backing up files

[ChrisN]

My arrangement:

Data on one drive in the PC.

Backup #1 is another separate hard drive inside the PC.

Backup #2 is yet another separate hard drive inside the PC.

Backup #3 is an external hard drive (Western Digital passport) via USB.

All backups made with the free SyncBack software which supports manual backups as well as unattended scheduled backups. Copies are directly readable without special software.

 

[enero]

My set up for my macs...

1- RAID 1
2- Time Machine (OS X) for ease
3- CCC to NAS
4- Weekly backup of just photos to another random drive on the network
5- Off site drive that gets backed up once a month

I'm a paranoid hourder. I have files from the early 90's!

 

[kubilai]

Edit: copying a whole bunch of files from one HDD to another is tedious. There is a gotcha if you use Lightroom - if you rename or move original files that are also referenced in the Lightroom library (i.e. files that you have imported via Lightroom) using another file utility, the Lightroom library will not be able to find your files. If you rely on Lightroom for image management (and it's very good at that), remember to do any moves or renaming from within LR.

A simple command :
xcopy c:\mypictures\* g:\* /D/E

will copy only new or changed files on a MS XP system.
Every O/S has equivalent command/option

 

[Roger Hicks]

Just get another hard drive and copy your files from time to time.

Exactly. You need only copy the new stuff, after all.

Cheers,

R.

 

[woollybandit]

I use two Western Digital LifeBooks running in parrallel. No effort to do anything ... it's all backed up twice automatically

 

[Ronald M]

Agree.

I use USB portable hard drives one as a "work drive" as well as others for backup. I don't have any photo files on the hd of my computer.

This is my ticket also.

I use a Mac and time machine disk to do back up stuff. It copies what I do as I go along.

Then there are two back up drives which I copy files to monthly or yearly. I put the same file structure on them as the main computer. Then I copy new photos to them. They are duplicates of each other so I do it twice.

I am not a complete purist , so I only hold current pictures on my computer HD. By the time they are erased, there are triple copies elsewhere.

I spent $300 total on 3 LaCie terabite drives on sale. Brand does not matter.

 

[Sejanus.Aelianus]

We used a couple of the Linksys "slug" NAS as a distributed backup but that wasn't as reliable as I would like.

As we're all Mac, now, I'm using an old Mac Mini with two 1TB drives in their place (a foreclosure by the bank of Mum and Dad ), plus each machine has its own clone disk.

I don't think I can make it any safer, other by running Time Machine against the Cloud, which I think is teensy bit excessive for our needs...

 

[DtheG]

Yeah I realzied that

What would you recommend?

I'm just a hobbyist and I'd be sad if I lost ALL of my work but it isn't crucial for me.

Currently I am 90 percent film and I post most my favorite images (jpegs) on flickr, keep all my negatives, and print the best. I would like to backup my digital negatives...but I haven't looked into the best way of doing so.

For now, I was thinking of starting with the hard drive and perhaps in the future buy another hard drive or store it in a different medium (blue ray / internet / and etc.). But that alternative medium/location is a different issue.

Any thoughts and ideas in doing so with a hard drive / raid? I don't want to spend a terrible amount of money. There are like 10 different ways to raid.

Re RAID.
RAID 0 just enables 2 or more disks to appear as one (span)
RAID 1 duplicates on two disks
RAID 5 uses three or more disks with one providing check on the rest.
all other RAID designations are variations or combinations of the above.


Now for your backup requirement. Buy a couple of portable USB Hard drives. Periodically copy everything from your computer's hard drive to these. If possible keep one elsewhere (ie not in same home or at work) When you make a backup to the onsite disk, take it away and swap it with the offsite disk, then make you next backup to the other (now onsite) disk.
If you are using Windows or Mac the poratable disk with almost certainly come with software on the disk to make incremental backups (so you only need to copy changed/new images). If using Linux use rsync.

 

[Heru Anggono]

Lacie, Western Digital, Seagate, Drobo, etc with dual hard drive and mirroring feature (RAID 1) should be good.

Mirroring (RAID 1) in a dual drive system (box) means both hard drives in the box will have identical data. Let's say if one drive die for some reason then the other will carry on working. You can then schedule repair at soonest possible time to replace the dead hard drive.

The downside to RAID 1 is you get only half of the total capacity. Let's say you buy a 4TB system then you can store files up to 2 TB where the other 2TB will contain exactly the same data, a mirror image.

Most newer system (such as Western Digital Live Duo) is very easy to use, and configurable through simple menu.

As mention by DtheG (Clark?) they normally come with some software that allows you to synchronise files on your notebook/PC to the external storage. This will cut down backup time as old unchanged files will not be copied, only newer and modified files will be copied to the external storage.

RAID 0 (stripes) is not suitable for this purpose as you will end up with useless data if one hard drive (out of two) dies. Normally this mode is only used on high performance graphic workstation (CAD, 3D, etc).
RAID 5 is complicated and also not suitable for this purpose (personal use).

I don't mean to endorse certain brand but last week I installed a Western Digital Live for a customer and it is easy to setup with intuitive menu. Perhaps this might come useful in your case.

Hope this might help.

 

[goffer]

I have all my photos/music/important documents/backups stored on a local linux file server I set up which I then backup weekly to a RAID on my computer. Then monthly I back that up to a 2TB external which I hide away offsite at work... just in case the home ever burns down, gets burgled, etc..

 

[JayC]

Personally, I take multiple approaches to back up but a simple option, especially with a desk system is to attach a bare-drive enclosure via USB/FW/SATA (they look like this: http://aluratek.com/media/catalog/p...5d08d6e5fb8d27136e95/a/h/ahdds100f_image3.jpg) and use incremental backup software to ensure consistency and scheduled backups. That way you can rotate a couple of drives easily and know they're up to date.

This looks great. I have three USB drives, but I think it would be easier just to use this and just switch the HD, rather than having to worry about what drive letter is what drive, etc.