Backing up

[Badger UK]

Hiya

I've got about 6.5TB of data (mostly images obviously) that I have spead over a few hard drives. Two in the PC (2 x 1TD drives) and the others I access via a disk docking station. I back up using a Synology Diskstation raid divice which is pretty much at its limit.

This is unsatisfactory for a few reasons:

1. The images are all over the place and I'd like to be able to access them more easily

2. The automatic back-up doesn't include everything - only the images on the PC

3. It's all on site with me - although a good number are on DVD and off site by no means all of them.

So...

I'm considering buying a bigger raid device. I'm quite keen on a Drobo.

I'm looking at using the Cloud for off site storage and back-up.

Anyone any thoughts on this? What do others do?

B

 

[wavefront]

Interested on how you use the disk station? Only as a backup device rather than current storage?

I use a Diskstation too, with 2 x 1TB disks (raid 1? They mirror each other) loaded inside as my main server. I access it wirelessly, or for heavy data transfer plug it in via ethernet cable.

I have another 2x1TB external hard drive plugged into the back of the Diskstation so the main raid disks are backed up onto these externals every night. So I always have 3 - 4 copies of my work (2x raid + 2 external)

When the server gets full I simply remove the 2x externals which will have all the latest data on it and store them separately. 1 onsite, one offsite. Usually 1TB lasts me a year. The raids are then emptied and I continue, with 2x new external disks plugged in ready for a new years worth of work.

If I need to go to my 'archive' I simply plug in one of the old hard disks into the front of the Diskstation and it's available. As all my pix are catalogued in Lightroom, I have all the previews, so even if I don't have the data available as raw files (ir the wrong years disk isn't plugged in), I can still locate an image via the previews, then get the right archive disk.

Not perfect as everything current is onsite but all I need to do is take one external backup offsite every day and rotate the two disks.

Hope this makes sense!

Mark.

 

[Badger UK]

Hiya Mark

I'm almost embarrassed to say that I hadn't thought of backing up the Diskstation like you have mentioned. Now as you have said it, it seems like the only way to go.

I was pretty certain I'd be buying a Drobo at Focus in a couple of weeks, I'm thinking of giving your method a go for a while and see how I get on and give me time to have a bit of a re-think.

Excellent and thanks for the ideas even if I do feel a little like I should have thought of that.


B

 

[raj_kemp]

Better and cheaper than Drobo is "Unraid". Google it and you can convert any old PC into UNRAID setup and for less than £600 I built a 10TB server last year

 

[Badger UK]

Gets more interesting all the time.

 

[wavefront]

Excellent and thanks for the ideas even if I do feel a little like I should have thought of that.

B

No worries That's the beauty of asking others for ideas, there's always new/other ways of doing things

 

[dubcat]

I am building a nas. This will be my onsite backup for newer files which will sxost on my pc and my nas as well as my archive for my oldest files which will only exist on my nas. Since I will run raid I consider these files to be relatively safe as I can lose a drive and still recover.

I am then going to look at mozy, crashplan, etc for offsite backup. My choice is to use a cloud service or stick another n40l in my parents house and sync that with mine. I will probably go with the cloud service. This means if my raid goofs up I can recover. If I am robbed I can recover. I'd there is a fire or flood I can recover, albeit slowly.

As an addition to all of this I am going to go through 1 months worth of photos every week and delete the ones I dont think I will use. I don't think I have been aggressive enough in pruning files.

Well that's the plan anyway.

 

[dubcat]

I am building a nas. This will be my onsite backup for newer files which will sxost on my pc and my nas as well as my archive for my oldest files which will only exist on my nas. Since I will run raid I consider these files to be relatively safe as I can lose a drive and still recover.

I am then going to look at mozy, crashplan, etc for offsite backup. My choice is to use a cloud service or stick another n40l in my parents house and sync that with mine. I will probably go with the cloud service. This means if my raid goofs up I can recover. If I am robbed I can recover. I'd there is a fire or flood I can recover, albeit slowly.

As an addition to all of this I am going to go through 1 months worth of photos every week and delete the ones I dont think I will use. I don't think I have been aggressive enough in pruning files.

Well that's the plan anyway.

Ps for nas I looked at unraid and freenas. However I preferred openmediavault. In the end though I decided to run Ubuntu server and with a little extra work have what I consider to be a more flexible system. I am using my nas to serve movies to my tv, store all my iTunes files, and download new content for me too.

 

[Badger UK]

As an addition to all of this I am going to go through 1 months worth of photos every week and delete the ones I dont think I will use. I don't think I have been aggressive enough in pruning files.

I try to do this occassionaly too, although I do need to be far more, as you say aggressive.

Will do a few before I go to bed tonight.