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Storage & Backup options

Tags:
  • Storeage
  • Flash SSD
  • Backup
  • Storage
  • External Hard Drive
Last response: in Storage
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January 18, 2014 11:38:53 AM

Hello all,

please forgive me if this is in the wrong forum, but lately I have been thinking that I need to have a way to store and backup my files in the most efficient and safe way. As others, I am very paranoid on losing everything I have been saving for years (pictures, music, documents, etc..) and I am just looking for your opinion on what is the best way to do.

Now, I want to explain to you what I was thinking of doing and what I am looking to achieve and if I am wrong please let me know (that's why I am asking here) :) .

My main idea was to have (hopefully soon) 3 computers systems in the office, a Windows machine, A Linux and a Mac, now you ask why? well..

- I was thinking on using the PC for my regular stuff that I do every day (some photoshop, surf, create website, write some docs, etc..)

- Mac for family pictures, videos, important documents, music etc... (this computer will be used to keep basically the most important things)

- And the Linux is basically to be used as a server to backup what I do on both PC and Mac.

Now, My question is: is Linux the best option to use as a server (backup) machine? Or should I look into using a mac mini as a server to backup everything? any other options you think of I would appreciate..


BUT last and not the least, I wanna have a second "external" drive to backup what is being backed up in the first thing. (just to be sure in case I the first option crashes). Basically whatever I do on both PC and mac, be backed up to the linux or mac server machine AND an external drive.

Again, thank you in advance and sorry for the long post, hopefully I am clear enough.

More about : storage backup options

a c 954 G Storage
January 18, 2014 11:59:57 AM

The OS is of less concern than is having more than one copy of critical, valuable files and images.
It could be done with any combination of the three, or different boxes all with Windows, OR Linux, OR Mac. Drives can and do fail, no matter the OS being used.

The thing to do is have a good back up plan. Possible scenario:
One or more backup drives local, and one or more drives offsite.
Update incrementally nightly, and then weekly (Sunday afternoon?) swap out the offsite drives.

That way, you are never more than 24 hours out in case of fail, and never more than a week out in case of catastrophic fail (building fire or theft)
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January 18, 2014 12:05:11 PM

depending on how much data you have, cloud backups may be better for you. by all means, have external hdd's and other systems to keep multiple copies, but in my own experience, hardware fails, and it only takes your own backups to fail and youve lost everything.

I used to backup all data to a separate machine and then sync everything with dropbox.
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January 18, 2014 12:12:51 PM

@USAFRet

What options do I have for offsite besides Dropbox, Box, Icloud, Gdrive, Etc..? I understand these are reliable, but besides the prices, I dont want to be giving out all info so that they can eventually do something with it.

@bobmanuk

You said you used to backup into separate machines and then dropbox, what is your solution now? Like I stated above this, I don't want to give these companies the pleasure of having my important stuff.
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a c 954 G Storage
January 18, 2014 12:15:23 PM

Offsite simply means in two physical locations. One at home, one at work. Unlikely that both would fall to the same issue at the same time. Fire/flood/theft.
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January 18, 2014 12:19:39 PM

gabrod said:
@bobmanuk

You said you used to backup into separate machines and then dropbox, what is your solution now? Like I stated above this, I don't want to give these companies the pleasure of having my important stuff.


what are they going to do with your files? i find it hard to believe that these companies will use your own documents for anything worthwhile.

at the moment, i dont have much personal data to protect, I have deferred most of my pictures to facebook, anything else i dont want to be seen is stored in dropbox, other documents, such as tax letters, cv etc is stored on skydrive.

if you really are worried and money is no option, you could go to any web service provider and hire your own server and turn it into a backup server. i have no suggestions on who to use as i have no experience in this.

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a b G Storage
January 18, 2014 12:38:47 PM

For an "offsite" version I'd recommend having a copy stored physically outside the office AND disconnected. the reason being is that if you were to be hacked/ backup software cocks up it is possible to have your office storage be wiped AND your cloud backup wiped as they are both tied together and always connected. having it disconnected obviously means it cannot be automated but you should be able to update your disconnected offsite backup monthly.

