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Budget (including currency): $2000 each USD IDK? Country: USA Games, programs or workloads that it will be used for: Storage for small files that everyone in the office has access to. I also want to back everything up weekly or so. Other details (existing parts lists, whether any peripherals are needed, what you're upgrading from, when you're going to buy, what resolution and refresh rate you want to play at, etc): Currently the small company that I work for keeps all of the files that the office works on, on a single drive that everyone has access to via a network share. The drive is located in a workstation that is used by someone every day. I think this drive is supposed to be backed up to a cloud service but I am not sure how often or if it even works at all. I pitched him the idea of moving the drive into a seperate machine so it is not dependent on anyones workstation. I also pitched the idea of having a local backup in the second building that we own. All of the files total to about 500GB right now but it will increase over time. I am looking for some advice on just about everything from the hardware I should buy to the software I should run. Leaning towards Truenas but not married to it. Haven't done a NAS setup before but I am a computer science major so I am not scared to learn. Also do I need something with IPMI?

I've been looking for a good backup software for my laptop and I haven't really found anything that works how I want it to so I was hoping for suggestions. My primary computer is a laptop that I plug into a dock when I go home. What I was hoping to do was have my computer backup to an external drive automatically when I plug it into the dock. I have seena couple softwares that do that but every one I have looked at has at least one problem. I don't want to deal with constant ads and I am more than willing to pay for a good software but I don't want to do a subscription. I tried looking at open source options which would be nice but I didn't find any that work when the drive is plugged in. Any good suggestions? This is for a windows computer.

if i build a small computer in a nas case(Please help me find a nas case), put windows on it and use it as a nas with a backblaze pc backup subscription on it to keep all my dta backed up, (I wouldn't need very much bandwidth to it anyway), is it a good idea? What would the specs need to be for such a computer? Would a 2 core celeron be enough along with 8gigs of ram? It would mainly be used for backups. Also, any idea on how i could set up a decent local file sharing program? Windows samba file transfer only works on wondows and is quite crappy tbh, (I would have it backed up to backblaze anyway so i could access all the data from my phone if i need to but, say from my laptop which would be on the same LAN, is there a good way to access it other than making it a network drive?) update: why can’t I find a single NAS case under 400 usd?

Hey so i need some advice on how to go about things the best way Everything is remote , and we need about 6 (may vary )PC's to backup to a server so some will be strait from the pc's and other will be from a NAS drive Locally with that persons computer How is the best way to get the data on the NAS Drives to the 'Master Backup server' and to do it automatically so everything on that NAS will back up to it without manually moving anything I drew and attached quick and dirty diagram to try and help explain it , we are pretty sure it will be a Cloud based Master backup through AWS or something similar . any help or recommendations appreciated , any questions just ask Thanks

TLDR: Can I use Tailscale to access a remote Unraid NAS to back up my Home Unraid NAS and access the remote LAN's Windows Shared Network through a VM on the Remote Unraid NAS. If so, does anyone have any guides or experience doing this? I have a new Unraid server built that I want to use as an offsite backup. This will be placed at my mother's house. I want to also be able to access her networked computers and devices (with her permission of course). The main reason to access her computer is to help maintain her picture library. She goes nuts taking pictures with her phone, emailing them to herself and then creating an exponential number of folders to "organize" her pictures. This usually occurs because she'll download the zip file from gmail, but then every time she wants to look at the pics she extracts them....every time. So there are nested folders all over the place on her PC. I'm sure you all have dealt with this. After spending a weekend onsite fixing this for her I vowed to never do so again by checking in on her PC every now and then and fixing it, then pointing her to a photo library she can be confident in. Tailscale seems to be a the newest hotness and I'm hoping it can be used in this solution so port forwarding, weird DNS stuff and all that is not required. Would I be able to set up Talescale so that: My Home Unraid server can be connected to Mom's Unraid server for period backups of documents, pictures and other valuable data using rsync. Pretty sure this is possible but I haven't found any guides for doing it on Unraid. In order to access her networked computers file systems with out using remote desktop (I don't like it and will freak her out if I just take over her PC) I was thinking of setting up a Windows VM on the remote Unraid box and using that access her shared network files. Is this doable with Tailscale? If this was set up properly would I be setting up a VPN connect between my Windows PC and the VM? Or would I access the Unraid box through Tailscale then run the VM through the VM Console(VNC). Would I then have access to her network since that VM should be on that local area network? Does that make sense? Am I making this too difficult? I know remote desk top would work but I also want to play around with Tailscale and VPNs to learn more about them. Thanks!

