Help to understand backups and where to save to.

[Deleted User]

Backblaze used to publish disk reliability? Worth a look to see who is making reliable drives at the time.

I work on three local copies, two cloud, one is fully versioned and no deletion unless I say so. iCloud is a a useful tool but I do not treat that as a serious backup, the other one is the fully versioned one. It costs, but I place value on what is kept there. It is also end to end encryption and zero knowledge from the site.

And one hard drive (No4) kept off site. Latter updated every quarter. Very important that one.

The three hard copies are managed by purchased software built for the task.

I use nothing smaller than 4tb at the moment apart from the off site.

immy1

Hi CoastingHatbox

You have explained that in a very easy to understand way.  Thanks.

Can  I ask how techie do you need to be to install and remove the discs from the NAS? Is it an easy thing to do?

alan_d

Others have covered many of the options available already.
I've worked in IT for ~25 years, most of that time supporting enterprise level backup software for massive companies.
It will be no surprise that I look after my own data carefully, but especially things I could never replace, like photos and videos of my kids growing up.
I use a NAS with RAID5, shared to my PCs, then replicate that to another NAS in an outbuilding, and then backup the lot to another, near-line system in another location nightly.
Suggest you read up on RAID levels (and that itself is NOT a backup), and software that provides point-in-time recovery - as even the best RAID could be wiped out by a virus, or stolen. 
Yes, disks fail, but the NAS allows for this and will re-build without outage. I keep a spare, new disk on the shelf for these occasions. 
Disks are hot-swap-able.

Overkill? Maybe, but i've never lost any data, yet know plenty of people who have.

In summary, at least, buy yourself a NAS that offers mirroring (RAID1) or RAID5, or at a push, RAID6.
I've been running various QNAP NASs for 10+ years without issue. 

immy1

Hi Alan

I think I have settled on buying a NAS but will check first to see if they are easy to use as I have limited PC knowledge.

Thanks

googler

immy1 said:

Thanks so much for all your replies.  A lot to think about there.

At the minute I have 110gb on my C Drive and another 931 GB on my E drive.  The E drive consists of my documents, photos, music etc which I would hate to lose for any reason. The C Drive has just system files. 

I'm totally baffled as to why you might have the attrition rate that you state for your previous portable drives. What manufacturer(s) have you been buying?

Is your PC expandable internally, with available SATA ports that you can connect additional drives to? If so, why not install one or more internal 2Gb drives and copy the E drive to them? See if you have better longevity with internals as opposed to external.

I currently run OS on a 60Gb SSD, with three internal 2Tb 3.5" drives carrying a combination of prime data and backups.   

FWIW, when I first started backing up to externals, I got a Western Digital 320Gb. As data expanded, got a 500Gb, then a 1Tb, then 2Tb, then 4Tb, and the most recent acquisition is a 5Tb. I plug them in and unplug as needed, and haven't had a single problem with any of them. Mixture of Samsung, Seagate, WD,  

[Deleted User]

Must admit that my attrition rate on external hard drives has been due to me. Two went for a walk off a shelf and didn't make it. The biggest changes I have had needing new drives is changing hard drive sizes. Mostly 4tb or bigger now and not getting any issues reported. Stach of old 2tb in the cupboard with the Photos library updated every now and then. They are not part of my main plan and get updated when I can be bothered seeing as they are bare drives.

[Deleted User]

half_empty said:

Must admit that my attrition rate on external hard drives has been due to me. Two went for a walk off a shelf and didn't make it. The biggest changes I have had needing new drives is changing hard drive sizes. Mostly 4tb or bigger now and not getting any issues reported. Stach of old 2tb in the cupboard with the Photos library updated every now and then. They are not part of my main plan and get updated when I can be bothered seeing as they are bare drives.

This is where a multi-bay NAS can be a good investment - avoids the risks of portable drives being physically damaged like a drop off the shelf, and more importantly when actually powered up and running, just a minor knock can cause damage to a spinning hard disk which is why portable ones often don't last as long as expected.

With a multi-bay NAS you can start by filling it with as many disks as you can afford now and expand at a later date, or even if full to start with, you can swap drives for a larger capacity when needed.

A NAS will have much better facilities for monitoring disk health and carrying out automated backups as well - alan_d comment above is spot on, I also have a QNAP in RAID5 with 4x4TB drives (12 TB usable) and a 12 TB Seagate Backup USB drive  connected to it for local backup - all the precious stuff (1TB) gets backed up to Amazon Glacier automatically for offsite backup at a very low cost (£3 per month - but high cost if I ever need to retrieve it). The QNAP emails me to tell me when the backups start / end and whether successful and also verifies the integrity of the backups with checksums.

My NAS carries out a daily SMART health checks and reports it to my phone/email, weekly detailed SMART check and a monthly RAID scrub - so I'll hopefully get an early warning of any impending disk failures.

And of course the data is always online and available to everyone in your household on any device (and outside the house if you take security precautions) - no point having all that data if nobody can see / use it!

[Deleted User]

Looked as  at NAS and wasn't convinced for my needs but went proprietary software and separate hard drives. They are power, not portable and now sited where they will not fall.

Using iCloud sorts out my portability and easier for me use.

Different uses and all that.

immy1

I have only previously bought drives after reading reviews and always purchased well know names such as Seagate. The one I mentioned which is failing now is a Maxtor portable drive. 

googler

immy1 said:

I have only previously bought drives after reading reviews and always purchased well know names such as Seagate. The one I mentioned which is failing now is a Maxtor portable drive. 

Have you got expansion room for internal drives?