Backups and Space

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gpc1

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Hi All


Need some help here,


I have a 1TB imace, that is almost full.


I have a 2TB western digital external harddrive running time machine backup

I have a 2 TB western digital external hardrive that has the edited images on from the weddings (Raws are on the main Imac)

I use backblaze to backup to the cloud.


Im running out of space.


I need to get some external storage that will see me though the next year or 2, that can be backed up by backblaze and can also be backed up via time machine to another external HD that I can keep offsite.


Not sure where to start on this one. I don’t edit on the move so all editing is done on the imac. Any ideas for a sensible solution that wil allow me to free up space, have an onsite backup, works with backblaze and doesn’t cost the earth.


Cheers
 
Also, Backblaze doesn't recognise NAS I believe, hence the drives need to be connected either by USB or Thunderbolt to the Imac.

rgds
 
f/2.8 said:
We use one of these not sure if its exactly the same model
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Synology-D...qid=1472731807&sr=1-5&keywords=synology+2+bay

We don't use backblaze though so not sure if compatible.
Click to expand...

thanks, quite pricey that one.

I think I have figured out what I need here...its now just sourcing it at the right price.

I need a 6TB ( 2 X 3 TB Raid ) drive that can connect to the Imac via USB.
2 X 3Tb external hard drive to act as onsite backup via Time machine. Swapping out each drive each month and storing in a fireproof safe. (ie one drive always connected and the other in the safe ready to swap at each month end) Back up mac operating system as well as the data on the Raid drive
Back blaze should be OK with the RAID device connected to the Imac.

So that's 2 onsite versions of the drive
1 onsite backup (2disks alternating monthly)
1 off site cloud.

So now I just need to purchase the drives, any recommendations for a reasonably priced 2 X 3tb RAID device.

Rgds
 
JonathanRyan said:
Wow - fire proof safe? How much is your data worth?
Click to expand...

my data is worth a lot, especially to the brides! I think you can get fireproof safes fairly reasonably. Only needs to be the size of a external hard drive.
 
neil_g said:
you get what you pay for with synology (and qnap).
Click to expand...

was looking at thise, but they are NAS. Backblaze doesn't back up NAS drives (unless you subscribe to their B2 service) and I only use one Imac so NAS isn't really needed.

I need a 2 disk (2x 3tb) RAID device that plugs in to imac so that backblaze can recognise it as an external drive.

there are a lot of options out there and its proving quite tricky to ensure I get one that does what I need.
 
gpc1 said:
my data is worth a lot, especially to the brides! I think you can get fireproof safes fairly reasonably. Only needs to be the size of a external hard drive.
Click to expand...

Dunno. When I was working in network support (a l-o-n-g time ago) we used to have a book on the desk about backups and stuff. The cover said "remember: data melts before paper burns". I'm not sure that fireproof data safes are that cheap yet. Another issue would be that most are rated for 30 mins. That's fine if you're a corporate data site and happy to send a recovery team in to pick up the data. If it's your house then I'm not sure the brigade would have the flames out in 30 mins. Now that might seem a pessimistic approach but there's no point buying a fireproof unless it works. It's far cheaper to store your data offsite (maybe in your car).

And yeah, sure, pics are worth a lot to brides. Maybe call one up who got married 3 years ago and ask them what they would actually pay to recover the files from their wedding if they lost them. That tells you roughly what you need to spend on 3 year backups. I've certainly spent a lot on backups in the past. From a business point of view, most of that money was wasted.
 
neil_g said:
you want a DAS RAID from the likes of Startech or Icybox, I've got a 4 bay Startech eSATA/USB3 unit as a backup and it's not too bad at all. Speeds are pretty good.
Click to expand...

I think I've mentioned before that my experience of Startech DAS RAID on Macs hasn't been good. I may have got a couple of rogue ones but I found it better to use 2 separate DAS drives and let OS X RAID them.
 
using the operating system = software raid.
using the drive hardware/pci card = hardware raid.

i wouldnt trust the/any OS to manage the raid personally. although it shouldn't strictly matter as you have backups, its a pain to sort out when it goes wrong.
 
+1 for Hardware over software RAID. Remember that Time Machine will allow you to set up both backup drives simultaneously and will then back up to whichever is currently available.
Rather than a fireproof safe, keep the drive somewhere else.