Hi all, we have recently finally started using our DS923+ at work for more than just a backup solution for Microsoft 365. We've freed up almost 500GB of our available 1.15TB on SharePoint. So now we have some breathing room and are no longer paying Microsoft's insane $0.20/GB pricing. That's all great, but now that data (mostly archival data that does not get touched) no longer lives in the cloud, it's no longer being backed up by the NAS, so I need a method to back it up. Our DS923+ is currently loaded with 2x8TB Seagate Ironwolf drives in an SHR mirror. We have 2 more identical drives as cold spares. We have 4.4TB of free space with 2.6TB used. I do not foresee us filling up this NAS for at least 3 years. We do not have the budget to buy another NAS. I could buy one personally and backup the work NAS, but I already have a small home media server and do not need the features of Synology NASs. I have a 4TB WD Blue drive that I could put in an enclosure and do USB copies regularly (or I can use one of our cold spare NAS drives). (This is my leading option right now I think.) I could convince work to pickup yet another subscription, and use a provider like Backblaze B2 storage at $6/TB/m. The problem with this is we have cable internet at the office, with only 40Mbps of upload, so this is not optimal.

I’ve had this new PC around 2 years. Last night, everything froze completely except my mouse and I had to force turn off my PC with the power button. Upon rebooting I got the message: “WARNING: Please back-up your data and replace your hard disk drive. A failure may be imminent and cause unpredictable fail.” I’ve attached a picture to this post. I’ve already done some research and it seems this may be related to a firmware issue (https://www.tomshardware.com/news/samsung-980-pro-ssd-failures-firmware-update). I don’t want to boot with this drive to run the tool and run the risk of writing data and forcing the disk to a read only state permanently. I’m wondering what my next best/safest steps are to backup this failing hard drive so I don’t lose all the data. Here’s what I have to work with: - Existing windows PC with the failing SSD and a 4TB HDD (I don’t want to format that 4TB HDD) - A windows laptop - A 2TB portable drive (Also don’t want to format this. I have about 1.5TB of space left there) - A new 2TB M.2 SSD - A new 256GB flash drive - An M.2 NVME enclosure Any help would be greatly appreciated.

I hope the image below makes sense... yes I drew it in paint don't judge lol. lemme know if I'm missing any necessary info for you to help out

My Potential Extremely ROUGH Idea: So in a brief nutshell, I have been throwing around an idea I have had for a while now. My idea would be to provide a secure off-site location for people to store there encrypted, password protected off-site drives. I would provide people with the software required to encrypt and password protect either there own drive or I would also offer to provide a drive and the required software to encrypt and password protect there data. All off-site backups would like inside a secure fire proof safe and I would provide a few different teirs for them to choose from. Eventually I would also provide a service that would allow users to have there own dedicated computer that would integrate with a service such as Dropbox, and this would allow the user to backup there Dropbox data automatically to there dedicated server. So this would allow the user the user to backup there data simply and easily "on the fly" so to speak. As I stated above, this would be a VERY small business in the beginning and I currently have NO business plan etc. As I am literally just "airing" my thoughts so to speak. To say this idea is in its infancy is an understatement. I have done no due diligence etc. Or much research to be honest at this point. With that all said, I guess I was just looking for any and all constructive criticism, feedback, comments or suggestions etc. Please be nice Thanks so very much in advance P.S. - I AM NOT TOO SURE IF I HAVE POSTED THIS IN THE CORRECT CATEGORY, SO IF I HAVEN'T, I AM VERY VERY SORRY, AND IF A MOD WOULD LIKE TO MOVE IT TO THE CORRECT PLACE, I WOULD GREATLY APPRECIATE IT - Thanks so much again

I currently have a 30T NAS storing (among other things) an extensive video library (hence not particularly compressible). It and all other computers in the house are regularly backed up to a 45TB raided backup server, but that's where my backup scheme stops. I don't want to go with cloud storage as a) none of them give guarantees of data safety and b) costs per month for 45T are prohibitive to my budget. Instead I'd like to go with a one-time purchase of an LTO tape drive and a bunch of tape cartridges. But I know next to nothing about the technology. Ideally, of course, I'd get a brand new LTO-9 drive and a few cartridges and go with that, but that seems both extremely expensive, and would seemingly require SAS support in my backup server (which only has SATA). So, what are the best buys per dollar in LTO drive+cartridges right now? Also, should I consider buying something used or refurbished off of eBay or the like? Is that asking for trouble, or are these devices highly reliably, even if used? All suggestions welcome!

