Data Backup - Multiple Scenarios

[edro]

One thing I value more than any is my collection of photographs.
I have about 30gb of digital photos I have taken throughout the years.
I do not get most of them "developed", so my only copy is digital.

My friend's house was burglerized yesterday, and they stole all of his computers.
This has put me in "backup" mode, as he has lost everything.

Anyway, I am trying to come up with the best and most cost effective way to backup my photos, and if size permits, also backup my MP3 collection.

Here are the various "Failure Modes" I have come up with, and the backup methods that work and don't work.

1. Hard drive dies - Your main hard drive crashes hard, without the possibility of recovery.
Safe: Backup copies on internal hard drives, DVD backups, thumbdrive backups, online service, off site media
Gone Forever: Any updated info on the crashed hard drive

2. Catastrophic Failure of Computer - Lets say your house is hit by lightning and your outlets aren't grounded properly, and your power supply is a cheap Chinese version without decent fusing. All hard drives are lost.
Safe: DVD, thumb drives, external hard drives, online service, off site media
Fried: All internal hard drives.

3. Theft - The thief will likely only steal your computers and external hard drives.
Safe: Hidden DVDs, hard drives, thumbdrives, out in open DVDs, online service, off site media
Stolen: External hard drives, internal hard drives

4. Fire - Lets assume the entire house is lost.
Safe: Media is a fire proof safe, online service, off site media
Burnt: Everything else


Can you list other Failure Modes? Actually, this could be fun...
What do you personally do to backup? Does your method take care of all scenarios?

Thanks!

 

[rasczak]

External Drive, then monthly DVD.

 

[sdifox]

multiple layer

external hdd
dvdr
online
extra set of dvdr off site

 

[dartworth]

wow...it would suck to have your computer stolen. So many people have financial and identity info on these...scary indeed

 

[rasczak]

^^ offsite DVD? Where, parents house?

Just curious.

 

[DnetMHZ]

I really don't keep anything important on my computer... It could vaporize tomorrow and I'd lose nothing of value.
The only personal files on there are my mp3s which are on my iPod anyway.

 

[CptCrunch]

I have a 2TB raid 5 storage array I use for backups of all of my systems (yes yes, raid5 is not a backup solution), and then an online backup site, about $6 a month, to house all important data so it is off-site and accessible anywhere. In addition, a few monthly DVDs of important stuff locked in a safe. No external hard drives as those are the first to be stolen (easy to grab)

 

[edro]

If I go with an offsite physical media solution, I will keep them in my desk at work.

 

[kevnich2]

External hard drive in a media fire proof safe & carbonite. I can't really think of any realistic situation where these would both be inaccessible

 

[skace]

combination online service and external HDD.

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: rasczak
^^ offsite DVD? Where, parents house?

Just curious.

Parents, brother. 2 sets. plus one set in my house. Yes, I am paranoid.

 

[Homerboy]

pay for online storage
run a nightly routine backing your /photos directory (incremental change obviously)
that way if there is a catastrophe in your area your pictures will still be backed up in some datacenter in XYZ city.
Fully automated and its a cheap service. I have done this for years (though I have not paid for the service as I have friends in such businesses). This is your only TRUE method of true disaster recovery. Look at it this way; this is how any reputable company does it (though on a larger scale) so it should be good enough for you too.

EDIT: failed to mention, my local PCs backup to my home server nightly too (full image). Those images re on redundant HDDs too. So I do have a local backup in case any of the "workstations" in tho house die.

 

[SoulAssassin]

I do disaster recovery for a living. Offsite is the only safe method. Fire safes might be rated to keep paper from burning but media like cd's and dvd's become damaged at a much lower temperature so don't rely on that. What I used to do is a dumped an external drive at my parent's house and I used Hamachi to create a vpn and then rsync/robocopy new files over on a nightly basis. Hamachi became a PITA to keep up constantly so I've more or less stopped working on that. I still sync everything to a 2nd drive in the house and drop dvd's off at my parents every now and then.

Point is, get it offsite.

edit: I used to have a DLT IV drive hooked up back in the day...I need to get off my butt and grab an old LTO2 autoloader off ebay or something.

 

[GeekDrew]

I have multiple external hard drives. One sits on the floor beside my computer, and I only power it up when I'm copying files to/from it for backup purposes (and I also store some other huge files on it that I need infrequently, and that are not critical enough to be backed up). Another external hard drive is kept off-site. I bring it home periodically (maybe every couple of weeks; more often if something significant is happening), perform a full backup of everything I need, and then take the drive back off-site. Broadband is not accessible in my location, so I can't use online storage technologies.

Also, I use TrueCrypt volumes on the external hard drives, so if those external hard drives are lost or stolen, chances are infinitely slim that any data will be accessible from the device.

Hrmmm. Maybe I should go see about an LTO3 drive...

 

[Scarpozzi]

When I buy or build computers, I get 2 hard drives of equal size. Since most PCs don't have RAID, I configure NTBackup for XP or whatever Vista has to do system backups from one drive to another on a schedule. (once a week usually)

That way, I don't have to worry about it. It will backup only the files you want so you can use the second drive for other things that don't require redundancy. (like large full program installs......games, etc)

 

[Homerboy]

what many of you are failing to realize is that external HDDs and such do not protect you in case of a fire. Sure you can take those offsite every week/month etc, but if there is a fire or similar you're still going to be missing a week/months worth of data. Offsite, online backup is the PROPER way to do backups. It is automated and easy and (arguably) fail proof. You dont have to pay eithrer. Find a buddy that has a PC on 24x7. Install a HDD on his machine (and vice versa if you want to return the favor) Setup a nightly backup routine and both of you are all set.

