAT: I don't keep all of my music/movies/etc. on computer media, so this naturally may not work for some of you big-memory hounds. Also, I just back up my files, not the programs and not the entire HDs. Good plan. Mirror your fresh OS install with all your apps and store it. Use external media to save your files. I am lacking on the redundancy part. Here's a dumb question. SSD for my laptop is on the way. I'll need to install windows and all my apps and settings obviously. How would I mirror my fresh OS install onto an external drive so I can have that saved? That would be a good thing to do correct? Laptop is a Toshiba Satellite C655-5229 |
| Something like True Image by Acronis that was discussed earlier would probably do what you are looking for. |
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Backblaze $5/mo.
Have secondary computers back up to the main over the network. |
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RAID is a way to protect from losing a single disk. It also has performance implications, but it's primary intent is to buy you time in the case of a single disk failure in a multiple disk system. There are two simple to explain raid methods. Mirroring is common because it only requires two disks. It's name is a dead ringer, because it actually copies the data written onto one disk, to another. When one fails, you still have the other disk. RAID5 requires 4 disks, and has better performance characteristics. Anyway, RAID is a form of redundancy, but is not a backup. Most people don't need to run RAID. I would suggest you use something like BackBlaze for offsite backups, and a local NAS box for local backups to the network. Then you can mount the network drive locally and do a windows backup to it. Here is an example of one. http://compare.ebay.com/like/261035841114?var=lv<yp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar |
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RAID is a way to protect from losing a single disk. It also has performance implications, but it's primary intent is to buy you time in the case of a single disk failure in a multiple disk system. There are two simple to explain raid methods. Mirroring is common because it only requires two disks. It's name is a dead ringer, because it actually copies the data written onto one disk, to another. When one fails, you still have the other disk. RAID5 requires 4 disks, and has better performance characteristics. Anyway, RAID is a form of redundancy, but is not a backup. Most people don't need to run RAID. I would suggest you use something like BackBlaze for offsite backups, and a local NAS box for local backups to the network. Then you can mount the network drive locally and do a windows backup to it. Here is an example of one. http://compare.ebay.com/like/261035841114?var=lv<yp=AllFixedPriceItemTypes&var=sbar RAID 5 only requires 3 disks. |
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Acronis for onsite. IBackup or Mozy for offsite. And in reality for home users I see no reason to keep external HDDs and use them as a backup. Online / cloud backups are much better for a home user as there is no risk of your drive failing, getting destroyed etc. Part of backing up is moving that backup to another location, and the reason for backing up is if the original location is damaged. What use is tons of external drives in the same house that burns down? |
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Don't mess with RAID, it's too much hassle for what you're trying to do and storage is cheap. How much data are you trying to back up?
For an external drive full of music and movies (i.e. files that don't get changed much), just copy it all to another external drive and store the backup drive somewhere else (friend's house, parents' house, work, etc.). Update it once in a while. Not a big deal as, frankly, you could lose it all and really be no worse off. For your personal data––financial stuff, contacts, photos, etc.––I recommend an online backup service plus an onsite backup to another drive. The backup on the external drive protects against failure of your primary drive (likely the most probable "disaster"). The online backup protects against anything that would take out both local drives (theft, fire, etc.). Honestly, I don't think I'd recommend an online backup service for more than ~200 GB or so as it takes forever to upload and forever to download in the event of a problem. I restored almost 200GB from Mozy a couple years ago––it got the job done, but it was a PITA. I use Crashplan now and backup online and locally. The software lets you choose which files/folders to include or exclude. For example, I don't back up my "movies" folder where I put movies for watching on plane flights or my Downloads folder, but I do back up My Documents and My Pictures, etc. I currently back up 110GB online. Backups all happen automagically. |