I am looking to track and manage the changes to several folders and directories in my hard drive where I do most my work. My concern at the moment is to track the changes, and to take snapshots for certain folders and their files before any work/study sessions at any point in time I choose to preserve. I want to not only be able to see what files were changed, how they were changed, and when they were changed, But also be able to revert them to a point in time before a certain change was made (I realize this would require making copies that take up space, space is of no concern, I can buy large hard drives to chuck all version copies onto). Currently the types of folders I want to monitor and manage are: I teach (student files, submissions, grade books, contact info, lesson plans, resources for teaching, assignments, modified tests, meeting notes, current school year dates and policies, emails to be archived for future records, pay stubs, dates and times worked) so a LOT of files to track and all of them contain sensitive information I do not want posted to the cloud unless encrypted I am learning CS (different classes with diff folders, assignments, lecture notes, lecture videos, links, pdf and word docs, pictures, project files, group meeting notes and recordings) Not as sensitive but I would like to retain such snapshots indefinitely even if I were to look at them a decade later Personal Projects and files (pictures, videos, audio clips, game folders I am modding, personal projects I build for automation and making my life easier, scans of every document and receipt I receive in the mail, tax information, financial documents, personal document scans, resumes) so lots of miscellaneous stuff that can be unimportant or TOO SENSITIVE to leave out there In software development we use github to create a repo of our files in the cloud, and we can manage said files locally and remotely by pushing changes with comments. I want something similar but for local files (without the need for a cloud copy), and automated if possible. Requirements: Local version control of different files User defined snapshots that won't be overwritten or erased no matter how long or what changes are made User written comments/tags for the snapshots If cloud stored must be encrypted with a user defined password/key Can be automatic without the need for me to go in and push/commit anything. I want it to basically autosave in addition to me manually making a save file/snapshot (like in games). Allows me to save the copies or snapshots on an external drive No subscription Optional: Doesn't have to be open source but that would be preferred Doesn't have to be free, I am willing to pay a life-time license if needed Simple setup, but if it requires some technical setup that's fine (prefer not having to setup a server for svn) Storage is of no concern, but if I have to dedicate a whole drive for it, I can buy one and plug it in when needed. External drive and Network Drive support Auto tagging and Auto time stamping ( i can add timestamps and tags to each file if applicable myself) Easy to use but don't mind a learning curve if it makes my life easier Inspirations I had in mind if that helps: Timeshift software for linux that I used to revert my laptop to a previous state, recorded and stored only the changed files in its backup copy to minimize space consumption Github that I use in my coding assignments Dropbox that I used to maintain my current assignment version so I don't lose it Solutions I already explored but don't seem to fit what I am looking for: Tortoise SVN Alomware I realize this is a long post and I appreciate everyone's time. If you can read the full post that would be appreciated, but if not here's a TLDR. TLDR: like timeshift and git, I want to track changes to my files locally and revert them back AND forth to different user defined snapshots. No unencrypted cloud storage and no subscription.

Hi, i have a qnap nas at home that i store my media and my data on. i want to create an offsite backup to it. i want to user an old workstation i have lying around. it should work fine, it has an 8th gen i5, 16gb of ram, a 512gb nvme ssd and a 16TB hdd. i've never done such a task before. i'm a quick learner and i don't need a step by step guide, but i'd like advice on what nas os should i install on the workstation and what would be the best way to implement it.

Hey guys! Can anyone help mr to create a server as a cloud storage for backups for a Samsung phone? I have a lot of hardware here and wpuld like to use it 24/7 and then connect my phone to it and upload/download data to the server instead of google drive. Is there any step by step tutorial for this maybe? Thanks in advance!

Email received today, I pay $7pm now, probably will look at a yearly payment before then.

Not related but somehow related to this post. We've chosen DS 224+, But in my case, I only use it for Personal usage such as iPhone, & MacOS only. Usage: all document types, photo, videos, including using DEVONthink, obsidian Any suggestion? or should I choose the same model?

So i've been trying to back up a bunch of photos and videos of a Queen concert to my pc and for whatever reason my phone does not show up at all . I have uninstalled and reinstalled the drivers / device and it still hasnt changed anything. Anybody got any clue what could be the problem? Cheers in advance, Lex.