 

[TallBill]

Originally posted by: Homerboy
what many of you are failing to realize is that external HDDs and such do not protect you in case of a fire. Sure you can take those offsite every week/month etc, but if there is a fire or similar you're still going to be missing a week/months worth of data. Offsite, online backup is the PROPER way to do backups. It is automated and easy and (arguably) fail proof. You dont have to pay eithrer. Find a buddy that has a PC on 24x7. Install a HDD on his machine (and vice versa if you want to return the favor) Setup a nightly backup routine and both of you are all set.

I have an 700 lb fireproof safe which would defeat most criminals and most fires. That being said, I just have an external HD for backups. My biggest loss would be my music, but meh.

 

[sdifox]

Originally posted by: Homerboy
what many of you are failing to realize is that external HDDs and such do not protect you in case of a fire. Sure you can take those offsite every week/month etc, but if there is a fire or similar you're still going to be missing a week/months worth of data. Offsite, online backup is the PROPER way to do backups. It is automated and easy and (arguably) fail proof. You dont have to pay eithrer. Find a buddy that has a PC on 24x7. Install a HDD on his machine (and vice versa if you want to return the favor) Setup a nightly backup routine and both of you are all set.

lol, I doubt you have that much important data. my external hdd with important data goes in a fire retardant safe. 3 copies of the data is burnt on dvd-r (different brand/batch) and 2 are sent off site.

 

[AkumaX]

I do RAID 5 + DVD Backups + Off-site storage for important stuff (I personally use Amazon S3 - $0.10/gb, and its great!)

 

[irishScott]

Weekly backups of critical files (the largest being pictures and home movies) via SSH to a fileserver I set up at my home (I'm in college 2 hours away). I also have a local External HD for all of my personal files in case the internal spontaneously dies.

 

[hanoverphist]

Originally posted by: CptCrunch
I have a 2TB raid 5 storage array I use for backups of all of my systems (yes yes, raid5 is not a backup solution), and then an online backup site, about $6 a month, to house all important data so it is off-site and accessible anywhere. In addition, a few monthly DVDs of important stuff locked in a safe. No external hard drives as those are the first to be stolen (easy to grab)

thats why mine are difficult to reach. i rotate 3 500gb externals daily one stays to get a new backup and the other is with me. the 3rd gets rotated weekly at the owners house. i always have a backup available, and our financials are copied to cd and given to the owner daily.

at my house i have one puter that stores everything i back up. i stream it from there rather than keeping stuff on the systems in my home office, mainly in case of fire or kids messing up a computer. lets just hope i dont get robbed and they get lucky and find where the servers are hidden.

 

[GeekDrew]

Originally posted by: Homerboy
what many of you are failing to realize is that external HDDs and such do not protect you in case of a fire. Sure you can take those offsite every week/month etc, but if there is a fire or similar you're still going to be missing a week/months worth of data. Offsite, online backup is the PROPER way to do backups. It is automated and easy and (arguably) fail proof. You dont have to pay eithrer. Find a buddy that has a PC on 24x7. Install a HDD on his machine (and vice versa if you want to return the favor) Setup a nightly backup routine and both of you are all set.

No, I suspect that most people in this thread do realize that our solutions are not foolproof (and I acknowledge that using my method will always cause me to lose some small amount of data). I find that to be acceptable in my case, though -- I rarely do anything on my home PC that I couldn't re-do fairly quickly. Those pictures that I've taken and etc usually aren't that important to me -- at least the last few days -- the collection as a whole would be. Most of the collection is always backed-up off-site. If I do something important that needs to be backed up immediately, I can burn it to a CD and put it in my car right then, and then take it to work the next day.

Besides, I don't have broadband available... I couldn't back up online even if I wanted to.

 

[0roo0roo]

Originally posted by: rasczak
^^ offsite DVD? Where, parents house?

Just curious.

i dunno, dig a pit in the yard or somethin...

 

[kevnich2]

The fireproof safe I have is a special media safe especially for this strict purpose (Sentry Data fire proof safe). Even has a usb port out the back so you can have it backing up to the USB drive while it's still protected. If there is a fire, the usb connector is designed to melt at a certain temperature which seals the entire safe off from outside heat & humidity. bought it for $180 I think, worth it to me. I also use an online offsite backup thru Carbonite for a 2-fold method.

Also, a lot of the bigger safes are also being extra retrofitted for data/media usage and say on there that it's safe to use for media for either 30 minutes or 1 hour at 2,000 degrees.

 

[Homerboy]

Originally posted by: TallBill

Originally posted by: Homerboy
what many of you are failing to realize is that external HDDs and such do not protect you in case of a fire. Sure you can take those offsite every week/month etc, but if there is a fire or similar you're still going to be missing a week/months worth of data. Offsite, online backup is the PROPER way to do backups. It is automated and easy and (arguably) fail proof. You dont have to pay eithrer. Find a buddy that has a PC on 24x7. Install a HDD on his machine (and vice versa if you want to return the favor) Setup a nightly backup routine and both of you are all set.

I have an 700 lb fireproof safe which would defeat most criminals and most fires. That being said, I just have an external HD for backups. My biggest loss would be my music, but meh.

Please read SoulAssassin's post above. Fireproof safes are rated to keep papers from burning. Not from super high heat that can damage magnetic and optical media