What is your backup situation at home?

[USAFRet]

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 partition, installing the OS on the wrong drive.
If I had a dime for every one...

A dead drive should never be more than "Aw crap, I need to buy another drive."
Your data should never be impacted.


I'll describe mine.

Multiple PC's, Windows 10.
Qnap NAS box, Linux variant.
External USB drive
Macrium Reflect

The NAS box is 4 x 3TB, 4 x 4TB Ironwolf drives, RAID 5. Leaving ~10.5TB usable space.
This box holds all the backups obviously, and all the movies, music, and other data to be shared among the systems in the house.

From my main system (5 drives):
Macrium Reflect to image each drive every night. This goes to individual folders on the NAS box.
A Full image, and then an Incremental every night for 14 days.
After 2 weeks of incremental backups (each their own file), those get rolled into a Full image.
Then start a new round of 2 weeks of Incrementals.

Every week (Wednesday), the entire NAS box is backed up to a USB 8TB drive.
This drive is physically OFF, except for the Wednesday backup function.

All automated, except for the Wednesday backup to the USB. There, I just have to remember to plug in the 8TB USB drive before I go off to work. And unplug it when I get home int he afternoon.

At any point of fail, there are multiple levels of recovery.
In the unlikely event of my main system AND the NAS box both melting into a pile of goo, I can recover it all (from last Wednesday) off the 8TB USB drive.

And the really critical stuff also lives in a drive in my desk at work. Scans of drivers license, birth certs, etc.

Now...that is rather elaborate. But a cut down version of that can be done with a single USB drive.

Some back and forth discussion, and we can maybe learn from each others methods, issues, and gotchas.

So...what is your backup situation like?
Discuss

 

[Robert Cook]

well I use so little storage I often do not have a backup plan for most of my laptops/computers. however I have two USB 3.0 external drives (one is 2TB the other is 3TB) that I store photos on, along with a copy of all the files on my parents computer. they are in two separate parts of the house and we also have a ton of USB drives and DVDs holding photos as well. (that is really about the only important thing that we really care about not losing) every two months or so I delete the old copy of the files from my parents PC, and replace it with a new copy (one copy for each drive).

I am well aware that this is not the best option, but to give you an idea, all of our really priceless family photos are still in film mostly... all the important documents are in the bank.

as for myself, I really do not care about backups, (yes I know I should) because at the end of the day I do not have enough or important enough stuff on my harddrive to care if it were gone. (also the somewhat important/useful stuff is speed across my two PCs and two dumpster mac books so I really would have to try to lose it) When I had a hard drive fail on me following a fall of both me and a laptop down the stairs... I just ripped the drive apart and destroyed the discs (if I cannot have the data, no one can have it) and got a new disc and started over. Also there is the 15GB of google cloud storage per google account which I use to transfer stuff around.

so long story short, I am really not worried about my own data getting lost and thus I really do not bother. But the second I start having good stuff on my hard drive I'll do the right thing. My parents data is far more important so I make sure that it is safe.

 

[USAFRet]

however I have two USB 3.0 external drives (one is 2TB the other is 3TB) that I store photos on, along with a copy of all the files on my parents computer. they are in two separate parts of the house and we also have a ton of USB drives and DVDs holding photos as well. (that is really about the only important thing that we really care about not losing) every two months or so I delete the old copy of the files from my parents PC, and replace it with a new copy (one copy for each drive).

.....

Also there is the 15GB of google cloud storage per google account which I use to transfer stuff around.

So you DO have backups...

 

[Robert Cook]

however I have two USB 3.0 external drives (one is 2TB the other is 3TB) that I store photos on, along with a copy of all the files on my parents computer. they are in two separate parts of the house and we also have a ton of USB drives and DVDs holding photos as well. (that is really about the only important thing that we really care about not losing) every two months or so I delete the old copy of the files from my parents PC, and replace it with a new copy (one copy for each drive).

.....

Also there is the 15GB of google cloud storage per google account which I use to transfer stuff around.

So you DO have backups...

Not really, at least in a solid sense for my stuff no... although i guess that is indeed much better than some people.

 

[turkey3_scratch]

Well the reality is I don't really have much important stuff. My games are on Steam or other online services, I store files in things like Google Drive. But there are a few things that are important I do have, such a some of my website source codes. These I have saved on a couple of USB drives and hard drives as well as the server they are on.