Hello, I recently had a portable hard drive fail which resulted in losing access to all my data. I had used the drive to store images, videos, games and other stuff I felt important to store which is now unfortunately all gone. Before this, I never knew it was a rule of thumb to have backups for a backup as I believed that it would never die in such a way and I know now that thinking so was a costly mistake. This made me start looking into various home server and backup solutions especially ones that I build myself from used and refurbished desktops as I would like to keep costs to a minimum and for the learning experience before I move on to more expensive solutions. I want to build a storage that I would mainly use simply for backing up or storing files and data that exists separately from my PC which I do not need to access remotely. Right now, I have 2TB of data that exists only on a portable hard drive and I want something reliable where I can move all that data into. I would like to future proof the system with at least 8TB of pure storage (meaning I would have 8TB of data to backup or store in the near future) and I never want it to fail (meaning I don't want to lose all my data because of a mechanical or software failure). I therefore, request advice or guidance on understanding how I can do so using an old or used desktop (or parts) that I would source from local used stores and online retailers. I want help with understanding the hardware and software (if applicable) requirements for building such a device. How many drives should I get? How big should each drive be? I read about something called a NAS, is this something I should consider if I only (I think) need extended storage? Is it possible to connect to the machine from my pc and not buy a separate monitor? If so, how do I access it (I was unable to find proper information on using a pc to connect to another pc)? Is it just by using a LAN cable? I am a complete beginner to storage and backup in general and I am open to elaborating anything you may feel I may have not explained or considered. Thank you for reading and I appreciate any advice you may have for me.

Hi there, I'm currently looking for a way to copy/backup a specific folder on an m.2 drive (F:) onto an external m.2 USB-C. Is there a way to do it on Win11? I remember back then, wasn't that the function of the 'briefcase' item? I need it to copy/backup every hour and every 5pm (before leaving work. Thank you!

Hey, I have recently created a symlink for some folders and files. This is to make sure that two instances of a program - logged in with different accounts - save their profiles to the same directory, instead of two seperate folders for each account respectively. This way I won't have to manually update them between the folders. The problem is as follows: whenever I make changes on one account, then close the application in which I made those changes, and then close the second application (with the other account logged in), it overrides the profiles that I had changed and leaves me with the unchanged version that was still opened in that application. My plan was to use the Windows file history to be able to just restore the previous files whenever I make the mistake of closing the wrong application first, however I discovered that Windows 11 - which I have recently upgraded to - no longer lets you choose folders to include in the file history. One option would be to move all the folders with the profiles to /Documents or /Favorites, yet that seems like an unnecessary workaround. Does anyone know a solid alternative to Windows' file history, that automatically makes backups of files in a certain directory and makes them available as versions that can be restored? When searching for backup software, you are bombarded with loads of "amazing features", but I would like to minimize the amount of bloatware and unnecessary features. I'd be very thankful for any help or advice.

I bought my brother a new motherboard and cpu and boot drive. I have no idea how to proceed now that I have tried to get started. He has 5 drives in his PC with over 6 TB of data. I got a 1 TB M.2 and a 3 TB hard drive brand new. How do I get windows on the new boot drive and then migrate or transfer his account and data. he has games and save files scattered across all his drives. Would something like raid be worth doing to better manage his files? I've never done it before. Is there a way to backup only his most important files without having to select every folder individually? I don't even know what folders to select. I have built PC's before, but never upgraded one like this before. Thanks, I could really use the help. I feel bad for buying him a nice new CPU, and I thought I could do this. Now I have no idea what to do to get his PC upgraded and not lose all his files and important data and make him start from scratch.

My brothers PC has several hard drives in it, with several terabytes of data across them all. I am installing a new motherboard, CPU and boot drive. Is there a way to create a backup of only his most important settings and files? I simply don't have enough drives to backup all his data. If windows has the options to do this, I cannot find it. Also, once I install windows on the new drive, how do I migrate or move his account/files/etc onto the new drive? He has so many games spread across multiple drives, nothing is organized, the drives are not setup in any kind or raid or anything. What would be the best way to set it up once I have it all together. I have a new 1 TB m.2 drive and a 3 TB hard drive, but he has at least 6 TB or more of data across 5 drives.

