[SOLVED] How to configure home system for data redundancy & backup

[Gifty74]

I have an aging home-built system from 2011 with an at the time nice i5 2500K processor, 4gb ram, 128gb SSD, etc. It's been a great system and all the speed I really need for what I use it for. I've recently acquired a nice Dell Mobile Workstation M4800 with a newer i7 4900MQ, 256 mSATA SSD, nvidia graphics card, and 32gb of ram. So, I'd like to use this as my main unit, but also would like to have a RAID drive setup, which from what i'm finding is difficult with a laptop. So I guess I'm wondering what the ideal way to set these up would be. Should I keep the laptop as the main unit, and have the old desktop as a data farm? I mainly just want to make sure my 50gb of pictures are backed up and safe. I have a 2TB data drive in the desktop, and was thinking of adding another 2TB and creating a RAID array for redundancy. But, how can I do this with the laptop as the main unit? Should I get an external RAID case and another 2TB drive, or can I use my desktop to perform the same function? How would I connect it to the laptop? Could I make it a NAS? The mb and processor and ram and all of that would just go to waste in the desktop PC, so thought maybe I could use that somehow. Let me know some ideas. Thanks!

 

[Ralston18]

I would forgo a RAID setup - just more to go wrong.

And I would not put much reliance on the old desktop per se. Trying to do too much with it may not end well.

My suggestion would be to use the old desktop as a wired network NAS for convenience.

FreeNAS may work quite nicely with the old desktop.

But I would also have another backup resource such as an external independently powered hard drive that could be USB connected to the laptop .

And, if you so wish, a backup via the cloud may be viable.

You need to have at least two sets of verified backups; i.e., recoverable and readable. One set should be kept off-site.

Very sure that there will be other ideas and suggestions. I have no problem with that.

 

[Gifty74]

Thanks for the reply. So FreeNAS over just basic windows 10 running on the desktop then, to function as a NAS? Also interesting you are not suggesting RAID. I thought it would be ideal to add another 2TB drive for $50, and set up RAID in the desktop. I do have a 2TB external usb 3.0 drive as well, that I've been using for random backups, but want to get on a much regimented plan. I also have a parition on it for mac for TimeMachine for my wife's macbook pro. It looks like FreeNAS would be good to use in a windows/mac environment.

 

[geofelt]

First, If your primary goal is to protect your photos(50gb) buy a couple of 64gb USB sticks and copy your photos to them. Put the backups in a safe place or even mail one to an out of town relative.
I do just that with about the same size of photos.

The value of raid-1 and it's variants like raid-5 is that you can recover from a drive failure quickly. It is for servers that can not tolerate any interruption.
Modern hard drives have a advertised mean time to failure on the order of 500,000+ hours. That is something like 50 years. SSD's are similar.
With raid-1 you are protecting yourself from specifically a hard drive failure. Not from other failures such as viruses, operator error,ransomware,
malware, raid controller failure fire, theft, etc.
For that, you need external backup. If you have external backup, and can tolerate some recovery time, you do not need raid-1

If you have a lot of time invested in installing apps or setting preferences you would hate to have a failure that destroyed your windows C drive.
A simple way to image your current setup is to copy your C drive to a backup ssd.
I use samsung ssd migration app to copy my C drive to a samsung ssd.
There are other good backup methods.
But, how much confidence do you have to test them and potentially destroy a running sustem??
Nice thing with the ssd clone approach is that if you want, you could swap in the backup and test .
Knowing that the working source is untouched.

 

[Gifty74]

Thanks for that. My system/C: drive setup is really pretty basic. Use the google suite for most stuff, and have a few misc programs, but nothing that would be killer if I lost it. So no real need to do any C: cloning, I don't think. I do however have a 128gb SSD from my desktop that was my main drive, and an open slot in the laptop 2.5" drive bay as the mSATA is the only drive in there now. Nothing in the 2.5" slot. So I guess I could use that as a clone drive for the main drive.

Got it on the RAID, def was going after the benefits of having it if a drive failed, but see now how that isn't such a huge deal if you have multiple external backups.

How would one of those 3.5" enclosures work to take the 2TB desktop hard drive and make it usable with my laptop, without needing to run a NAS and have that desktop running all the time, using power, etc? Those look to have a SATA to USB 3.0 interface, and with their own power supply I would have to think would use much less power than a desktop with i5 processor, etc, running. Then I could use that as my main data drive off the laptop (which like I said already has a 256gb mSATA drive in it) and then use the WD external 2TB drive as a backup to it all?

 

[geofelt]

You can buy a usb to sata adapter cable or drive enclosure for your 3.5" drive.
If you use a cable, it needs wall power since a usb output does not have sufficient power to run a 3.5" drive.
I use such an external enclosure for backups.
It has a on/off switch. It is turned on only while doing a backup.