Making my work files safe in case of hdd failure

[FloppyJohnson]

Hi. Im working with graphics and my project files are valuable for me, I don't want to loose them. I have a few HDDs and I would like to implement some sort of system to keep my files safe in case of a HDD failure. Where do I start? Do I need a raid? Can I make only one folder to be backuped in another HDD? Thanks for any kind of info.

[SeanAngelo]

15 minutes ago, FloppyJohnson said:

Hi. Im working with graphics and my project files are valuable for me, I don't want to loose them. I have a few HDDs and I would like to implement some sort of system to keep my files safe in case of a HDD failure. Where do I start? Do I need a raid? Can I make only one folder to be backuped in another HDD? Thanks for any kind of info.

you could buy one of those drive enclosures from WD that backup regularly depending on what you choose. it all depends on your budget at the end of the day.

[Jay Deah]

how large are you talking?

 

a simple solution is to use something like onedrive for your files. at least then if your drive breaks you just pull it all back down form the cloud. onedrive for business comes with every office365 subscription too...

 

there are also equivalents from the likes of google etc. if you hate micro$oft

[xeetsh]

It all depends on how valuable your data is to you and how much you want to invest. Of course it is impossible to secure your data completely but you can get really close.

 

Options:

1. Second HDD: 
   1. Just putting the files you want to be secure on a second drive: This works as long as you have the discipline to do this every time you change something.
   2. RAID: By setting up an raid (either hardware or software) you don't have to worry about copying the files you want to be save to the other drive. You could just set the whole thing up, that the second drive is an exact copy of the first drive.
2. External Backup Solution:
   1. NAS or even a dedicated backup server in your home network: This is more expensive and more complicated to setup but is way better in terms of security of your data. Having a backup solution that is physically separated from your main system also has some advantages: If your main machines power supply fails it could possibly kill every attached hard drive. So if you have another machine for your backups this can't happen.
   2. Off site backups: This protects you from even the greatest disasters. Because even the most redundant setup has no use if it burns down with your house or if it get's fried with all the other appliances in your house by a lightning strike. The only problem is, that this solution normally requires you to rent some kind of server or cloud space where you have to transmit your files to. For this you need to have (depending on the size of your files) a fast internet connection.

These are only the most common solutions, there are a lot of other options. You could also combine these solutions. Here is how i keep my files backed up (This option is only for you if you like to fiddle around a lot):

 

I have a backup server with four 2TB HDD's in RAID 1. This results in me having 4TB of redundant space. The server runs scripts on my computer to backup all the data on it's drives every day and create daily snapshots using ZFS so I can revert all the files to any point i ever created a backup. So all in all I have three copies of my files (One on my computer, and one on each HDD of the backup server). To lose all my files three drives have to fail which is not very likely to happen. In spite of all this the system isn't perfect as it is all in one house. You could possibly upgrade it by weekly (or even daily depending on your needs) backing your backup server up to a external server located at best a few kilometers away from the original backup server.

[dalekphalm]

On 2/4/2018 at 12:28 PM, FloppyJohnson said:

Hi. Im working with graphics and my project files are valuable for me, I don't want to loose them. I have a few HDDs and I would like to implement some sort of system to keep my files safe in case of a HDD failure. Where do I start? Do I need a raid? Can I make only one folder to be backuped in another HDD? Thanks for any kind of info.

Is this for work?

 

Are you self employed, or work at a company?

 

Does the computer get backed up already?

 

I would suggest:

1. RAID1 array for your "working" drive (where you do the edits)

2. Some sort of backup solution to another device (a third, external HDD, or a NAS/Central file server, etc)

 

RAID1 would prevent against downtime if a HDD died, but does not protect the data from other issues (accidental deletion, viruses, file corruption, etc).

 

Basically, one of the drives dies, the array continues to operate, you get a replacement, install it, rebuild the array (should be able to keep using the array, but it'll be slower during rebuild).

 

Making sure you're backing up your data in addition to RAID, is important too. RAID does not equal backup.

[Pixel5]

the first and most important thing to talk about is the file size.

are we talking about a few gigabytes or are we talking about terabytes?

 

this is the basis to give solid advices

[FloppyJohnson]

Hi. Thanks so much for the replies. I will try to explain my situation in more detail here. So I've got like ~2TB of work related files right now. Thats just something that I've created in a few years. I also have 2 NAS type of 2TB Hard Drives that are used for servers and stuff. Also I have an old PC lying around that I could somehow use to do this kind of backup system. I don't need to backup everything I have, I just want to keep safe the most recent stuff, maybe about 500gb at a time. Also my files are not in one place, some are in My documents, some are on my projects folder on another hard drive, thats the way the software I am using is handling project files.

So as far as I understood, I need 3 times the storage space to backup my files correctly, right? I would use two HDDs in RAID, and one more to make a backup? Can I do this sort of thing with FreeNAS OS?

Also, I am doing this for my self for my home PC

[NelizMastr]

42 minutes ago, FloppyJohnson said:

So as far as I understood, I need 3 times the storage space to backup my files correctly, right? I would use two HDDs in RAID, and one more to make a backup? Can I do this sort of thing with FreeNAS OS?

Also, I am doing this for my self for my home PC

3 times is not something that's set in stone, but you'll always want some margin to have multiple versions available of some files.

 

RAID goes much further than 2 drives if you're willing to improve your safety and availability by the way. 2 drive RAID is RAID1, or mirroring. The contents of one drive are written to the 2nd drive as well. Identical copies. If one drive fails, nothing it lost. If they both go, ripperoni. RAID5,6 and 10 can scale beyond 2 drive failures if you're willing to invest.

To start, though, a RAID1 plus an additional offline back-up medium should be very cost effective.

 

This can be done with FreeNAS, yes. Install and run FreeNAS from a USB flash drive (16GB+) and dedicate the RAID array to your data, then connect a back-up drive to the machine every once in a while (at least once a week I'd say) to back-up all data to it. There's probably a plugin for automating that process, I'm not a FreeNAS power user myself, so no idea what's there exactly.

[Pixel5]

how fast if your internet connection, would it be possible for you to just use an online backup?

 

with just 500GB required you could for example get Amazon Glacier backup starting at $2 a month and not have to care about anything.

If you need more storage you can get more for 0.4cents per GB.

 

there are other providers as well where you could easily get that kind of storage for very low cost.