Help finding thread re computer backup strategies

[happycampyer]

A while back there was a great thread about computer backup strategies, but I can't seem to find it by searching the Search-O-Matic. Does anyone recall the thread title, or could point me to it?

[j44ke]

This is no help with the search, but I'm sort of in a backup quandary right now. I figure if we can't find the discussion requested, we can restart maybe.

I'm in that situation where my back up storage capacity is only slightly larger than my original data, so I need to increase my back up capacity. But a lot of the original data is also nearly at capacity on its drive.

I thought I would just bookshelf (archive) the two nearly full drives (photos only) but as soon as I did that, I needed something off of one of the drives, had to reconnect, etc. Of course, if I move everything to a larger drive that can stay attached for daily use, then I need to back up that drive which means a second drive of equal capacity.

I feel like I need a drive capacity calculator where I input the amount of my original data that needs to be backed up, broken down by what size drive it is on now, and the calculator would spit out how many new drives I should buy to store the original data and how many for back up so I would have the least number of drives with the longest lifespan capacity-wise.

I also feel like a dinosaur, because all the kids have their stuff floating around in the cloud and are using NAS systems and other hard-drive-toasters they shove a stack of old drives removed from their housings into to make a high capacity redundant storage system. I am now using iCloud to back up photos with one of my two computers keeping a complete copy of everything on iCloud. That seems to work well. But I know several people who I thought were super cool with their nifty black NAS boxes that had blue green and red lights on the front who one morning woke up and found that their RAID system had wiped itself out somehow. SO I'm not sure I want to get involved with something I didn't feel like I could control.

I also have Dropbox which I barely use, and I somehow have a lot of storage there so I could back up everything that way. Time Machine has never worked well for me, and whenever I've needed it, the integrity of the backup has been compromised without any error notice from TimeMachine until I try to retrieve the data.

My current technique is a SuperDuper clone once a week.

So....

[NYCfixie]

Could not find it either. I thought it was maybe part of one of the "i'm buying a new computer" threads but the closest I came was page 3 of this thread:
https://www.velocipedesalon.com/foru...e-35733-3.html

Maybe dump this thread and start a new one with a different title in the OT thread because I am sure that you will get more answers that will solve your ultimate question.

[colker]

MOre back up. MOre back up!! This is my mantra. Back up once, 2x, 3 times and if you can do it again. I like physical drives.

[happycampyer]

There was also this post:

https://www.velocipedesalon.com/foru...tml#post658628

What is considered a reasonable backup strategy? I like physical drives, too, but then again I have a bunch of Iomega Zip cartridges and no way to attach the SCSI drive to be able to read them...

[Matthew Strongin]

Depends on how you define reasonable. I use a combination of Apple Time Machine backups, cloud based backups using Carbonite, and cloud file sharing for the majority of my documents. The cloud file sharing has a side benefit of making it easier for me to have my files available no matter which computer I'm using at the time. The drive I use for Time Machine is around 4 times the storage size of my newer laptop's hard drive, so there is plenty of room on it, and I replace the drive every couple years to be safe. This setup gives me redundancy with my system image and triple redundancy with my files. The best part is that all the backups happen automatically and the file sharing/storage in the cloud is just a part of my regular workflow so I don't need to think about it as a backup activity. Low effort and reasonable redundancy.

And if you're a Mac user, I highly recommend Time Machine as a part of your approach. Restoring a corrupt laptop or migrating to a new one is a breeze.

[Bewheels]

Can not help in finding the old thread, but...

As usual the ultimate answer about back-ups involves answering more questions along the way...just like if someone asked you the question 'what bike should I buy'.

Not that folks here don't have brilliant ideas about this topic but there are plenty of good articles on the web about different back-up strategies.

If it helps to know what other forum members do, here is my strategy:
- All my machines and devices (work and home) are Apple products
- iCloud for iPads and phones. We use the .99 per month version. The free version doesn't provide enough space.
- Time Machine on an external hard drive at work. Like Matt, the external drive is 4x the size of the machine's HD. I update drives about every 18-24 months. We also have centralized storage for everyone.
- Backblaze for home machines. They are set to auto back-up at night. Plus you can manually update whenever you want.
- When I had my design business, I had a series of external hard drives. Different drives were dedicated to different tasks and/or clients because the multimedia files can be very large. I would store copy of hard drives off site. This was before cloud based storage was a reasonable option (cost, speed, security, etc).

A big factor in all of this is how critical the data is: Losing photos sucks big time. Losing all your business information can be catastrophic.

I am sure all this info exist on thread you are looking for but can not find...ironic isn't it :)

[SteveP]

the only thing i have to back up is photos.
i use a cloud based storage for this.

gmail has stuff also.
should be ok there i thk.

i do have a small 500g drive where i will throw some stuff now and then but i dont need more capacity at this point.
big file photos do take up a lot of space though. i try to relentlessly delete stuff that is extraneous.

[sk_tle]

Attention gentlemens. Cloud based storage isn't a backup per se.

To be more precise, anything that can be remotely tempered by the backuped machine is not a backup. Your backup isn't worth anything if a ransomware running on your machine encrypt the files on your cloud storage and delete the time based snapshots. Same applies to your own manipulation errors.

Terms of services must also be read thoroughly. If said storage service can unilateraly decide to terminate your access any time, this is not a backup.

Also, a backup isn't a real backup if you can't test it and figure out how much time you would need to get the data back, especially in an extreme situation. For exemple your house burned and you must start from scratch, buy a new computer, then find a way to restore the data. Can you really access the data (where are the passwords) ? Do you still have access to the backup software to get data from year XXXX ? Things like that.

[rec head]

I just bought a 5 bay NAS. It should arrive today and I'll set it up and report back on how easy or confusing it was. My plan from there is once we get everything consolidated on this RAID is to try Amazon Glacier. It is for long term back ups not for photo sharing or accessing files often. Basically back up and leave everything there until there is a big problem locally.

[Bob Ross]

What is considered a reasonable backup strategy?

I was just reminded of the music and film industry's standard approach to backups when reading a report about how Bernie Krause's house got destroyed in the California fires: Three physical copies...none of which are co-located in the same place. One of those places should be a safety deposit box.

I like physical drives, too, but then again I have a bunch of Iomega Zip cartridges and no way to attach the SCSI drive to be able to read them...

Yeah, my SCSI-equipped computer probably lasted 10 years longer than the SCSI industry did, so when it finally died I basically threw out a half dozen drives and close to 50 Zip discs. I think I had already backed them up onto FireWire drives by then. Geez, I hope so...

[Matthew Strongin]

I was just reminded of the music and film industry's standard approach to backups when reading a report about how Bernie Krause's house got destroyed in the California fires: Three physical copies...none of which are co-located in the same place. One of those places should be a safety deposit box.



Yeah, my SCSI-equipped computer probably lasted 10 years longer than the SCSI industry did, so when it finally died I basically threw out a half dozen drives and close to 50 Zip discs. I think I had already backed them up onto FireWire drives by then. Geez, I hope so...

I condensed my Zip discs onto Jaz discs at one point. That gave me less crap to throw out once those became obsolete. Multiple backups in multiple locations is a good strategy for stuff you really need to preserve.

[snotrockets]

Also, a backup isn't a real backup if you can't test it

+1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000

Successful SREs automatically schedule restore from backups, even when the original copy is intact. Only way to verify backup is to actually use it.