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Looking for a good backup solution.

FoxxyRin
By FoxxyRin
in Storage Devices
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Go to solution Solved by FizzyFantom,

Backup is an interesting one. There are a few different ways you can back up your data and you should figure out which is the best for you.

 

The most basic kind of backup is to copy files manually to another drive. This is very simple to do, but can get pretty messy if you aren't constantly on top of it.

Similarly you can use a program to automate the backup to an external drive or something similar. This will simplify keeping track of your files including things like versioning and using file deltas.

Backing up to a drive you own provides the best security and more data backup options, but it will require to to keep you drives safe. Done this way you could backup your files several times very easily and even take drives offsite (if you have somewhere to put then like a safe-deposit box).

 

From the sounds of it offsite backup over the internet is pretty impractical for you, but I recommend offsite backup for any data that is actually important (such as a KeePass database, which also happens to be encrypted).

 

As for a solution, an external HDD sounds like a good idea to start with. You should buy one with enough space that you won't outgrow it anytime soon.

There is a plenty of software out there to do this kind of backup. Microsoft released one called SyncToy. The name is deceptively silly, the software is pretty capable. You could also look at FreeFileSync, a piece of open source file backup software that has more options such as backing up automatically when a drive is connected:
http://www.freefilesync.org/

 

As a whole solution this may be less convenient as you will still have to deal with drive failures through manual setup. A good solution for this would be to build a NAS with HDDs in RAID 1 then backup to that, but at that point you start talking about "real money".

 

Just FYI my current working "solution" is a Windows server running VirtualBox with a virtual Ubuntu installation running a Samba server. I then manually backup the virtual disk wholesale to a usually-disconnected external drive. An offsite backup could be implemented by uploading said virtual disk to a service like DropBox, but that means large uploads and having to trust the service with your unecrypted data. A portable HDD could also be used to take this virtual disk offsite whenever is pertinent.

 

I hope this helps somewhat, best of luck with your backup :)

 

Edit: Virtual disks can be encrypted, but this can be computationally expensive.

Posted

I'm in the process of saving up for my PC (I should have it around Christmas, hopefully), and one thing I'm looking forward to, is the ability to have multiple HDDs. I do digital art for extra money, and my current backup solution is using OneDrive, because.. Well, cloud backups are the easiest thing in the world to setup for free! Well, I live in a rural area and my internet is absolutely horrible. (Best package is 7mb/s down, 0.5mb/s up.)  My old setup was just saving to my main HDD and an external HDD, but that gets really annoying when I'm working on larger projects where I'm saving every half hour. So, I'm hoping to find some sort of solution that avoids any network/internet type things (my ISP blocks changing any network settings), and will be as simple as "Anything saved in this file, gets saved to this file on two different HDDs." I'm typically good with tech, but storage stuff like this as well as networking are my downfall, sadly.

 

Anyone have any idea what would be the best solution for this? The cheaper, the better! Please and thank you for the help. ♥

♡ ❤ ♡

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  • Solution

Backup is an interesting one. There are a few different ways you can back up your data and you should figure out which is the best for you.

 

The most basic kind of backup is to copy files manually to another drive. This is very simple to do, but can get pretty messy if you aren't constantly on top of it.

Similarly you can use a program to automate the backup to an external drive or something similar. This will simplify keeping track of your files including things like versioning and using file deltas.

Backing up to a drive you own provides the best security and more data backup options, but it will require to to keep you drives safe. Done this way you could backup your files several times very easily and even take drives offsite (if you have somewhere to put then like a safe-deposit box).

 

From the sounds of it offsite backup over the internet is pretty impractical for you, but I recommend offsite backup for any data that is actually important (such as a KeePass database, which also happens to be encrypted).

 

As for a solution, an external HDD sounds like a good idea to start with. You should buy one with enough space that you won't outgrow it anytime soon.

There is a plenty of software out there to do this kind of backup. Microsoft released one called SyncToy. The name is deceptively silly, the software is pretty capable. You could also look at FreeFileSync, a piece of open source file backup software that has more options such as backing up automatically when a drive is connected:
http://www.freefilesync.org/

 

As a whole solution this may be less convenient as you will still have to deal with drive failures through manual setup. A good solution for this would be to build a NAS with HDDs in RAID 1 then backup to that, but at that point you start talking about "real money".

 

Just FYI my current working "solution" is a Windows server running VirtualBox with a virtual Ubuntu installation running a Samba server. I then manually backup the virtual disk wholesale to a usually-disconnected external drive. An offsite backup could be implemented by uploading said virtual disk to a service like DropBox, but that means large uploads and having to trust the service with your unecrypted data. A portable HDD could also be used to take this virtual disk offsite whenever is pertinent.

 

I hope this helps somewhat, best of luck with your backup :)

 

Edit: Virtual disks can be encrypted, but this can be computationally expensive.

"PSU brands are meaningless, look up the OEM."

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~snip~

 

Hey there FoxxyRin,
 
@FizzyFantom gave you some really good explanations and suggestions. 
One way to do this is by having an external drive that is always connected to your system and configure a continuous backup to it that would reflect any changes you make on some files and folders. The possible downside would be if you accidentally delete or modify a file, you would have it removed or modified on the backup too. @Pugs501 gave you a pretty good suggestion. WD Elements Desktop is a great drive for this purpose. Here's a bit more info on it: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=Op6u2T I could also suggest checking out WD My Book Duo which has two HDDs inside and supports RAID1 giving you redundancy and safety in case one of the drives fail: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=iSZOae
 
Another possible option is to have a NAS (Network Attached Storage) connected to your router and configure a backup plan over the network. Unlike public onlike clouds, this does not depend on your internet connection but rather just on your internal network speed. You can access the data over the internet from anywhere with the proper settings and can access the device with multiple other devices (tablets, phones, laptops, desktops, TVs, etc.). A good example would be WD My Cloud and WD My Cloud Mirror which should be great for what you need: 
 
A good software program for backups would be WD SmartWare. It supports continuous backups as well as scheduled ones and other useful options. Here's a bit more info: http://products.wdc.com/support/kb.ashx?id=21k64O
 
Generally, the best way to have your data safe is to have it backed up on a device that is not always directly attached to your system and to have it on multiple drives (be that in a RAID array or separate ones). 
 
Feel free to ask if you happen to have other questions :)
 
Captain_WD.

If this helped you, like and choose it as best answer - you might help someone else with the same issue. ^_^
WDC Representative, http://www.wdc.com/ 

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Thank you all so much. I'm going to look into the software suggested, as it sounds like it will fix the annoying process of just having to copy everything over manually. Automated is exactly what I needed, and this is a lot easier than I was first thinking! For now, I'll stick with my 500GB external HDD, but will definitely look into better solutions, especially since what I have is pretty old and on the slow side. I very much appreciate all the help. ♥

♡ ❤ ♡

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