RAID - What is your backup System?

[comp2015]

Hello All,

I recently had a hard drive failure and it made me rethink my backup strategy/approach. Luckily I had the majority of my files backed up but did lose some recent projects.

I currently use an off site syncing setup, one of the issues was I had not run it for a couple days and some of the folders were excluded accidentally from the sync so those are the ones I lost.

In the past people have mentioned RAID systems but I never considered it because I preferred off-site syncing over multiple copies in the same location. But as you can see the off-site sync had room for errors.

So I am now entertaining the RAID system, mostly because I want to clone the programs, bios, registry etc of the entire C: drive, that way If there is a loss, there is no downtime.

Below is my soon to be system, I am curious to see if there are any flaws in it, and what you all do/use to protect your files.

1) 2 hard drives that will be exact Mirrors of each other. I am thinking of using Acronis True Image 2015, to protect all of the installations etc.

2) Then also having a full offsite syncing of all my files via something like dropbox.

I think the above should cover it but would like to hear your thoughts.

I am also interested to hear what your file/backup system is?

 

[Shelleyer]

i used AOMEI Backupper for file and system backup,because of the clean and straightforward interface, the process is extremely easy to follow, at the same time ,this software also have the functon of one-click system and file backup. it is useful to green hand for computer.

 

[mikeymikec]

First of all you should decide what possibilities (for data loss) you're trying to protect yourself against. For examples: Hardware failure, theft, fire, accidental deletion or corruption. Trying to protect your data against every possibility is likely to get very expensive.

IMO you also ought to have a system for noting when you've done certain types of backup as time can fly by.

If you're sync'ing a separate copy of your files to Dropbox, that isn't a bad idea for a type of backup. The problem with automatic sync'ing is what happens when something bad happens to the data at one end, then the other end is likely (or at least possible) to get screwed as well.

Stuff I can just download again yet care about a little is just backed up in one way (ie. one backup set to refer to).
Stuff that I care about more but isn't edited often is backed up in at least two ways.
Stuff that I care about more and is edited often is backed up as many ways as my backup capacity allows.

One other thing I try to do is have more than one backup media type to back up to (e.g. external HDD and optical), to reduce the potential of being totally taken by surprise by a risk I hadn't considered.

 

[Red Squirrel]

For backups I use a drive dock and individual hard drives, typically I use older drives that are still good but that I would not trust in a new deployment. Though I have some newer drives in the mix too. Idealy I should bring some at work to serve as offsite backup, but I constantly forget to do that. The drive dock is connected to my file server via esata and each drive has a pointer to run the right script for that particular drive, so I just pop a drive in, then type a command on the server and it runs the job that is meant for the drive I just put in.

You should always have raid + backups. Raid will generally increase performance, make it easier to organize data (one large volume instead of a bunch of drives) and most importantly, will provide better uptime. I value uptime a lot for a home system, because I don't want to spend time fixing it, I just want it to work. If a drive fails I do not have to do anything other than change the drive and I can resume what I was doing.

If the entire raid fails, or you delete something you did not want to or other such disaster, then that's when the backups come in.


I've been thinking about adding backblaze as an additional backup plan though. 5 bucks a month for unlimited storage, seems too good to be true but that's what they advertise. https://www.backblaze.com/

You can also buy their cases, I kinda want one.... but it's quite a lot of money.

 

[smakme7757]

1. I backup home machines to a networked NAS at home
2. Each Sunday I take a backup of the NAS to an external HDD - I have two which I rotate offsite
3. On Monday I take the External drive with the backup to work. I put the new backup in my drawer and take the old one home.

Everything is automatic except for the Offsite backup. I start that manually. I also have to physically take the external drive from home to work and back again. But I'm going to work anyway .

I like that because a restore will be quite quick due to me using physical media. It's also pretty cheap.

 

[fleshconsumed]

1. I backup my stuff to another computer at home, a fileserver if you will
2. Keep portable hard drive at work as my offsite backup solution for the irreplaceable stuff like photos.

I've been thinking about adding backblaze as an additional backup plan though. 5 bucks a month for unlimited storage, seems too good to be true but that's what they advertise. https://www.backblaze.com/

Would totally do that if I had 1GB symmetrical fiber. Unfortunately in the cable land of 3Mbps upload it would take me eternity to keep my stuff synced to the cloud. I just keep 2.5" 2TB drive at work as my "offsite" backup for most crucial stuff. I usually take that hard drive home every couple of weeks to update. As stupid as it sounds, that's better than trying to sync my data over 3Mbps upload connection.

 

[dave_the_nerd]

I back my computer up to a server (which uses RAID) and back that up to CrashPlan.

 

[BonzaiDuck]

I back up all my client workstations in the house to the household server.

Instead of RAID, my drive pool allows for redundant duplication at the folder and file level as I choose.

At present, I only back up those duplicated folders/files weekly to a hot-swap disk using RichCopy 4.0 -- a GUI for RoboCopy.

The unduplicated material consists mostly of movie DVR captures. And of those, I backup only the unencrypted portion monthly or quarterly.

The server has another hot-swap bay, and I could, if I wanted, leave a drive running in it for daily automated backups of the duplicated folders. I would still have to use the scheduling feature of RC 4.0. If I don't do those backups at the file level, I'd need to image all of those folders for all the disks in the pool.

All of the duplicated client workstation backups are also backed up on a monthly basis.

I could keep off-site copies, perhaps in a safe-deposit box. If the neighborhood is threatened similar to the episode in "Weeds" per Nancy Botwin's house, I'd just grab my hot-swap caddies and run for it. Of course, in my dreams, I'd rather grab Mary Louise Parker -- with or without her stash.

 

[Red Squirrel]

1. I backup my stuff to another computer at home, a fileserver if you will
2. Keep portable hard drive at work as my offsite backup solution for the irreplaceable stuff like photos.



Would totally do that if I had 1GB symmetrical fiber. Unfortunately in the cable land of 3Mbps upload it would take me eternity to keep my stuff synced to the cloud. I just keep 2.5" 2TB drive at work as my "offsite" backup for most crucial stuff. I usually take that hard drive home every couple of weeks to update. As stupid as it sounds, that's better than trying to sync my data over 3Mbps upload connection.

Yeah I would not trust cloud solely anyway and only do it as a supplementary backup, it's good to still do your own offsite backups.

I'm lucky that we got 50/30 fibre here but yeah not everyone has that luxery.