Backup Online

byronwells · 7 September 2018 at 4:32PM

Alright guys

I am in need of some help please...

I have got a 4tb external hard drive which has just given up the ghost and at the moment I have lost all of the data on it.. Luckily I have been informed that it's still in warranty and I can send it back t them and they will recover the data for me..

Now I am wondering if I should get another physical one or really start thinking about doing it online instead? Where should I go to find the best deals for that?

Sorry I am totally new to backuping up online

arciere · 7 September 2018 at 4:37PM

Warranty that recovers your data? Are you really sure? Unless this is some kind of 'all-inclusive' warranty that I have never heard of, it's highly unlikely that they will recover your data (as far as I know they tend to highlight the fact that they are not responsible or liable for data loss).
4TB online is a no-no, unless you've got gigabit speeds (and even there...).
A separate media would be your best choice, another 4TB unit probably the cheapest option.

Undervalued · 7 September 2018 at 4:43PM

arciere wrote: »

Warranty that recovers your data? Are you really sure? Unless this is some kind of 'all-inclusive' warranty that I have never heard of, it's highly unlikely that they will recover your data (as far as I know they tend to highlight the fact that they are not responsible or liable for data loss).
4TB online is a no-no, unless you've got gigabit speeds (and even there...).
A second media would be your best choice, another 4TB unit probably the cheapest option.

Nowhere does the OP say how much was actually on the 4TB drive!

I agree that uploading that sort of amount from domestic broadband is unworkable but who has that volume of data to back up?

byronwells · 7 September 2018 at 4:47PM

arciere wrote: »

Warranty that recovers your data? Are you really sure? Unless this is some kind of 'all-inclusive' warranty that I have never heard of, it's highly unlikely that they will recover your data (as far as I know they tend to highlight the fact that they are not responsible or liable for data loss).
4TB online is a no-no, unless you've got gigabit speeds (and even there...).
A separate media would be your best choice, another 4TB unit probably the cheapest option.

I have spoken to their customer service on the phone and via email and they have said because it's under warranty and also that when brought from brand new it came with a backup plan in place, that it will be free to recover the data...

I have asked them to clarify this several times and they have said yes it's free to the recover data

arciere · 7 September 2018 at 4:47PM

Undervalued wrote: »

Nowhere does the OP say how much was actually on the 4TB drive!

I agree that uploading that sort of amount from domestic broadband is unworkable but who has that volume of data to back up?

Sorry, just assuming. If you decided to buy a 4TB drive in the first place, that means that you might end up using the vast majority of it. Always best to plan in advance, rather than to change strategy when you find out that you can no longer afford to backup online.
Even if it only was 25% of the total space, that still is 1TB, which will take forever on a consumer ADSL or fibre connection.
EDIT: it doesn't take many HD movies to reach that amount of data

arciere · 7 September 2018 at 4:50PM

byronwells wrote: »

I have spoken to their customer service on the phone and via email and they have said because it's under warranty and also that when brought from brand new it came with a backup please, that it will be free to recover the data...

I have asked them to clarify this several times and they have said yes it's free to the recover data

Can you tell us the brand?
I think what they meant is that some vendors provide 'free' backup solutions online, so if you've ever used it, you will still be able to access it online. But they're not going to recover the data from the broken drive.
Just guessing.

byronwells · 7 September 2018 at 4:58PM

arciere wrote: »

Can you tell us the brand?
I think what they meant is that some vendors provide 'free' backup solutions online, so if you've ever used it, you will still be able to access it online. But they're not going to recover the data from the broken drive.
Just guessing.

The brand is Seagate.. I need to send the hard drive to their Netherlands department where they fix/repair, recover data from hard drives..

Here's a quote from Seagate

"Thank you for contacting Seagate Support.

We have created SRS case for you, there are no additional cost for you since a warranty came with your drive.
Please send the entire unit to the lab using the UPS label you should have received by email also.
How your data is returned will be decided inside the LAB so it can be either in the cloud or on a HDD."

Undervalued · 7 September 2018 at 5:01PM

arciere wrote: »

EDIT: it doesn't take many HD movies to reach that amount of data

I agree if you are shooting your own videos or significant amounts of professional sized still images then large amounts of storage are needed.

However, if they are legitimately obtained commercial movies then it is debatable if you need to back them up at all as they can (presumably) be downloaded again.

All too often people dutifully back up large amounts of material completely unnecessarily instead of actually making sure the vital stuff is properly protected.

I share the concern that has been expressed about data recovery. If the unit has developed an electrical fault then fine, that can be fixed and the data should be intact. However if the HD itself has failed I would be amazed if any warranty would cover potentially forensic level recovery of large amounts of data.

arciere · 7 September 2018 at 5:10PM

Undervalued wrote: »

I agree if you are shooting your own videos or significant amounts of professional sized still images then large amounts of storage are needed.

However, if they are legitimately obtained commercial movies then it is debatable if you need to back them up at all as they can (presumably) be downloaded again.

All too often people dutifully back up large amounts of material completely unnecessarily instead of actually making sure the vital stuff is properly protected.

Yes, I agree. I have a 2TB NAS unit which is 70% full. It's pretty much only HD movies.
I used to convert them to try and save space, but then laziness got the best of me and I started to convert the movies leaving them in original format. Each file is now between 4 and 8GB.

Just to be clear, all the DVD are legitimately purchased, but I need to have them on the NAS for Plex to work.
I admit I don't have any backup in place, just a RAID1 NAS (which is not a backup), but worst case I am not losing anything important.

mgfvvc · 7 September 2018 at 9:06PM

byronwells wrote: »

I have got a 4tb external hard drive which has just given up the ghost and at the moment I have lost all of the data on it..
...
Now I am wondering if I should get another physical one or really start thinking about doing it online instead?

How much of that 4TB do you actually use? 4TB of online backup won't be cheap and you it would take a lot of time to upload.

You might find a cheap NAS (Network Attached Storage) box, that can take 2 mirrored disks would work out a lot cheaper than that much online storage. You would need to pretty unlucky for both disks to fail, together, except for external causes (e.g. fire or flood). The risks with online storage include whether it's a single copy or multiple copies in separate data centres and of course what happens if the company fails for any reason. A few people were badly buned when megaupload.com was taken down.

At the moment I have a NAS with mirrored disks and a 250GB online backup plan, so I have at least 3 copies including at least one offsite.

debitcardmayhem · 7 September 2018 at 9:15PM

Is it just me but one 1KB or 4TB backup is not actually a backup if it's in only one place. Good luck with the warranty though. If there is anything like 2TB on that 4TB drive I hope that stuff is irrelevant as others above have alluded to and can be retrieved from the source.