Questions About Backup Setup

[JSmith]

Thanks for looking!

I've got a few questions about backing up my data. I'm putting together a rig at the moment and currently I have a 256GB SSD coupled with a 2TB HDD in my storage array. I'm trying to figure out the best way to have a local backup of these two drives. By best I mean I'm looking for a good balance of cost and reliability. Budget wise i'd like to keep the cost below £100. In terms of fixed hardware I have an MSI Z97 Gaming 5 motherboard lined up.

I'd appreciate any information on this!

Thanks,

JSmith

[Splash]

It rather depends: are you looking to backup all of the data on that 2Tb disk? If so how full is it? Are you looking for full system image, or just file backup? What retention period are you looking at? Does your backup require redundancy (a la RAID) or are you happy to just backup to a single disk and accept that if that disk fails then your backup is gone? What OS are you running?

[JSmith]

For the 2TB disk, I'd say i'd only need to back up around 100GB of personal files; a daily file backup would be ideal here. I'd like a disk image of the SSD, once a week would be sufficient I suppose.

The whole RAID or no RAID is something I was looking for advice on really, what are the benefits of either option?

I'll be running Windows 7.

[Splash]

No RAID - cheaper (as you only need a single disk)
RAID1 - when (not if) your backup disk fails you don't lose your data (so long as you replace your failed disk and rebuild your array)

Either way, you want to be looking at a separate box rather than just adding a backup disk to your existing setup - some sort of NAS device would be ideal, though a USB disk might fit your bill if you're happy without RAID (just be sure to only connect it while you run the backup). NAS is likely to break your budget if you're looking at a 2 disk setup, though.

[JSmith]

Alright, sounds like I have a bit of looking around to do, thanks for the pointers

[Saracen]

How much of that 100GB changes?

I mean, if it's 90GB of archived music, etc, and 10GB of actual data, then perhaps look at using, maybe, DVDs, or better yet, 25GB Bluray discs for the stuff that doesn't change, but gets added to from time to time. The remainder is easy to deal with.

One possibility is to use a "sync" spplication. Every time you run it ( which can be scheduled) it examines the data on a 'source' drive to that on a 'target' and synchronises the two. And you can synchronise ftom A to B, or B to A, or both ways.

So .... if A is a built-in HD, and B is an external drive, NAS, cloud storage, etc, you have a rudimentary solution.

Personally, I prefer the NAS route, but to get what I'd regard as a decent-quality dual-drive NAS, you're probably looking at £120-ish for the bare NAS box, plus drives, from someone like Synology or QNAP. For a more premium (I.e. faster) version, double that.

In my IMHO, it's hard to recommend a backup strategy because it's ALWAYS about exactly what you're trying to back up and what it's worth, and a trade off between cost, convenience and level of protection. You need to think about exactly what you're trying to achieve to reach that balance.

For instance, if you lose game saves and some music, it's a pain. If you lose accounting data, client data and work in progress, you could find yourself in breach of contract, getting sued, bankrupt and up to the ass in annoyed VAT and Income Tax auditors.

[BradIey]

Most any backup software can do that automatically for you how ever often you want. Windows can do the backup of the ssd to a recoverable image on a second hdd but not sure about the 100gb part so could use soloy software or software and windows in conjunction and as to what to put them on just use a second hdd external or otherwise, you can get 2TB for £50-£60 and even less for a 1TB one.

Currently I back up an ssd and 2tb storage drive to an external 1.5TB complete image of SSD and 1.1tb of the storage drive.

http://www.techradar.com/news/softwa...ommend-1137924

[Taniniver]

RAID is not a backup.
RAID is not a backip.
RAID is not a backup.
RAID is not a backup.
RAID is not a backup.

Having 5 copies if that text protected me nicely against the one where I made a typo. It would not protect against the possibility of losing my ability to type, my keyboard breaking, etc...

RAID will protect you against one of the disks failing. It will not protect you against a fire burning up your whole PC, or a ransomware infection encrypting all your data, or simply deleting something then deciding that you needed it.

Just buy a cheap external hard drive of sufficient capacity:
http://www.scan.co.uk/shop/computer-...-ext/500gb-4tb

Connect it up once per month or once per week or however often you feel necessary. Keep it disconnected when you are not using it. If you want it to be good protection, keep it well away from the PC too - I just take mine to work and lock it in my desk. It's encrypted too just in case.

Copy over the files that have changed since the last backup. I use a nice bit of free software called FreeCommander to do a sync, it can compare two directory structures, show the differences, and let you easily copy over new or changed files and delete old ones:

http://www.freecommander.com/

[shaithis]

If your going to use windows 7, you might as well just get an external USB drive and use Windows backup.

Windows 8 is a different ballgame (at least if you want to have the backup scheduled and managed).