[SOLVED] How are you backing up your stuff?

[darkfa8]

I've got data on iTunes (two iPhone 6), Google Drive, external hard drives, internal hard drives across several PCs, a Macbook, and two SD-card based point-and-shoot cameras.

What are your back-up methods to ensure all of your disparate platform devices are covered in case of a crash or destruction?

I'm entertaining the idea of implementing a home-based NAS with FreeNAS and some how tying that to Google Drive, but I don't know if that's going to be too cumbersome. So, I'm interested to read about whatever options any of your folks have successfully implemented, easy to use and reassuring.

thanks!

 

[RealBeast]

A home NAS box, whether a branded machine or a FreeNAS box if you have the time and inclination, with automatic backups from attached machines/devices along with Cloud backup would be the most reliable and easy to maintain IMO. And you deserve great credit for thinking about backup and implementing it before the disaster happens!

My backup is too over the top to fully describe without getting thrown into a straighjacket but utilizes local NASs and offsite Cloud backup using BackBlaze.

 

[darkfa8]

@RealBeast, thanks! I do have a BackBlaze account that covers my seldom used desktop PC. That PC tends to be my point-and-shoot photo dump.

I also uploaded all those point-and-shoot photos to Google Photos, and sync our phones to Photos too.

But, my laoptop, my wife's laptop, and my mother-in-law's aren't really accounted for.

So, I'll investigate whether or not utilizing an older work freebie Datto 2-bay NAS that I put FreeNAS onto makes sense and see if it can some how also port to BackBlaze.

 

[USAFRet]

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

 

[USAFRet]

And my above linked procedure fully justified itself with a single drive fail.
One of the SSD's, a 960GB Sandisk, died suddenly. Zero warning. Power on, poof.
605GB data on it.

Put in a new drive, click click in Macrium Reflect, the entire 605GB recovered from the nightly backup.

 

[darkfa8]

@USAFRet - My storage needs are likely well below 2TB worth of data across all devices. Would you recommend SSDs or HDDs and in what RAID config?

 

[USAFRet]

@USAFRet - My storage needs are likely well below 2TB worth of data across all devices. Would you recommend SSDs or HDDs and in what RAID config?

A couple of external HDD.
Backups do not need the speed of an SSD.
And no RAID needed or wanted.

Just have an application like Macrium do scheduled Full and Differential/Incremental backups to the drive.
Then, once a week, take your second level out of storage or your offsite location, and copy the whole first level backup drive to that.

So, your data lives on 3 drives.
On your PC
Backup #1
Backup #2 (off site and/or actually unplugged.

 

[darkfa8]

@ USAFRet - I need an automated backup process that only requires manual intervention if there is a hardware or software failure. If I have to remember to manually chance drives, move drives, etc. I will undoubtedly forget. I have too many other priorities going on my my life and despite post-it notes and digital reminders, I still forget stuff.

I want the integrity and redundancy of my file back-ups to reliant on me as little as technologically possible.

Since I posted this I'm already leaning towards a home based NAS that backs up to BkacBlaze. I already have BackBlaze for one of my PCs, so I'm awaiting info from one of their reps on what the costs would be to "upgrade" my account to support NAS backups.

 

[USAFRet]

My QNAP NAS is 100% hands off for the backups.
If desired, it will also do backups to various online cloud spaces.
All on a schedule, all hands off.

SO.
PC to NAS to cloud.
Again, 3 copies.

 

[darkfa8]

thanks!

I think I'm going to invest in a Synology ds218+. I'm very impressed with the depth of support, polish of their GUI and apps for multiple platforms. I realize I'm paying more, but the software ease and support is worth a lot to me since I'm short on time these days.

As much as I'd love to build a FreeNAS, I just don't have the time or patience to set it all up, deal with the myriad of 3rd-party apps and then be full time tech support for my family for whenever there is an issue. We're 3 users with less than 700GB of data we want to share/store and protect. It needs to be as easy as possible.