Home storage/Reliability Solutions

[cyberpenguin44]

Hello, I have been using one drive to store the data I do not want lost in case of an hardware issue. I am worried one day that drive could fail blah blah. I dont dislike one drive and would still probably use it but I was looking for ideas to maybe just keep old photos and stuff like that either in my current computer or just add more drives I still am looking for tips to make sure those drives are healthy and how to keep up on their health. I do have an older nas device I could try to set up again. But if I could either just run a 2nd pc or other ways could be cool too. Or just multiple Drives. I am tech savvy but some of the storage stuff can trick me and I am not trying to lose data. I am not even close to my limit with microsoft but would rather have my data under my own control. Thanks in advance.

[Electronics Wizardy]

How much data are you working with here?

 

Backuping up to HDDs, and rotating them offsite can be a good way to have multiple copies including offsite copies on a budget.

[cyberpenguin44]

1 minute ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

How much data are you working with here?

 

Backuping up to HDDs, and rotating them offsite can be a good way to have multiple copies including offsite copies on a budget.

Not an extreme amount but it will continue to grow as I make content, and family photos, etc. I have thought of that I guess I could just have a HDD and just like once a month back them up? Could I also ask for tips on backing up like lets say I drag and drop all my photos on one drive and then go through them/delete some on other and I would want it to easily reflect is there an easier/better way then to just delete all of the previous and drag and drop the newly edited data?

[HanZie82]

Not sure if you need a pro version but Windows comes with a storage manager that you can link multiple drives as one. (But you might lose data on drives you add, im not sure).
If thats what you want it pretty easy to set up.

Also dont just think of the drives you want to store your data on, also think of drives for back up and redundancy if you want to actually keep your files.
HDD dont break too often but if it happens its very annoying. And a cloud service does all that backing up for you.

[Electronics Wizardy]

1 minute ago, cyberpenguin44 said:

Not an extreme amount but it will continue to grow as I make content, and family photos, etc. I have thought of that I guess I could just have a HDD and just like once a month back them up? Could I also ask for tips on backing up like lets say I drag and drop all my photos on one drive and then go through them/delete some on other and I would want it to easily reflect is there an easier/better way then to just delete all of the previous and drag and drop the newly edited data?

I'd get a backup software like veeam to manage all the backups. It can automatically backup your PC to external drives. Then there is typically a mode for rotated drives, so as you more a hdd offsite, it will detect it, and start a new backup chain. There are multiple settings, but I'd probably have it backup all the drives in your PC.

 

 

[cyberpenguin44]

39 minutes ago, HanZie82 said:

Not sure if you need a pro version but Windows comes with a storage manager that you can link multiple drives as one. (But you might lose data on drives you add, im not sure).
If thats what you want it pretty easy to set up.

Also dont just think of the drives you want to store your data on, also think of drives for back up and redundancy if you want to actually keep your files.
HDD dont break too often but if it happens its very annoying. And a cloud service does all that backing up for you.

Thank you this really helps maybe I will start with 2 large HDD's and get them in a raid setup if thats what you would suggest so just incase one hits the fan then I wont lose the data? I appreciate all the info this stuff irks my brain xD

[cyberpenguin44]

37 minutes ago, Electronics Wizardy said:

I'd get a backup software like veeam to manage all the backups. It can automatically backup your PC to external drives. Then there is typically a mode for rotated drives, so as you more a hdd offsite, it will detect it, and start a new backup chain. There are multiple settings, but I'd probably have it backup all the drives in your PC.

 

 

I will have to look into this this was good info to help me branch out and learn more about that area. Thank you!

[Blue4130]

6 hours ago, cyberpenguin44 said:

Thank you this really helps maybe I will start with 2 large HDD's and get them in a raid setup if thats what you would suggest so just incase one hits the fan then I wont lose the data? I appreciate all the info this stuff irks my brain xD

No. Raid is not a back up. It's uptime protection. If you go two harddrives, make sure to keep them separate. Only use one at a time.

[starsmine]

22 minutes ago, Blue4130 said:

No. Raid is not a back up. It's uptime protection. If you go two harddrives, make sure to keep them separate. Only use one at a time.

no its not a backup, but its a first step. but either way, raid 1 is not ideal. 
Raid5/6 WITH error correcting in the file system is the actual first step for home storage and reliability. and then you have that data backed up off site.

you can get buy a nas from the likes of synology, or build your own with jonbo cases that match your needs and put on unraid or freenas. someday BTRFS will be good enough to use for the main filesystem, just not today.  

[HanZie82]

Like @Blue4130 and @starsmine said, redundancy IS NOT backup.
Its for uptime, but for NAS its good practise.
Have 3 drives for NAS, then a 4th external for backups, and if you really want to be safe, you make a backup of your backup and put that in another building.