Hi all, so I'm looking to make a backup of my system here at home that I use for storing my music, movies, photos and video renderings. I currently have approx 3.5TB of data held on 4 x 1TB Samsung F1 disks. I have a 64GB SSD for the OS. So I want to make live backups of all my data in case I have a HDD failure. So what's the best way to do this? On-line backup is too expensive for anything like 4TB, so maybe I need to build a NAS box to do automatic backups, or should I look at simply ghosting HDDs onto new disks? My current spec is: Mobo - MSI P67A-GD55 (B3) CPU - Core i5 2500K Memory - Corsair Vengeance - Memory 1600MHz - 16GB SSD - OCZ Agility 3 SSD 60GB PSU - Corsiar 850W OS - Windows 7 Ultimate 64 Bit (Fresh install) Storage - 4 x 1 TB Samsung F1's. I welcome all advice on what people think I should do. Thanks, Dave
I don't think so bud, I'll check the Mobo specs there, but I don't recall seeing any RAID options with it. EDIT** the MSI site says SATA1~6 ports support RAID 0/1/5/10 mode by Intel P67 (B3) PCH
So atm the drives are all used separately? I.e you have 4 1TB drives showing up in explorer? Would you ever think of setting up a raid array and then just doing a clone of the array? Something like Acronis and an external drive would do the job.
Remember a RAID is not a backup per-say, you cannot restore a file using it. but it would "clone" the hard drives. I would grab a microserver, 2x2TB drives and Windows home server tbh.
Forgetting that raid isn't backup (as has been noted by others), unless you go for R0 (which naturally isn't backup) it's going to slow down your encoding/transcoding/whatever speed even further than it is already. &, obviously, since you've got 3.5TB of data on the HDDs, you're going to have to be looking at buying extra drives anyway - both for backup & as you're functionally running out of space - & it depends upon what you have to spend. Now, in a perfect world you'd want to have separate drives dedicated solely for source & destination (respectively) when audio or video editing/transcoding/etc (under partitioning & moving data off when you're finished with each project) - which 'could' be 2 of your F4s... or all 4 of them in 2xR0 which would enhance the speed but increase the risk of data loss if a drive or array failed. [The F4s are very decent drives for video encoding btw - okay, 15K enterprise drives or SSDs are better, but keeping it within reason...] Well, within your current setup, unless you've partitioned two of the drives so that the soucres & destination are on the outer cylinders (using 2nd partitions for data that's not going to be simultaneously accessed, the encoding speed is going to be far lower than you could be getting... ...but this wouldn't be an ideal workaround. So, taking 2 drives out, you'd need to be looking at either two or more, in multiples of two (so that there's an equal amount of storage & backup naturally), 2/3/4TB drives simply for 'archival storage' - ie random audio, video, etc. Now it's then personal choice as to whether you want to put the extra drives in the machine, go for an NAS or DAS, or use something like a usb3 dock... ...or a combination of both. Well, putting them in gives convenience... ...a NAS/DAS gives convenience & reduces risk from machine issues but more significantly adds cost... ...whilst using a dock will tend to enhance the drives', & hence the backups', longevity d.t. fewer spin ups/downs &, to some extent, reduces risks from malware/user error/etc as the drives are only online when you attach them - & would be cheaper than a NAS/DAS. [i use a mixture of all 3, btw, as there are advantages to each... Well, for example, having daily backups of data that changes using permanently attached drives is really useful - whilst it's not as though my music collection (ignoring live bootlegs) grows daily so having its backup via a dock means that there's an even lesser chance of data loss/having to re-rip everything... & the NAS & DASes are also there as there's simply not enough space in the machines for the no of HDDs i have.] Well, if i were you, i'd look to dedicate 2 of the F4s for video work as suggested... ...then use one of the remaining F4s for programs (assuming you've not the cash for more SSD space)... ...doing daily backups of whatever's critical between the SSD & the F4s to the other F4 (putting it in the machine) - personally, i like Acronis Trueimage for this... ...& add at least 2x3TB - one (or more) in the machine & one (or more) using a dock - for archival stuff (manually updating when needed) - i personally use a mix of WD Reds & Greens for this type of thing. The advantage of this approach, over the MicroServer idea, is, quite simply, that it's vastly cheaper... ...okay, the dock optional (depending on the total no of drives you end up with), but, with the MicroServer, you could easily end up spending £300-400 (unless there's another cashback offer) with WHS & pimping it up & whatnot without even buying any HDDs. Well, given that you'll need at least a couple of HDDs either which way (so these aren't costed for), the extra £300 could more than cover a second pair of 3TB drives & a half decent dock - i personally use a Sharkoon usb3 one... ...whilst £400 would be about the right money to get you a half decent 250/256GB SSD as well. [Edit] Don't get me wrong, the MicroServers are decent bits of kit, but i can't entirely see what the justification would be for you to buy one in your situation - it's not as though you couldn't stick more drives in the machine &/or use a much cheaper dock. Accepting that i've suggested that, imho, there would be better ways of spending the money 'if' you've got ~£5-600 or so to spend, it's taking something that you 'could' do for ~£220 (£93x2 for 2x 3TB WD Greens + £40 for Acronis) & adding £3-400 to it... Whilst, as said, there is an increased chance of both a drive & its backup failing semi-simultaneously if they're in the same machine, it's a very slim chance & not worth that kind of additional expenditure imho.
Grab an old system, get a copy of FreeNAS and built yourself a cheap NAS. Initialize backup only copying modified and new files during dinner and be done with it. I'm using an old AMD Sempron 2800+ paired with a MSI 7145 and an array of four 2TB-drives housed in an old Antec Threehundred as a NAS using FreeNAS. Works like a charm.
Me and my dad have a Home Server setup using a old system but it is only used for my dads pc at the moment. Eventually I am going to build a full server so that we can connect everything to it, and use the backup feature again as it worked quite well it the past for us when we both used it. Currently though I just back up vital stuff on to a hdd that is spare and leave it on a shelf until it's needed.
Thanks for all the advice lads, greatly appreciated. I have an old Q6600 and mobo so I might go and do as jrs77 says and build a cheap NAS as the backup. I can get some WD Green 2TB disks for about €90 each so with small enough money I should be able to complete a NAS. Now I got to ask some friends if they have any old cases they want to sell Hey Damien I just noticed your post count is leet