Remember that you should always test the integrity of your backups periodically, nothing worse than discovering your backups cannot be restored...
 
Andy Taylor said:
+1 for Hardware over software RAID. Remember that Time Machine will allow you to set up both backup drives simultaneously and will then back up to whichever is currently available.
Rather than a fireproof safe, keep the drive somewhere else.

Remember that you should always test the integrity of your backups periodically, nothing worse than discovering your backups cannot be restored...
Click to expand...

Ah. Schrodinger's backup.....

Screen+Shot+2015-06-24+at+2.43.20+pm.pngimgmax=660.png
 
I think if it was that important I would have two cloud backups with different providers
 
I've scheduled automatic nightly back-ups of my Synology NAS to a couple of 8TB external drives. I've got the option of running integrity checks on the back-ups themselves too.
 
thanks all, all really helpful stuff.

Im still thinking the best solution for me is

Time machine running on an external HDD backing up operating system and the RAID, swapped out monthly and kept offsite (forget the fireproof safe)
A dual RAID 2 X 3 TB drive connected to Imac. Will bold to back of desk (or somewhere hidden in case of theft)
Backblaze backing up the Imac and the RAID disk

So anyone have a recommendation for a cost effective DAS @ 2 X 3TB
 
How do you want it connected, network , thunderbolt, USB.
Personally, storage is cheap, so I wouldn't limit yourself to 2 x 3Tb disks, if you think 6Tb wd red can be had for around £220 each at the moment and a synology 2 bay is around £150 or cheaper.
WD mybook thunderbolt for 8Tb, mac supported.

How about encrypted for offsite? I've been working with councils whi transfer their data on these
http://www.ebuyer.com/714056-istora...dt-usb-3-0-256-bit-3-5-ext-hdd-is-da-256-6000
 
If you go for a NAS I would recommend getting a 4 bay+ even if you don't fill them at first. I've got a 2 bay and ran out of space much faster than expected, as above go with 4+ tb NAS HDDs if you can.
Also with synology NASs you can have 2 in different locations sync'd over the net, guess all the others do similar, could be an option,
 
If you're looking at a secondary cloud backup Amazon now do unlimited space for £55/year.

Slightly off topic but can I ask about your firesafe? I've been meaning to get one, what are you using? Thanks!
 
SixToes said:
If you're looking at a secondary cloud backup Amazon now do unlimited space for £55/year.

Slightly off topic but can I ask about your firesafe? I've been meaning to get one, what are you using? Thanks!
Click to expand...

thats a pretty cool idea actually. The amazon service will be neat. i guess its just acting like a external hard drive. I could sync the external drive ot he amazon drive and have another offsite automatically.

I dont have the safe as yet, was looking into them but havent got very far.
 
I really really don't like using external hard disk drives and sneakernet for backup. They are just too fragile. I've broken no less than three ... One only fell 1.5 feet.

I would make sure there was ample storage in the iMac, and back that up to a NAS + cloud.

The benefit of using a NAS is, should the iMac suffer a hardware failure, you can still access your data whilst the iMac is repaired. After pulling an all nighter to meet a deadline for a commercial client following a hardware failure, I adopted a policy of keeping two machines capable of picture editing. No issues with Synology.

Equally, no issues spinning your own and using FreeNAS. I mean, most RAIDed desktops and consumer NASes are software RAID anyway.
 
wilt said:
I have a synology NAS and people said the same thing before I got it. I'm not impressed at all by it. It's software and apps are buggy as hell, the backup function has a mind of its own. Personally I wouldn't recommend one.
Click to expand...
I can't relate to your experience at all. I had a DS413, but replaced it with a larger capacity and higher performing DS1515+ and I can't rate it highly enough. I've got it backing up automatically every night via Hyper Backup to a couple of external drives and it's currently syncing away via Cloud Sync to Amazon Cloud Drive too. The only issue I've had is stalled syncing with Google Drive, but Dropbox and Amazon syncing have worked a treat.
 
DigitalRelish said:
I can't relate to your experience at all. I had a DS413, but replaced it with a larger capacity and higher performing DS1515+ and I can't rate it highly enough. I've got it backing up automatically every night via Hyper Backup to a couple of external drives and it's currently syncing away via Cloud Sync to Amazon Cloud Drive too. The only issue I've had is stalled syncing with Google Drive, but Dropbox and Amazon syncing have worked a treat.
Click to expand...
Same here, my 713+ with DS513 additional 5 bay module is so good that I've switched off my other devices. Heck it even runs docker containers. Never found any of the apps/software not functionality as it does. In addition to the professional stuff it is working formidably as a Plex and Media Server as well.