Hi, all. I have my old computer collecting dust in the corner. It has the following specs: MB: Gigabyte GA-Z87X-D3H Intel Core i7-4770K 3.50GHz HyperX HX318C10FK2/16 Fury, DDR3, 16GB (Kit 2x 8GB), 1866MHz, CL10, DIMM NVIDIA GeForce GTX 760, 4GB (MSi) Samsung SSD 840 EVO 250GB Seagate Desktop HDD.15 SATA III 4TB From the last upgrade of my Windows Desktop PC, i have left: NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060, 6GB (ASUS) BeQuiet! Dark Power Pro 750W PSU With that, I want to create a server with two purposes: Backup/long term storage for (mostly) Media and Software Development files Renderfarm for Blender projects (well, with those GPUs, more like a Render-Backyard...) For the first task, I ordered two 16TB HDD (Seagate Exos X X16) which should arrive in a few days. For the second task, i intend to install both GPUs in the server and to use the old 4TB HDD as a temporary storage for the renderer. It is also less about performance; I want the system to run over night or in the background while I use my Desktop for more productive work (and gaming, of course). The 250GB SSD would serve as the system drive with the OS and all applications. I do neither have (the space for) a second display nor a second keyboard, so an ideal solution would be to set up the server to be controllable remotely via my local network. The files on the server need to be accessible (at least read and write) from both Windows (via File Explorer and WSL) and Linux (via OpenSSH). My questions are: What is the best operating system on the Server for those intended purposes? I'm most familiar with Debian and its derivates (Kubuntu), but i'm a bit afraid of the long update delays. Are OSes specificly designed for NAS (like OpenMediaVault or TrueNAS) a valid or even the better option? Do I need GUI applications like Plex, Jellyfin, etc., for remote access, or is all that achievable with CLI tools and SSH access (on the server) only? The two 16TB HDDs should store the files redundantly. What RAID level is possible and recommended with this setup? As far as i understand, the main board only supports RAID Levels 0, 1, 5, and "10". Is it theoretically possible to use other levels (maybe software-controlled or something)? Does it make sense to encrypt the backup HDD(s)? Would that work with RAID? Would it be possble to use this machine also as a "recovery drive" for my main Windows PC (i thought of something like partitioning the 4TB HDD into two parts with one serving as Recovery Drive for Windows and the other one as temporary Blender storage)? Or, alternatively, would it be possible to "clone" the system drive of my Windows machine and store it on the server in such a way that i can use it to restore my Windows PC, if that should be necessary? This is because i'm still using Windows 10 on my Desktop and want a bullet-proof backup solution before I upgrade to Windows 11.

My Google photos backup is almost full and i was wondering if there's a way to backup all my pictures and videos and documents (non essential) onto my laptop automatically Ideally free (broke college student)?

Hello all, for some context, I am my works sole IT guy. I have maintained and deployed Microsoft 365 for us coming up on 3 years ago. We're a small business, only 8 people. We mostly use the SharePoint/OneDrive features of Microsoft 365, being able to do file collaboration in the field is extremely important, so OneDrive or other cloud sync services are literally the only way we can do our inspections. While most of our production data is duplicated on other services (we have two programs we use to do surveys/run reports) the original data (floor plans, photo, excel matrices, and field notes) are all stored in our various SharePoint libraries. Not only are inspection related documents stored in SharePoint/OneDrive, sensitive company info is as well. Info such as client contracts, payroll info, etc. All in all, we have approximately 1TB of data that has been generated since I deployed M365. While the chances of data loss or data breach are low (we use 2FA, only myself and 1 other coworker have admin access to anything, and OneDrive has great protections against mass deletion and ransomware) I would still like to host a backup of some sort. Unfortunately, OneDrive does not really have any backup tools built in. The only real means is to download copies of your whole libraries and archive them, the problem with that is the storage requirements quickly balloon out of control and the process is entirely manual. I recently discovered Backblaze and have considered using it as our primary backup. To do this, I would build/buy a low power desktop (probably a Mac mini), connect it to a drive enclosure or use its local storage and sync all document libraries locally. Then Backblaze would backup up that whole computer and the drive with all the SharePoint/OneDrive data. In the event of a ransomware attack, even though the local copies would eventually be encrypted as the changes trickled in, I could wipe any affected systems and restore 100% of our data to prior to the attack. We would pay for the basically free forever version history feature of Backblaze to meet any possible data retention policies I may have to comply with that I don't know about. This method would also allow us to access our data even in the unlikely event that OneDrive is not available for any reason or if accounts are somehow compromised and we get locked out. What are your thoughts on my approach here?

As the title suggests I work in a company that uses an old windows 2000 Chinese PC that contains irreplaceable data that are nowhere else to be found or backed up (that's a fault from our side I know). The old HDD is currently working and we are looking to clone it sector by sector believing that if something happens to the old the cloned HDD will just need to be plugged in and will be working fine (the harware of the pc is supposed to be tethered software inside that's why we need the secteor by sector method). We would like to avoid installing anything on the old HDD as much as possible cause the software that is currently running doesn't like any new software. Thanks in advance for any help.