[SOLVED] What is the best (and easy) way to have data backups?

[rusa99ec]

Okay, let me explain you. I'm kinda of a data hoarder. I have tons of music, video files (series, movies), games, software, etc. basically more than 8TB of data. I have them on my 16TB hard drive but I have been thinking of what I would do in case something happens i.e. disk failure, pc on fire, an eartquake, whatever, I think you got the point. I have been thinking of using RAID 1 but I have been seen tons of post people talking that is not a great idea to use RAID 1 since thats a hardware solution, not a backup solution. Then I was thinking of getting a 16TB external hard drive, but considering transfer speeds, I think its not kinda of a great idea to keep rewriting 8TB every month. So, what is your best bet or suggestion here? Sometimes I can't even sleep thinking of losing my data.

 

[FoxVoxDK]

PING! @USAFRet

 

[Math Geek]

you don't have to rewrite it every month. once the first back-up is done, then after that only new data is copied.

any back-up software will do this for you. not like you are changing the old stuff any, you just want to sit on it for future use.

an external or internal drive to hold it all is fine. external can go with you or an internal sits separate in the pc. both are fine.

raid is not the best idea, but for multiple drives, the new storage spaces in win 10 is a better choice. for multiple drives i'd just separate the data and not bother trying to link them together. more room for error and data loss. maybe movies on one drive and mucis & pics on the other or whatever.

 

[rusa99ec]

What software do you suggest or have in mind? I know I can do CTRL+C and CTRL+V but I really want an automated way, kinda I just want to plug the drive and the software just does the copy on the delta files

 

[Math Geek]

windows itself has back-up built in for free. tel it what folder to put where and how often to do it.

pretty much the same as other paid software out there. works fine if you don't want to buy something else.

 

[rusa99ec]

windows itself has back-up built in for free. tel it what folder to put where and how often to do it.

pretty much the same as other paid software out there. works fine if you don't want to buy something else.

Never thought about it, would def give it a try

 

[USAFRet]

I use Macrium Reflect, writing to my NAS box.
But could just as easily write to an external drive or two.

Full drive backups, instead of 'this folder and that folder'.
All automated, runs every night or week as needed.

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]

Then I was thinking of getting a 16TB external hard drive, but considering transfer speeds, I think its not kinda of a great idea to keep rewriting 8TB every month.

You don't.

After the first batch, you only write Incremental or Differential changes.

 

[USAFRet]

I have been thinking of using RAID 1 but I have been seen tons of post people talking that is not a great idea to use RAID 1 since thats a hardware solution, not a backup solution.

Correct.

RAID 1 is for continued uptime in the face of a physical drive fail.
It does nothing for actual data security.