Very very impressed with it and with two gigabit ports achieving full speed saturation when testing, no complaints about the speed either.
 
DigitalRelish said:
I can't relate to your experience at all. I had a DS413, but replaced it with a larger capacity and higher performing DS1515+ and I can't rate it highly enough. I've got it backing up automatically every night via Hyper Backup to a couple of external drives and it's currently syncing away via Cloud Sync to Amazon Cloud Drive too. The only issue I've had is stalled syncing with Google Drive, but Dropbox and Amazon syncing have worked a treat.
Click to expand...

that's a NAS though isn't it?

Cant use a NAS at the moment with backblaze unless I go onto their pricey plan...
 
just found this

https://www.arqbackup.com/

From the Blurb!

You can back up to your own Amazon Cloud Drive, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Storage, Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive accounts, or your SFTP server or NAS. Use that extra space in your existing cloud account to store your encrypted backups.
  • Arq backs up everything or just the files you choose.
  • Arq doesn't skip videos or ignore certain file types
  • Arq backs up files of any size -- 4GB, 40GB, it doesn't matter
  • Arq backs up your network drives
  • Arq doesn't delete backups of your external drives just because you haven't plugged them in lately
  • Arq doesn't forcibly delete old backup records (unless you tell it to).
  • Arq restores your files onto any computer.

Looks superb.. and its nit a subscription either. So for the 49$ price plus the amazon 60 per year you get unlimited cloud backup, including external drives.

need to look into it a bit more but for the price, even if used for just a couple of years, looks good.
 
I upload to my Amazon Cloud Drive from my HP micro server
 
admirable said:
I upload to my Amazon Cloud Drive from my HP micro server
Click to expand...
does it act like a mirror though, or does it store backups.

Arq writes backups so if you delete from the HD Amazon will have a full pre delete back up to restore from.
 
I have the Amazon Drive app installed on the server, I copy from my PC to the server and the Amazon app copies the folder/s to the Cloud.
I then have a copy of the files on my server and a copy of the files on Amazon Cloud.............amongst others.
I also have Acronis True Image make an image copy of my main PC hard Drive to the server which is then copied to the cloud.

EDIT: If the server went Pete Tong I would still have the individual files on the Amazon Cloud
 
Last edited:
gpc1 said:
that's a NAS though isn't it?

Cant use a NAS at the moment with backblaze unless I go onto their pricey plan...
Click to expand...
I used to have a paid CrashPlan subscription and that did support network drives. Managed to get a couple of TB uploaded before the client app on my desktop went haywire.
 
gpc1 said:
just found this

https://www.arqbackup.com/

From the Blurb!

You can back up to your own Amazon Cloud Drive, Amazon Web Services, Google Cloud Storage, Google Drive, Dropbox, or OneDrive accounts, or your SFTP server or NAS. Use that extra space in your existing cloud account to store your encrypted backups.
  • Arq backs up everything or just the files you choose.
  • Arq doesn't skip videos or ignore certain file types
  • Arq backs up files of any size -- 4GB, 40GB, it doesn't matter
  • Arq backs up your network drives
  • Arq doesn't delete backups of your external drives just because you haven't plugged them in lately
  • Arq doesn't forcibly delete old backup records (unless you tell it to).
  • Arq restores your files onto any computer.
Looks superb.. and its nit a subscription either. So for the 49$ price plus the amazon 60 per year you get unlimited cloud backup, including external drives.

need to look into it a bit more but for the price, even if used for just a couple of years, looks good.
Click to expand...
Oooh, that looks quite good! The one thing about Amazon Drive is that it doesn't offer encryption which is fine for images and video, but I'd want it for any sensitive/financial files.
 
DigitalRelish said:
Oooh, that looks quite good! The one thing about Amazon Drive is that it doesn't offer encryption which is fine for images and video, but I'd want it for any sensitive/financial files.
Click to expand...

exactly, so Arq encrypts before it hits amazon.

I was looking at the western digital My Book Duo RAID device. But they have encryption built into the enclosure, so if the enclosure fails you cant access the data on either disk.
 
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