[SOLVED] Home Network Storage suggestions

[Adrianime]

Hello,

I am hoping to get some suggestions for long-term home network storage.

I currently have a LinkSys WRT1900 AC router with an unused USB 3.0 port and an unused USB/esata port.

This is my general use case:
-Transfer up to 100 GB to this drive every 6 months. This amount is completely variable, but 100 GB is a pretty good estimate for a max.
-Transfer likely to happen on only a few separate occasions. Anywhere from once per 6 months to 24 times per 6 months, likely the former.
-Copy data from drive only as needed. Likely at less than 10% the volume and frequency that data is added to the drive.
-Data will likely never be deleted from this drive.
-NOT interested in cloud storage, or remote access.
-Desiring a solution with maximum lifetime (probably constrained to HDD due to price). Transfer rate is secondary.
-Considering redundancy as Ideally everything transferred to this drive will be available for 60+ years in some form.

In a different thread I saw this drive: https://www.newegg.com/seagate-model-sthp5000400-5tb/p/1Z4-002P-00VD0?Item=1Z4-002P-00VD0 Seems like a good starting point for investigation.

Appreciate the help. Thank you for anybody who has input.

 

[Newtonius]

That drive is fine, just make sure you're able to detect the storage device on your router's webpage.

If you hooked it up directly to your computer though it would probably have dedicated software that could set up reoccurring backups of specified folders.

 

[USAFRet]

USB drive access through the router USB port is iffy.
Some work better than others.

Much better to just connect a USB drive to the PC, rather than through the router.

What type of data is this?
Manual selection and copy, or something a bit more automated?

-Considering redundancy as Ideally everything transferred to this drive will be available for 60+ years in some form.

"60+ years" ?
Details, please. Whatever drive or storage device you use today will NOT be usable in the year 2080.

 

[USAFRet]

I much prefer (and have) a dedicated NAS box for this function.
Qnap or Synology. Details to follow if you wish.

 

[txtechlover]

Synology 918+, love it, and it does a lot more too.

 

[USAFRet]

Synology 918+, love it, and it does a lot more too.

Yup.
I have a Qnap TS-453a. So far, 3 yrs, 24/7 ops.
Quiet, stable, feature rich.

 

[Adrianime]

USB drive access through the router USB port is iffy.
Some work better than others.

Much better to just connect a USB drive to the PC, rather than through the router.

What type of data is this?
Manual selection and copy, or something a bit more automated?



"60+ years" ?
Details, please. Whatever drive or storage device you use today will NOT be usable in the year 2080.

Types of data will be primarily large video files (500MB-1GB), and pictures. A small amount of small docs/files as well.

The transfer process will likely be manual. If I set up any backups or redundancy then that would be automated.

Haha yeah I know the lifespan of drives these days won't support 60 years of use. My point is I never want to lose the data. I expect to need to go through several drives or other technologies in that 60 year timeframe.

 

[Adrianime]

Looked a bit at Synology just now. It seems to be overkill for my needs, especially in terms of price. I am mainly looking for long term storage that isn't cloud.

 

[USAFRet]

"Never want to lose" = Multiple locations.
Basically, 3-2-1.
3 copies, 2 different device types, at least 1 offsite.

My basic situation is:
PC's back up to the NAS every night. Incremental or Differential.
The whole NAS is backed up to another storage set in the house once a week.
All critical data also lives on a drive that is offsite, updates every couple of months.

What is your backup situation at home?

What is your backup situation at home? And if you don't do that, why not? Every single day, I read multiple threads here of "How do I get my stuff back?" or "That drive had 5 years of photos of my kids!!" Be it a dead drive, dropped phone, virus, accidental deletion, formatting the wrong...

forums.tomshardware.com

 

[RolandJS]

Implied in the above excellent posts: disconnect NAS when a backup routine is not active, not in progress. Reduces ransomware possibility. 3-2-1, while not preventing ransomware hitting internet-connected, active-on-the-internet, computers, certainly will give total recovery restores.

 

[Adrianime]

Thanks for the link USAFRet.

When choosing the actual drives that go into the NAS, or the USB backup drive, is there any special consideration that should be made? Or are most drives on the market going to be fine? I like that you unplug the USB drive except for the period where it backs up everything.

 

[USAFRet]

Implied in the above excellent posts: disconnect NAS when a backup routine is not active, not in progress. Reduces ransomware possibility. 3-2-1, while not preventing ransomware hitting internet-connected, active-on-the-internet, computers, certainly will give total recovery restores.

In my above, ransomware from the PC may affect the directly accessible NAS storage.
It cannot affect the second stage backup. That is accessible only through the NAS and a user account that exists on the NAS. Unless the PC based virus can also infect the Linux based NAS OS and touch that second stage data store...that is safe.
The PC and whatever virus can't see it, at all.

And of course, the full offsite is impervious to all except (maybe) a Cat 5 hurricane or WWIII.

 

[USAFRet]

Thanks for the link USAFRet.

When choosing the actual drives that go into the NAS, or the USB backup drive, is there any special consideration that should be made? Or are most drives on the market going to be fine? I like that you unplug the USB drive except for the period where it backs up everything.

My procedures and hardware have changed a little bit since that was written, but...
In the NAS box are 3x 8TB drives of mixed make. Toshiba and Seagate.
In the second stage are 4x 4TB Seagate Ironwolf.
Tertiary is random 2 and 3TB consumer drives, unplugged except when actually writing to it.
50TB total.

Offsite is...some random 4TB something...can't remember the make.

Primary - Qnap TS-453a (4 bay)
Secondary - Qnap TR-004 (4 bay USB, not accessible to PC's)
Tertialry - MediaSonic (4 bay USB, not accessible to PC's)
Offsite - You can't get there