I suspect I may be a little over the top with backups

getmore4less

One thing to identify is files that change over time.

They need incremental otherwise you can end up backup of corrupted data.

For static multiple copies that can't get corrupted.

Regular backups that copies/sync the current version is not a backup.

[Deleted User]

Nice to hear about somebody taking backup seriously, too many posts in this forum about lost data.

There are cheaper options for storing in the cloud that could save a lot of money - especially for backup purposes and files that are rarely changed - in my case photos and home videos - I just add to them.

Amazon Glacier is around £2.73 per month per 1TB ($0.0036 per GB / month) so for you it would be around £30-60 per year. Costs vary between location, I choose AWS Ireland for that price.

Compared to Dropbox though, it is not a file sharing service for easy access on the go - it is a backup of last resort as it will cost you some data and transaction fees to get your data back out of it and you will have to wait a few hours for it to come online - but it is free to add data as often as you want.

I've used this as my "offsite backup" for nearly 10 years now and never needed to recover any data from it - I only ever push fresh data to it and that is done automatically daily from my NAS drive. 

Locally I store about 10TB of data on my NAS that I backup to a 12TB Seagate Backup USB hard drive, again auto daily backups. For the most part I expect that to be sufficient for everything except for a fire/flood type of disaster. My PC backs up to the NAS every 15 mins.

Amazon Glacier will be there for me with the fire / flood scenarios - and in such cases, I won't mind waiting 4 hours for the data to come online and paying about £20 per TB in data transfer fees given the situation and the amount I've saved over the years.

In terms of access out of the house, I have various features through my NAS and other servers (eg Plex) that mean I can see all my photos / videos on any device out and about so I have no need for a cloud based file sharing service. If I want to upload or edit my files remotely then I just connect to my VPN server on my router for full access to my home network / NAS.

It is a bit more technical that just using Dropbox or Acronis to set up but once it is, totally automated for peace of mind, I get emails when each of the NAS backups completes and informs me of any problems and also verifies the backed up files against MD5 hash to confirm integrity.

ArthurN

Hi tallmansix,
I won't quote your post, as it was a fair bit of data :-)
First of all, thanks for taking the time to explain all that. I have thought about a NAS drive, but I know my technical knowledge is not quite there.
Amazon Glacier sounds interesting. Backups for me are a rarely needed strategy, I just feel better knowing they are there :-)
I used to use Backblaze, which seemed to be a set and forget solution, but I failed to trust it enough, not sure why.
Apart from a handful of documents for my union activities, I honestly can't remember the last time I accessed something when I was away from the house! So I probably don't need Dropbox, and I'm thinking of 365 Family rather than buying a standalone Office suite and you get a few tons of data storage with that, accessible easily. Actually seems better value than I thought it would be. Must be getting old.
By the way, I love YNAB and have used it a couple of years. Despite his dubious politics, I learned about it through listening to Dave Ramsey, and liked his debt-quashing style.
Cheers,
N

googler

ArthurN said:

googler said:

How much actual data have you got on this PC that needs to be backed up?

Probably between 1 and 2 Tb, so ....

4Tb external USB drives from the likes of Samsung, Western Digital and Seagate are around the £75 mark from Amazon.

2Tb internal drives are around £45. 

I would assume you have a single hard drive in the current desktop ...? 

In broad terms .... for all photos and other data;

Install a 2Tb as a secondary internal drive, or if you have more than one already, install it in addition to those. 

Treat your current drive as the Master copy.

Make regular backups from this to the 2Tb (or larger) internal drive, and to one or more external drives of similar size or larger.

Optionally, keep one or more of the external drives offsite.

The likelihood of all drives failing at once is so remote ...  

IvanOpinion

The main thing for any backup strategy is to ensure that there is one that is not local to your computer.  It is all very well backing up onto multiple drives but, as I often see, these are kept beside the computer then they too are at risk in cases like fire or flood.  

