Best Way for Simple, Continuous Backup - RAID 1, Crashplan/software, or other?

[Alessandro]

I'm setting up a computer for a friend who was looking to have a continuous backup. I've tried Crashplan in the past and I found it actually a little confusing for the people I set it up for (as the backup is compressed so the original files are not immediately visible) and I'd rather not use up system resources with a continuous backup. I've never done RAID either but hear there can be issues here and there, and also would prefer to not have to get a special mobo as there is a budget.

My friend is getting 2 2-TB hard drives in order to be able to keep all data on a second HD at all times - would you recommend a specific way to have a continuous backup that is easy to use and doesn't use system resources? Thanks!

 

[MustISO]

You could do RAID1 locally (not really a backup but a mirror of the primary drive) and then crashplan for offsite backup. Once the initial backup is done the other backups should be very small unless the data changes a lot and often. Acronis might be another option or something like Macrium Reflect.

 

[mfenn]

RAID is not a backup! RAID instantly replicates all changes, including malicious changes from malware, and just plain old user error to the second disk and therefore fails the first requirement of a backup, which is to be able to "back up" to a prior point in time. The purpose of RAID is to maintain computer availability after a hardware failure.

There is no such thing as a continuous backup (or any backup for that matter) which does not use system resources. They're all applications which must use CPU time, memory, and read from the disk.

I personally think that Crashplan's interface for restores is pretty intuitive. You just open the application, click on the Restore tab, and then browse to whatever file you want to restore. I'm not sure that it gets any simpler than that. Crashplan's default settings can be pretty agressive, but that's because it's trying to keep the backups as current as possible. You can go into the Settings tab and make it less aggressive if you want.

There's other software like Acronis and Macrium Reflect, which are also quite good. But they're not "continuous" per se. You schedule backup jobs to run a given times.

 

[thecoolnessrune]

would you recommend a specific way to have a continuous backup that is easy to use and doesn't use system resources? Thanks!

The two things you're asking for are mutually exclusive to each other. If you are having continuous backup duties being performed, then resources must be taken to maintain new file discovery, file versioning, file transfers, and of course optionally compression / de-duplication.

If you turn off compression and de-duplication, Crashplan is actually very efficient on end clients, and it is actually free to use if you aren't using the Crashplan cloud (instead perhaps just copying files to a local backup).

As for hiding the contents of the files, well that's because they are encrypted. If you are not looking for an encrypted, compressed backup container, it sounds like you are instead looking more for a Synchronization system, as you want a 1:1 backup of an existing location. In such a situation, looking into one of the many available Windows Sync tools (which others probably have more knowledge of than myself) would likely be your best option.

As for RAID, that also isn't backup, but rather availability, so I won't suggest anything there, as it isn't a proper solution for you.

Of what you asked, for local backups, I find few applications as simple to use, yet as powerful as Crashplan. But if you want just bare files, you might be better off just using a sync tool. Without a file versioning system though like Crashplan uses, while you won't use any resources while it's not backup up, you'll use a lot of resources every time the backup job does run.

 

[Essence_of_War]

I'm setting up a computer for a friend who was looking to have a continuous backup. I've tried Crashplan in the past and I found it actually a little confusing for the people I set it up for (as the backup is compressed so the original files are not immediately visible) and I'd rather not use up system resources with a continuous backup. I've never done RAID either but hear there can be issues here and there, and also would prefer to not have to get a special mobo as there is a budget.

My friend is getting 2 2-TB hard drives in order to be able to keep all data on a second HD at all times - would you recommend a specific way to have a continuous backup that is easy to use and doesn't use system resources? Thanks!

1) As others have said, RAID IS NOT BACK-UP.

2) What OS is your friend using?

On gnu/linux they could use rsync with the --delete flag added to their cron tab to run periodically to effectively make a snapshot of their data.

On windows, I would consider the paid version of syncback (there is a free version, but it only has a handful of the full features). I think you can set it to run regularly, so a worst case scenario, they would only lose data accumulated between back-ups.

In some sense, I wouldn't consider either of these options to be a back-up either. Ideally, back-ups should be kept off-line unless they're actually back-ing up. That way things like:
"a wild SATA controller has appeared!"
"Oh noes lightning strikes!"
"POWEEERRRR SURRRRRGE"
Have lower probability of ruining your back-ups.

 

[Alessandro]

Thank you for the clarification on RAID - this is helpful to me! I will keep these suggestions in mind regarding tweaking Crashplan settings.

To answer the question from Essence_of_War: The OS being used will be Windows 8. Perhaps I could just use the included Windows backup software. I will watch out for wild and untamed SATA controllers also I appreciate the other suggestions as well and will consider all of them - thank you all for the input!

 

[evilspoons]

I've had Crashplan for a couple years and I've been very happy with it. The unlimited plan is excellent for people with gobs of data like me, it's quite cost-effective compared to competitors.

RAID is not backup, it's just a hardware failure safety net.