There is stuff where if I lost it I'd be quite bummed but it would not harm me in a detrimental way. So most my stuff is not backed up, but I don't really have important stuff anyway. Everything I do is basically online. USB drives suffice for what little important files I have.

 

[Wolfshadw]

I have about five years of DVR and personal data backed up onto a second system.

-Wolf sends

 

[Paul NZ]

I dont.. I dont play games on these, thats what the Xbox is for. Dont use Raid, or NAS or whatever

It'd be a waste of money getting them nothing to back up

Dont have kids to screw things up.

Only things I copy are on the hdd in the bedroom. Installs . updates for programs, videos

Thats it.

Nothing of importance on this. Only windows, Office, Firefox, ccleaner, Powerarchiver. And printer software / drivers

If I have to format well that take what 5-10 mins

 

[Saga Lout]

I use a backup programme called AMANDA.

It doesn't matter how carefull you are about your backup régime, it's useless unless you back up to an external drive and store it in a strong, fireproof box.

We don't like to think our home might burn down but if it does, that disk you stored all your backups on will melt just as quickly as your PC or laptop. Put it in the same place as your fire insurance paperwork and if that isn't in a fireroof safe or similar, ... well.

 

[SinxarKnights]

I just use a 2TB external. it isn't safe or secure so... yeah. Honestly though there is nothing on it that I truly need. I back up all my steam games to it so I don't have to download them all over again when I feel like playing, drivers, backgrounds, stuff like that. Anything actually important to me gets stored in OneDrive, which is only 2 small files, both are in reality unnecessary because the info they contain is available from a website (no they are not passwords or anything stupid like that).

 

[Wolfshadw]

I spent over a month ripping all of my DVDs to my hard drive and the hard drive failed without a back up. I was not about to spend another month plus, getting those movies re-ripped. Technically, the discs are my backups and they're still viable.

-Wolf sends

 

[turkey3_scratch]

I use a backup programme called AMANDA.

It doesn't matter how carefull you are about your backup régime, it's useless unless you back up to an external drive and store the drive you back up your data on to in a strong, fireproof box.

We don't like to think our home might burn down but if it does, that disk you stored all your backups on will melt just as quickly as your PC or laptop. Put it in the same place as your fire insurance paperwork and if that isn't in a fireroof safe or similar, ... well.

Easier solution, just put it in a box and dig a hole.

 

[Gam3r01]

The only things of importance to me are pictures I have, and those exist on my phone, desktop, and laptop. That is the extent of my backups.

I would personally like to have a more advanced setup, but I simply cant afford it, so I stick to duplicating data across 3 drives.

 

[COLGeek]

Home server, 21TB of storage, running Win Server 2016 Essentials. Everything connected backed up every 24 hours. Server backed up twice a day.

The server is also my BOINC box (SETI and PrimeGrid).

All runs in the background, so other than initial setup, little effort is needed.

 

[Robert Cook]

I use a backup programme called AMANDA.

It doesn't matter how carefull you are about your backup régime, it's useless unless you back up to an external drive and store it in a strong, fireproof box.

We don't like to think our home might burn down but if it does, that disk you stored all your backups on will melt just as quickly as your PC or laptop. Put it in the same place as your fire insurance paperwork and if that isn't in a fireroof safe or similar, ... well.

This is very true, however with what we have stored digitally in our house, losing the house to the fire would be far more of a problem. also fireproof safes can fail as well as whatever is inside can get baked to death.

Also ooooh never thought of using hex codes for color....

 

[Robert Cook]

Pro tip! highlight the above reply to see the secret message....
never mind they work quite well....
okay this is way to fun...

 

[Saga Lout]

The average householder might not miss their digital data but folks who run their businesses from home would have a lot more problems added to those of having nowhere to live.

Add to that, the fact that my comments apply to all PC users whether their fire takes place at home or in business premises, they're valid in any font colour. 😀

 

[Robert Cook]

I like the reasoning, and I hope my hex code comment did not come across as sarcastic, because I honestly did not think we could use hex codes for colored text here. this program is an off sight backup?

