Backup setup

Universal · 7 Jun 2012 at 10:43

I have a hard disk full of my work and personal files such as my iTunes library etc. I do not have this backed up and now looking for a simple backup setup to back up my machine and my external hard disk.

Is this something a time capsule would be ideal for? Can you backup two hard disks? As they are quite pricey I would like to look at other options also. Any recommendations would be great.

Many Thanks.

EDIT – I have used Carbon Clone in the past, is there any advantage of using Time Machine? In a ideal word I need some sort of NAS/Backup setup. Heard a few people mention DroboPro but again it's expensive when on a budget!

theheyes · 7 Jun 2012 at 11:08

In my opinion the Time Capsule is a pretty pathetic backup device and best avoided. You might as well put the money you would spend on one towards a proper NAS. How much capacity do you need?

Universal · 7 Jun 2012 at 11:13

Why are they so bad? Are they unreliable? Would be also beneficial to plug my printer in so I can use it wireless.

I only need 1TB at present.

Skyboat · 7 Jun 2012 at 11:18

There is nothing wrong with the Time Capsule if you just want a simple, easy-to-setup wireless backup method. It also doubles up as a wireless access point if needed as well, and mine's been incredibly reliable.

Universal · 7 Jun 2012 at 11:24

Can I use them as a NAS? Could I plug in an external hard disk for backups and use the main one for a NAS?

Thanks.

uniQ · 7 Jun 2012 at 11:34

I have a Synology DS212j for backups, downloads and as a media player/streamer and it's superb. I also use Arq (software) to backup my essential stuff to Amazon S3 and it works out quite cheap.

Hamish · 7 Jun 2012 at 11:41

I just bought a cheap external hard drive, plug it in every month and time machine does its thing.

but now I'm also using JungleDisk to backup my stuff online to Amazon S3, took about 2 weeks to do the inital upload of 50Gb or so but now it only takes a few minutes to do the changes each night.

don't get a drobo - they're designed for professional work stations which need big hard drive setups - movie editors and stuff, much too high spec for just a backup device.

Nexus · 7 Jun 2012 at 11:41

The Time Capsule isn't really designed to be NAS.

It's a great device for backing up multiple Macs without having to think about it though, I've been using mine now for a year and a half and am pleased with it. It's only downside of course is the price and many will tell you that you can get more for less money.

Nexus · 7 Jun 2012 at 11:44

Hamish said:
don't get a drobo - they're designed for professional work stations which need big hard drive setups - movie editors and stuff, much too high spec for just a backup device.

Not necessarily, they have models which they don't consider part of their Pro range.

I've got a Drobo and it can be used as a backup device very effectively. It's main benefit is if you already have a bunch of different size drives knocking about, you can just put them all into the Drobo.

lamboman · 7 Jun 2012 at 11:53

theheyes said:
In my opinion the Time Capsule is a pretty pathetic backup device and best avoided. You might as well put the money you would spend on one towards a proper NAS. How much capacity do you need?

This is untrue.

The Time Capsule used to be unreliable as hell when it first came out, but this very much isn't the case now.

The 2TB TC in particular is actually pretty good value for money; you one of the best routers out there and a 2TB drive for the price. The 3TB is okay, but not quite as strong as the 2TB in this regard.

As a NAS, to be honest it should be fine if you aren't planning on using it for heavy transfers and reads; as with most routers, anything attached to the USB interface runs crazy slow. For basic shared storage, and if you're only going to be using it to store small files/an iTunes Library, you shouldn't run into any problems.

As a backup device, it's about as simple as you can get, and works absolutely fine.

theheyes · 7 Jun 2012 at 17:26

If you want to store terabytes of data on a single, very high density consumer grade disk then good luck to you.

Shimmyhill · 8 Jun 2012 at 14:36

theheyes said:
If you want to store terabytes of data on a single, very high density consumer grade disk then good luck to you.

What HDDs would you use in a NAS that aren't consumer grade?

