Storage via wifi

Nebulous2

I'm still using a desktop PC, running windows 10, but I'm thinking on giving it up to get something portable. So probably looking at a Windows hybrid tablet/laptop.

I've a lot of stuff I've collected over the years, mainly photos and I want some sort of backup. At the moment I have an external harddisk with windows backing up to it.

If I get a smaller device with less storage and am not keeping copies of everything on my hybrid how do I keep my files safe? Do I need a NAS with two disks mirrored or is that overkill?

If I get one - what would I actually do with it? Do I just plug it into my router (BT Hub 5) and upload/backup everything wirelessly?

I have a wireless printer already and will still need to keep that going- so I'm going to need to come up with a solution for keeping the router, printer and possibly a NAS box. Hopefully that will be possible in a smaller footprint than my current desk / tower / led monitor!

Any suggestions welcome.

esuhl

Nebulous2 wrote: »

If I get a smaller device with less storage and am not keeping copies of everything on my hybrid how do I keep my files safe? Do I need a NAS with two disks mirrored or is that overkill?

A NAS would be a good solution in that situation. Personally I wouldn't bother with RAID mirroring, though. Consumer devices use a proprietary "fakeRAID" implementation. If a drive fails, you can replace it without issue. But if the RAID controller goes kaput, you'll probably have to replace it with identical components and firmware. If the company no longer produces the same NAS, you've lost the contents of both drives instantly.

Anyway, even with a NAS you'd still need a backup -- RAID provides drive redundancy rather than a backup. Imagine if a virus deleted all your files. The mirror would instantly be deleted too.

Nebulous2 wrote: »

If I get one - what would I actually do with it? Do I just plug it into my router (BT Hub 5) and upload/backup everything wirelessly?

Yup.

I_have_spoken

Why not use a cloud store like Dropbox, OneDrive, Googledrive etc?

esuhl

I_have_spoken wrote: »

Why not use a cloud store like Dropbox, OneDrive, Googledrive etc?

I wouldn't put any private photos or personal information on those services without using decent encryption. They're monitored by security services, analysed for advertising, and/or vulnerable to hacking.

Also, if you regularly browse your cloud files, you're going to experience small delays while they are repeatedly downloaded, and an increase in Internet usage.

I'd also check what rights you have (if any!) if the cloud service loses your files or gets hacked, etc.

Cloud services are really handy for sharing files between devices on different networks, though.

RumRat

Google photo's will back up all of your pictures, unlimited, for free. I've never had any advertising sent my way or indeed any while signed in to the photo's site. Maybe that's my blockers working, but, even so, it's not a problem.
As for the Security forces, well, they'll even read your NAS drive if they want to. If you believe they monitor everyone then you really live in a fantasy world.
Don't use it as only storage, but just as another string to your bow, that will alleviate the hacking worries or the remote chance Google lose them.
Once you've uploaded all your pics, any additions will be automatically backed up.
If you are a limited bandwidth package (pointless these days!) then maybe the cloud isn't for you...

Nebulous2

Thanks folks- I'll try and respond to some of that. I'm not inclined to use cloud storage. I'm not really concerned by security services but I wouldn't like them hacked or for their served to go down and lose them. I do use Google photos, mainly on my phone, but I understood they only gave 50 GB of full-size photos with unlimited if you let them cut them down.

So it is looking like a NAS. Seems a bit backward though if the controller breaking could lose everything. Can't I plug the hard disk into my PC and read the files, as I've done before for a dead PC?

I'm just very uneasy about having one copy. At the moment it is comforting to know I have two, one on my PC and one on my external drive.

bsod

Store the data on a laptop, and use the other disks laying about for backup, put the pc disk in a caddy. Otherwise, you'll have an extra box running continuously, doing nothing most of the time. You could also use the existing pc as a nas/server, but it will use more electricity

Nebulous2

Thanks - I don't have a laptop though! I have about 80 GB of files I want to keep and a new camera which needs about 8mb a photo or 20 if I shoot raw files.

I'm thinking of buying something with limited storage so I can add photos and edit them but then will need to delete them. I could back up/copy to my existing external HDD, by USB but that only gives me one copy, with no redundancy.

bsod

whatever this something is, by the time you've added the cost of it, to a nas, and the electricity to run it, it's probably the price of a laptop - much more functional items that generally come with enough capacity for whatever format of photo you intend to store. You have a disk inside the pc, that's 3 copies for redundancy, a caddy cost a few pounds, some have network ports too.

RumRat

Nebulous2 wrote: »

Thanks folks- I'll try and respond to some of that. I'm not inclined to use cloud storage. I'm not really concerned by security services but I wouldn't like them hacked or for their served to go down and lose them. I do use Google photos, mainly on my phone, but I understood they only gave 50 GB of full-size photos with unlimited if you let them cut them down.

So it is looking like a NAS. Seems a bit backward though if the controller breaking could lose everything. Can't I plug the hard disk into my PC and read the files, as I've done before for a dead PC?

I'm just very uneasy about having one copy. At the moment it is comforting to know I have two, one on my PC and one on my external drive.

It's unlimited for pics up to 16Megapixels above that they reduce them to that size. So if your phone or camera is 16Mp or less they won't reduce them.

enfield_freddy

a simple nas drive IE: dlink dns320l at £ 39 , http://www.dabs.com/products/d-link-sharecenter-2-bay-cloud-network-storage-enclosure-873L.html?utm_source=google&utm_medium=ppc%20product%20search&utm_campaign=Components%20and%20Storage%20-%20Hard%20Drives%20-%20NAS&gclid=Cj0KEQjw98mvBRD-_ciSovKhq7gBEiQAEvsBZw6SA14YVe8Ey_bwB3Fir7atvoYoi6Ut9uEswA0u7MEaAkWl8P8HAQ and a s/hand hard drive from ebay , starting at about £5 will give you a simple system