 

[James Mason]

Eh I've got 1TB of OneDrive storage because I subscribe to Office, Thats more than I need for any documents or pictures I have. I don't have kids or really fond of taking pictures of my family.

Everything else is replaceable.

 

[COLGeek]

I use a backup programme called AMANDA.

It doesn't matter how carefull you are about your backup régime, it's useless unless you back up to an external drive and store it in a strong, fireproof box.

We don't like to think our home might burn down but if it does, that disk you stored all your backups on will melt just as quickly as your PC or laptop. Put it in the same place as your fire insurance paperwork and if that isn't in a fireroof safe or similar, ... well.

This is very true, however with what we have stored digitally in our house, losing the house to the fire would be far more of a problem. also fireproof safes can fail as well as whatever is inside can get baked to death.

Also ooooh never thought of using hex codes for color....

BTW, the text coloring cannot be read by some...like me and my color-blind eyes.

 

[James Mason]

I use a backup programme called AMANDA.

It doesn't matter how carefull you are about your backup régime, it's useless unless you back up to an external drive and store it in a strong, fireproof box.

We don't like to think our home might burn down but if it does, that disk you stored all your backups on will melt just as quickly as your PC or laptop. Put it in the same place as your fire insurance paperwork and if that isn't in a fireroof safe or similar, ... well.

This is very true, however with what we have stored digitally in our house, losing the house to the fire would be far more of a problem. also fireproof safes can fail as well as whatever is inside can get baked to death.

Also ooooh never thought of using hex codes for color....

BTW, the text coloring cannot be read by some...like me and my color-blind eyes.

I can't read it even though i'm not colorblind

 

[Barty1884]

My backup 'solution' is a combination of Google drive for my phone/browser bookmarks, the free OneDrive allowance for the occassional file & a 1TB external HDD in addition to my system drives (256GB 950 Pro, 256GB 850 EVO and 2x 1TB HDDs)

I use <5% of my available storage in my rig and ultimately, I don't really care if I lose my data.

The external HDD is where I have a backup of my music collection & some game files/edits and an ISO of the disk (for an older, pre-steam game)...
I also keep backups of friends/family laptops files (pictures etc) for a short period of time after cleaning one up - for the inevitable "oh, I wish I'd mentioned X"

It really wouldn't be the end of the world if I lost those files either - I don't really listen to the music anymore, and I only keep my game files (and only actually play it) because I've spent ~365 days real time playing it over the past ~8 years or so.

I keep a duplicate of the game ISO on OneDrive, and I upload my latest save file to it every one in a while

 

[TechyInAZ]

Fortunately for me, my dad is a huge backup guy, we do backups of backups in some cases.

For me personally, I have three drives in my system, my 1st SSD which is my OS drive and holds all my important files and data, my 2nd SSD which is purely a game drive, and 3rd my 1TB SSHD which serves as both my backup destination and my data drive for non critical stuff.

I use StorageCraft's ShadowProtect desktop backup software for backing up my stuff. It's a bare-metal backup and it also is capable of doing incrementals aswell. It's an awesome piece of software.

Then once a month my entire family backs up to another drive that is store off site from our house. Insuring that we have our data in case of a fire or theft.

BTW USAFRet, this is sticky material in my opinion...

 

[CTurbo]

I have stored my most important data like pics and videos of my kids, old pics from when I was younger, official docs, etc on every single PC I have whether it be current laptops, old laptops, HTPC, a couple of old desktops, a 1TB external, and 2TB external, and even an old 1TB 3.5" hdd that's in a box in the basement AND for the kids' pics and videos, that's also on my parents' PC and external drive, my sister's PC, and the in-laws PC so it would be damn near impossible to lose those things, but that is just how important it is to me.

I am currently trying to decide on the best way to have a home server or NAS like USAFRet and hope to get that up and running sooner than later. I can't decide if I want to just buy a 4 bay NAS or just build a small home server.

 

[Saga Lout]

Why build when you could buy a perfectly serviceable Proliant or similar on e-Bay? Cheap Dell workstations also go for small change. Xeon rules in the service sector n my opinion.

 

[CTurbo]

I only build myself a new PC every 3-5 years so I've been having that itch again. Plus, I can build exactly what I want that way too.

I just can't decide on what I want haha