FWIW i use a time capsule to backup the macs in the house but i also have a synology NAS for file serving purposes (music to Sonos and vid files to apple tv's etc)

The time capsule is a great router (virgin cable here) and has been flawless in the time I've had it (can't remember how long but its the 1tb one and several years old now) and only issue i have with it is the 3 network ports on the back.

I prefer to have separate devices for backing up and serving and while the TC does only have a single drive I'm happy enough with is as a backup device.

theheyes · 8 Jun 2012 at 16:42

My problem with the Time Capsule is that Apple advertise it as "server grade" storage when the reality is they've pretty much invented their own definition of "server grade" based on the MTBF of the disks they use. The disks that are in Time Capsule are just run of the mill desktop drives.

It wouldn't be so bad if there were two of them in there, but there isn't, and you're trusting massive amounts of data to something that isn't technically robust. I've seen too many disks die and/or silently corrupt themselves over the years. TC is Mickey Mouse storage.

This is just my opinion of course, as long as you know what you're buying then it's up to you.

lamboman · 8 Jun 2012 at 19:20

theheyes said:
My problem with the Time Capsule is that Apple advertise it as "server grade" storage when the reality is they've pretty much invented their own definition of "server grade" based on the MTBF of the disks they use. The disks that are in Time Capsule are just run of the mill desktop drives.

It wouldn't be so bad if there were two of them in there, but there isn't, and you're trusting massive amounts of data to something that isn't technically robust. I've seen too many disks die and/or silently corrupt themselves over the years. TC is Mickey Mouse storage.

This is just my opinion of course, as long as you know what you're buying then it's up to you.

Your point could be argued for every single product in its price range. You're stating that a consumer grade product is consumer grade, in essence... :rolleyes:

If the OP buys a NAS, with what will likely be the same drives, you've still got the same problem. What's the difference?

dav3evans · 8 Jun 2012 at 23:06

I went for one of the D-Link 320 NAS boxes. pretty cheap as it was only £50 for the enclosure. It holds 2 drives that are mirrored so I have 2 copies there, and then everything is on the laptop too. Drive choices are up to you really, dependant on how much space you want/need.

Nexus · 9 Jun 2012 at 11:45

lamboman said:
Your point could be argued for every single product in its price range. You're stating that a consumer grade product is consumer grade, in essence... If the OP buys a NAS, with what will likely be the same drives, you've still got the same problem. What's the difference?

Agreed.

Plus they didn't use true server grade disks in their Xserves, which were their server product, so that might be how they can try and justify it. They also have the caveat next to the server grade description:

Based on reliability rating of at least 1 million hours MTBF. 1TB = 1 trillion bytes; actual formatted capacity less.

At the end of the day, it's a device that only backups a small amount of data every hour, if your computer is on and has done something. It's not like a Server or RAID which needs a proper server grade disk because it's constantly in use.

LazyManc · 9 Jun 2012 at 23:02

It depends how much it would hurt to lose your backups - if you're just keeping a copy of your current laptop data and don't care about change history, then losing the backup drive isn't a big deal, you just replace the disk and start backing up again.

If however you need to store data you can't easily recover, then having only one disk is asking for trouble.

If you've already got a decent wifi setup then I'd buy a 2 or 4 bay NAS instead, they're a lot more versatile (capacity, fault tolerance, extra features e.g. download server). If you get a Synology or Drobo product then they support time machine anyway, and you can just bung new drives in as you need them and they will grow the volume to use it.

theheyes · 10 Jun 2012 at 23:52

lamboman said:
Your point could be argued for every single product in its price range. You're stating that a consumer grade product is consumer grade, in essence... If the OP buys a NAS, with what will likely be the same drives, you've still got the same problem. What's the difference?

The difference is you mirror two drives so you're not betting a couple of terabytes of data on your disk not failing.

lamboman · 11 Jun 2012 at 00:18

Yes, but again, this can be applied to any single drive solution, not just the TC.

And besides, you could go on forever; the fact is, yes, drives fail. The average consumer doesn't need such backup solutions, a single drive is usually enough.

LordSplodge · 11 Jun 2012 at 10:30

The argument about Time Capsule versus NAS is moot if you don't have some form of regular offsite backup. They both go bye bye in flood, fire or theft.