I know some people disagree with the approach, but I use a cloud syncing platform (pcloud) for my main backup (I purchased a heavily discounted lifetime subscription a few years back so annual costs are now zero).  I like the syncing because it is totally automatic with files being backed up immediately they are saved, and multiple versions kept allowing me to easily resurrect older versions.  My most important files are held in  a 5gb truecrypt partition that is backed up to multiple different cloud providers  on a monthly basis (sync, mega, icedrive - all using free storage).  

I do have local backups using a disk imaging package (rather than backup) - if something goes wrong I can just swap out one drive with another and then let the cloud sync refresh any files updated.

ArthurN

googler said:

ArthurN said:

googler said:

How much actual data have you got on this PC that needs to be backed up?

Probably between 1 and 2 Tb, so ....

4Tb external USB drives from the likes of Samsung, Western Digital and Seagate are around the £75 mark from Amazon.

2Tb internal drives are around £45. 

I would assume you have a single hard drive in the current desktop ...? 

In broad terms .... for all photos and other data;

Install a 2Tb as a secondary internal drive, or if you have more than one already, install it in addition to those. 

Treat your current drive as the Master copy.

Make regular backups from this to the 2Tb (or larger) internal drive, and to one or more external drives of similar size or larger.

Optionally, keep one or more of the external drives offsite.

The likelihood of all drives failing at once is so remote ...  

Hi G,
I have a 5Tb and a 2 Tb connected to the PC. Everytime I sit down to clear out some back up data, I end up creating more!
I told you, I have it bad :-)
I'm thinking of starting up Backuppers Anonymous or something.
Thanks for the advice.
N

ArthurN

IvanOpinion said:

The main thing for any backup strategy is to ensure that there is one that is not local to your computer.  It is all very well backing up onto multiple drives but, as I often see, these are kept beside the computer then they too are at risk in cases like fire or flood.  

I know some people disagree with the approach, but I use a cloud syncing platform (pcloud) for my main backup (I purchased a heavily discounted lifetime subscription a few years back so annual costs are now zero).  I like the syncing because it is totally automatic with files being backed up immediately they are saved, and multiple versions kept allowing me to easily resurrect older versions.  My most important files are held in  a 5gb truecrypt partition that is backed up to multiple different cloud providers  on a monthly basis (sync, mega, icedrive - all using free storage).  

I do have local backups using a disk imaging package (rather than backup) - if something goes wrong I can just swap out one drive with another and then let the cloud sync refresh any files updated.

Hi Ivan,
Absolutely, and I don't just rely on the hard drives local to my PC for the reasons you say.
However, I did read that syncing services may not be as much help as some people think because of the danger of syncing corrupted files. That's why I have both, syncing and backup. It's just getting awfully expensive :-)
Your last paragraph reveals a level of skill I don't possess, so I get myself in trouble sometimes, as I get in too deep and then... trouble!
Many thanks for your reply.
N

googler

ArthurN said:

I have a 5Tb and a 2 Tb connected to the PC. Everytime I sit down to clear out some back up data, I end up creating more!

.... by doing ... what?

ArthurN

googler said:

ArthurN said:

I have a 5Tb and a 2 Tb connected to the PC. Everytime I sit down to clear out some back up data, I end up creating more!

.... by doing ... what?

If I end up with 2 folders apparently the same, I can't bring myself to delete it, so I pop it somewhere else, and back that up as well LOL!
I probably need to sit down and think of what is actually irreplaceable, and what is merely inconvenient if lost. Plus I have loads of stuff of probably, little value really.
Trouble is, I get halfway through,  grow bored, and now the job is half finished, and gets added to all the other rubbish.

Thank you everyone, for your suggestions. I have food for thought, just got to break the circle of pointless backing up I've been doing.

N

googler

ArthurN said:

googler said:

ArthurN said:

I have a 5Tb and a 2 Tb connected to the PC. Everytime I sit down to clear out some back up data, I end up creating more!

.... by doing ... what?

If I end up with 2 folders apparently the same, I can't bring myself to delete it, so I pop it somewhere else, and back that up as well LOL!

There is software which will scan for duplicate files and folders, and show you which are most recent, etc. to help in deciding which is the "current" one. 

Sounds like this may help you.