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Don't mess with RAID, it's too much hassle for what you're trying to do and storage is cheap. How much data are you trying to back up? For an external drive full of music and movies (i.e. files that don't get changed much), just copy it all to another external drive and store the backup drive somewhere else (friend's house, parents' house, work, etc.). Update it once in a while. Not a big deal as, frankly, you could lose it all and really be no worse off. For your personal data––financial stuff, contacts, photos, etc.––I recommend an online backup service plus an onsite backup to another drive. The backup on the external drive protects against failure of your primary drive (likely the most probable "disaster"). The online backup protects against anything that would take out both local drives (theft, fire, etc.). Honestly, I don't think I'd recommend an online backup service for more than ~200 GB or so as it takes forever to upload and forever to download in the event of a problem. I restored almost 200GB from Mozy a couple years ago––it got the job done, but it was a PITA. I use Crashplan now and backup online and locally. The software lets you choose which files/folders to include or exclude. For example, I don't back up my "movies" folder where I put movies for watching on plane flights or my Downloads folder, but I do back up My Documents and My Pictures, etc. I currently back up 110GB online. Backups all happen automagically. I honestly would avoid online backups, unless you have FIOS or you dont care about your connection being used up. Because whenever it backs up and starts uploading it basically kills your connection if someone else if trying to do something. |
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Quoted: I honestly would avoid online backups, unless you have FIOS or you dont care about your connection being used up. Because whenever it backs up and starts uploading it basically kills your connection if someone else if trying to do something. You can schedule and throttle it. Mine only uses 800k between 3 am and 6 am. |
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Don't mess with RAID, it's too much hassle for what you're trying to do and storage is cheap. How much data are you trying to back up? For an external drive full of music and movies (i.e. files that don't get changed much), just copy it all to another external drive and store the backup drive somewhere else (friend's house, parents' house, work, etc.). Update it once in a while. Not a big deal as, frankly, you could lose it all and really be no worse off. For your personal data––financial stuff, contacts, photos, etc.––I recommend an online backup service plus an onsite backup to another drive. The backup on the external drive protects against failure of your primary drive (likely the most probable "disaster"). The online backup protects against anything that would take out both local drives (theft, fire, etc.). Honestly, I don't think I'd recommend an online backup service for more than ~200 GB or so as it takes forever to upload and forever to download in the event of a problem. I restored almost 200GB from Mozy a couple years ago––it got the job done, but it was a PITA. I use Crashplan now and backup online and locally. The software lets you choose which files/folders to include or exclude. For example, I don't back up my "movies" folder where I put movies for watching on plane flights or my Downloads folder, but I do back up My Documents and My Pictures, etc. I currently back up 110GB online. Backups all happen automagically. I honestly would avoid online backups, unless you have FIOS or you dont care about your connection being used up. Because whenever it backs up and starts uploading it basically kills your connection if someone else if trying to do something. I do have Fios and since I started school again my Xbox time is non existent. Work all day and school at night. 
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Don't mess with RAID, it's too much hassle for what you're trying to do and storage is cheap. How much data are you trying to back up? For an external drive full of music and movies (i.e. files that don't get changed much), just copy it all to another external drive and store the backup drive somewhere else (friend's house, parents' house, work, etc.). Update it once in a while. Not a big deal as, frankly, you could lose it all and really be no worse off. For your personal data––financial stuff, contacts, photos, etc.––I recommend an online backup service plus an onsite backup to another drive. The backup on the external drive protects against failure of your primary drive (likely the most probable "disaster"). The online backup protects against anything that would take out both local drives (theft, fire, etc.). Honestly, I don't think I'd recommend an online backup service for more than ~200 GB or so as it takes forever to upload and forever to download in the event of a problem. I restored almost 200GB from Mozy a couple years ago––it got the job done, but it was a PITA. I use Crashplan now and backup online and locally. The software lets you choose which files/folders to include or exclude. For example, I don't back up my "movies" folder where I put movies for watching on plane flights or my Downloads folder, but I do back up My Documents and My Pictures, etc. I currently back up 110GB online. Backups all happen automagically. I honestly would avoid online backups, unless you have FIOS or you dont care about your connection being used up. Because whenever it backs up and starts uploading it basically kills your connection if someone else if trying to do something. I do have Fios and since I started school again my Xbox time is non existent. Work all day and school at night. What school? |