I think I'm quite vulnerable here...

NoNameNoNumber

NoNameNoNumber

NoNameNoNumber

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Joined
25 Nov 2009
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Evening all...

I know I'm lazy with the whole back up thing and I have in the past made some half arsed attempts to securely store some photos/documents etc but I've come to realise I really do need to actively get my **** together here. My rig consists of the following:

240GB SSD for program files and personal docs/pics etc
64GB SSD for Windows 7 and 8
120GB SSD for Steam/Origin
120GB SSD just floating around with crap on it

Then sat in the draw to avoid the noise of a HDD spooling up...

1TB HDD with a few drive images on and tons of pics
500GB with back ups of a few pics
500GB thats been formatted.

How would you suggest I use my drives? I'd be happy to have the 2 500GB HDDs in a RAID1 for all docs and pics with a weekly back up but I hate noise they make!

Also I want to be able to do clean installs of windows (scrap win8) without causing too much hassle.

And finally just make logical sense of it all... I feel like none of it is really A) working for me or B) secure...

Sorry it's a bit long winded!

Thanks for any input though :)
 
just connect the spare 500gb up and backup the three largest ssd's once done pull the molex power plug on the hdd, (enable hotswap in the bios for all the ports)

just connect it up when you need to backup things
 
Offsite backup can be straightforward. I have two USB 3 external drives that I rotate regularly. The one that is not connected is kept in a physically separate location. I appreciate it doubles the cost though.
 
Yep, personally I'd do some consolidation of drives. I'd buy two 2TB portable HDDs, stick the data from the 1TB and 500GB drawer hard drives onto one and back up the contents of all your internal drives on to it.

Once done copy the contents onto the second 2TB portable and leave one attached to the machine with backup software doing a daily backup onto it. Take the second HDD to your parents/work/a friends and leave it there.

Once every few weeks swap the two HDDs around so each one has is constantly updated. A simple, fairly comprehensive backup solution for £140. You can also back up your most important data onto the cloud, you've probably got one provider that offers 100+GB of space.
 
I'd buy a bigger SSD or use your current 240GB to fit all your program files steam folder etc. Sell the smaller ones on the members market.

Build a RAID 1 pack with your 2X500GB drives. Here you can keep any important data as well as bigger files. You can then set the drives to turn off in windows when not in use which will spare you from the "noise"

Also make sure everything that's mega important is backed up in the cloud or at the very least on another external drive.
 
George Hincapie said:
For home users? No.

I don't disagree with the sentiment BTW, I just don't think the off site portion is realistic.
Click to expand...

In 2015, it's entirely realistic. Unlimited backup plans (Crashplan, etc) are very cheap and a large percentage of the country has access to broadband with >10Mb/s upstream.
 
Does anyone for home/personal purposes actually keep a physical media copy off-site?

No-ones really asked the OP yet what type of files he categorises as irreplaceable, and how big those files are. Anything valuable and sub 50Gb can be dumped onto the cloud for free, anymore than 50Gb and you may need to purchase a plan - or split it across vendors (dropbox/drive/onedrive). I don't see the need for backing up steam game files, when steam basically backs them up for you, you'd just need to sort out the game save files.
 
Well, anything less than 64GB and irreplaceable can go on a pen drive and be left at your mums :D

Splash out, buy a pair and rotate them.

Or leave one plugged into a wifi router/access point stealing internet off your mums neighbour. Set it up for web access and presto - personal cloud storage or whatever the hip term for it is now :)
Don't over-think it :)
 
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Semple said:
Does anyone for home/personal purposes actually keep a physical media copy off-site?

No-ones really asked the OP yet what type of files he categorises as irreplaceable, and how big those files are. Anything valuable and sub 50Gb can be dumped onto the cloud for free, anymore than 50Gb and you may need to purchase a plan - or split it across vendors (dropbox/drive/onedrive). I don't see the need for backing up steam game files, when steam basically backs them up for you, you'd just need to sort out the game save files.
Click to expand...

I do, basically the way I describe above, but instead of plugging the drive into the computer I leave it permanently attached to my NAS. I've also started backing up my lightroom catalogue (only a few GB in size) to Onedrive as well as the NAS after losing two weeks worth of work (not much luckily) recently after an SSD went pop.

I have about 2 TB of irreplaceable data - two peoples photos - and about another 4TB of other data (mostly films/music). I'm currently sorting out upgrading my backup system to 4TB drives in caddy, or alternatively the 8TB Seagate archive drives that will hopefully be released shortly. With that kind of data online backup of all of it isn't really feasible, at least at a cost I'm willing to bear.
 
I keep two portable hard disks and backup folders that are important using syncback.
One drive is kept at home in a fire safe.
The other I keep at work.
As most of my 'important' data is my photography raw/dng files I also upload full res jpegs of the the best to Google Drive as belt and braces approach.
 
KIA said:
In 2015, it's entirely realistic. Unlimited backup plans (Crashplan, etc) are very cheap and a large percentage of the country has access to broadband with >10Mb/s upstream.
Click to expand...

Not really realistic when you only get 1.5Mbps upload and that's on fttc.
 
Amp34 said:
I do, basically the way I describe above, but instead of plugging the drive into the computer I leave it permanently attached to my NAS. I've also started backing up my lightroom catalogue (only a few GB in size) to Onedrive as well as the NAS after losing two weeks worth of work (not much luckily) recently after an SSD went pop.

I have about 2 TB of irreplaceable data - two peoples photos - and about another 4TB of other data (mostly films/music). I'm currently sorting out upgrading my backup system to 4TB drives in caddy, or alternatively the 8TB Seagate archive drives that will hopefully be released shortly. With that kind of data online backup of all of it isn't really feasible, at least at a cost I'm willing to bear.
Click to expand...

So apart from the few GB you save to the cloud, you only have a contingency for drive failure/virus/corruption, but nothing in the way of fire/flood/theft.
 
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