In larger businesses they have backup tapes (sounds old fashioned but these tapes can hold over 1TB) that are re-used in a rotation, with the majority of the tapes disconnected and sat on a shelf offsite that cannot be remotely wiped. small businesses can use a USB style external hard drive if the data size isn't too large. an employee could kick off a backup saving the data to the external drive and then take it physically away. if you were to look at this option however I'd strongly recommend encrypting the external hard disk.
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January 18, 2014 12:50:29 PM

Thank you again for the quick answers

@USAFRet

Now if I were to go offsite backup such as the office, how do I proceed to create that connections from home to work? excuse the ignorance, have never done that so not very familiar with it.

@bobmanuk

Well, I guess then I should trust them... :)  besides dropbox, do you use any other company?

Thank you.
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Best solution

a c 954 G Storage
January 18, 2014 1:14:58 PM

gabrod said:
Thank you again for the quick answers

@USAFRet

Now if I were to go offsite backup such as the office, how do I proceed to create that connections from home to work? excuse the ignorance, have never done that so not very familiar with it.


No 'connections' needed. Physically separate drives, rotated on schedule.

Lets us postulate 2 external USB drives, one at home, one at work. We are backing up the home PC files.
Drive A and B
Day 1, copy the contents of your Documents/Pictures/Videos/etc to Drive A and B. Take Drive B to the office, and leave it there.
Nightly, update the contents of Drive A.
Friday morning, take Drive A to work, and come home with Drive B.
Continuing nightly, update Drive B with whatever is new.
Drive A sits at work, untouched.
On the next Friday morn, take Drive B to work, and bring home Drive A.
Repeat.

Whatever drive is at 'home' contains a nightly backup.
Whatever drive is at 'work' contains a weekly backup.
Share
January 18, 2014 1:49:32 PM

Meh, that's what you call old school way LOL thank you.
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a c 954 G Storage
January 18, 2014 1:50:57 PM

gabrod said:
Meh, that's what you call old school way LOL thank you.


Old school, and guaranteed to work.
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a b G Storage
January 18, 2014 2:10:34 PM

I think if you're thinking of having backups you might as well have them offsite, so for your size scenario it seems it's either cloud storage or a USB hard disk. you can have it new-school and automated but you'd still want to have an up to date disconnected version somewhere in the mix, just remember to encrypt it if it's got sensitive information on!
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January 18, 2014 2:24:39 PM

@jwk3

Thank you for chiming in, do you mind if I ask you which way you currently do? Thank you.
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a b G Storage
January 18, 2014 2:48:51 PM

at my work we have daily automated backups to hard disks (same physical room as main servers) and then once a week an IT employee will change the tapes so that we have a disconnected and offsite version (I'm not sure where the tapes go myself as I've luckily never had to do it). this is a normal style of working for larger businesses with data stored on a central server.

At home I have my documents stored on Skydrive, but I cache these offline on the PCs hard drive for speed (data is safe from fire/physical computer theft etc), I have a daily automated backup to a 2nd hard drive in my PC so that I can restore files I may have accidentally overwritten or deleted, AND I also have a USB hard drive which is kept unplugged and out of sight unless I am backing up to it, so that if I'm hacked or the backup software screws up I have a version that will survive.

there are a few things you are trying to protect yourselves/your data from:

hardware failure, this can be fixed by all backup methods assuming you have a 2nd physical disk somewhere

user error, with having cloud SYNC and not backup means that if a user accidentally deletes a file or overwrites work it will also be wiped from the cloud version! this is why I have a 2nd internal disk on my PC which is where my daily COPIES go.

fire/flood/theft etc.: you should have an offsite version somewhere, be-it in the cloud or on a USB hard disk.

software error: this is extremely rare, especially in large organisations but could still happen, so again, keep a fairly updated offline/disconnected backup to protect against this.
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