BAckup solutions

[DBissett]

I'm planning a new system and trying to decide between 3 different backup solutions. Any comments/feedback welcome......
1. a pair of WD caviar SE16 drives with RAID mirroring.
2. a WD Raptor as the working drive with a cheap WD drive for backing up on, no RAID.
3. same as 2 except using an external drive case for the backup drive.

The third option is due to the fact that I once had a PSU short out and fry everything in the case. Was a real bummer. Had to get the circuit boards in the harddrives replaced so I could retrieve the data on them. So I'm leary of even having the backup drive in the same box now. Do high quality PSU's (I didn't have one) prevent this?

Dave

 

[Modelworks]

If your doing it for business reasons, I would do option number 3.
You can put the backup then in a location separate from the pc.
I hear of a lot of people that do backups , that they put on the office shelf, and the business catches fire, and so does there backup.

 

[Old Hippie]

I've done option 3 for many years. Quality PSUs are constructed to prevent ancillary damage in case of failure. Doesn't mean it works 100% of the time, but it reduces the chances tremendously.

 

[Tarrant64]

Originally posted by: Modelworks
If your doing it for business reasons, I would do option number 3.
You can put the backup then in a location separate from the pc.
I hear of a lot of people that do backups , that they put on the office shelf, and the business catches fire, and so does there backup.

I hear not so much a lot of that. I have a backup on my desk at work(as well as on the server, the one on my desk is more for personal stuff). I use a little of both option 2 and 3.

I have most of my media on external drives (1x80gb and 1x160gb). This holds everything I've collected over the past couple years. Anime, Movies, Music, TV Shows. In my desktop I have another 160gb, an 80gb, and a 74gb Raptor(OS). So I utilize a bunch of different backup solutions.

However, if I didn't have any of these things, my main rig would be backed up with an external drive(or 2, I always wanted to think of myself as well prepared by having one offsite, such as my parents home or something).

 

[corkyg]

What I use for data would be a 4th option. A RAID 1 array backed up by a single external. If that does not appeal, my choice would be option 3.

 

[Zepper]

RAID 1 (mirroring) is for maximum uptime - it is not a backup plan as both drives can be damaged from some types of failures like PSU, HDD controller or malware. Corky's idea is good if you can afford it - quick recovery (hopefully no down time at all) with mirror along with a true backup that can be moved off site. "Belt and suspenders" solutions always appeal to me.

.bh.