What do you use to backup - or ever lost a terabyte of data?

g__day (Matthew) · #1 04-11-2007, 10:47 PM

Yes a terabyte! - 6 hard disk drives over one rotten spanning stripe!

Imagine you just suffered the worst data corruption you could imagine - say it takes you 30 hours just to rebuild your machine.

Next you have to find all the operating system disks, drivers, utilities, applications, games, pictures, recipies, stored mails, phone lists, contact sheets, tax files, work files spanning a decade.

You can probably picture my weekend then. An upgrade to a quad core platform, a RAID arrays disk stripe going wrong etc... crash!

How well do you back up your data?

I have several networked PCs and nearly all my software and files on CD. I am not sure if all my piccys are somewhere - the most important I burnt to disk. I put quite a few gigs of work files on a USB key - very luckily - just last weekend.

But in 27 years of dealing with PCs I've never blown a full tera-byte of data away - until now.

I'd say I have nearly all programs back, all work files, no e-mail (the backup got clobbered) I'm going hunting for songs and family pictures now.

But just a thought - how well are your precious memorys stored and backed up?

Matt

Kal (Andrew) · #2 04-11-2007, 11:00 PM

I'm lazy and I don't have to back up massive amounts. I just back up stuff to a different hard disk so I have two copies of it.

If I needed to back up 1 terabyte of data I guess I'd just buy two extra 500Gb drives

sejanus (Gavin) · #3 04-11-2007, 11:15 PM

I have a server in my house with a Raid1 partition. Our laptops (3) back themselves up automatically to respective disk images on that server based raid1 partition.

My main workstation which I run my photo biz off has the photos stored on a 1tb raid1 (2 x 1tb drives) which then mirrors itself to a separate 1tb drive. Then to top it off there are 2 external 1tb drives, of which one is always offsite on a rotating roster. I have to take that very seriously as losing someone's wedding photos would be very bad news indeed! The mirroring of the photos is done internally inside my 'aperture' photo management software. It calls them vaults.

I should start doing offsite backups of my laptop as well as thats what I run my business off (i.e. email and expenses etc.)

Zuts · #4 04-11-2007, 11:26 PM

Hi,

These days from MSY you can buy a terabyte for only 374 bucks and 750 gb for only 228, so i would drop the 6 drive stripe and install a simple raid mirror. Then for backup i would get a reliable NAS device. Netgear sells a raid (mirror) NAS for only a few hundred bucks, so wack in a few 500 gb disks at 100 bucks each and you should have no problems.

Data stored on dual raid mirrors (in different locations) should be very safe.

The NETGEAR NAS has gigabit ethernet so is quite fast.

For family photos though you should back up on DVD or if you can afford it BluRay or HD DVD. That way with 3 way data security you should never have a problem

Paul

citivolus (Ric) · #5 05-11-2007, 12:56 AM

These days I do a two level backup:

First I have a passive mirror which I periodically back up to manually, on internal disks. Secondly I have several 500GB drives in external firewire enclosures that I run backups to at less regular intervals. That way I can keep a copy in a fire safe for my sanity.

I used to use DVDs but that got stupid, and DAT before that.

rogerg (Roger) · #6 05-11-2007, 01:52 AM

I have 750GB. I use SecondCopy to have a duplicate copy in the house and the observatory. I also have a portable harddrive that's off-site (a relative's house) that I put a copy on now and then.

I think regular backup to second location on-site and portable HD taken off-site is the only way to go with such large data quantities. For us amateurs at home, that is.

You can now get 1TB network storage drives for around $540, which is somewhat affordable.

Roger.

Lee · #7 05-11-2007, 06:40 AM

I backup my home folder sporadically to an external drive, should do it more often. I don't backup applications/programs. Very important things, like software serial numbers etc are in my email, since it is IMAP is always backed up on an external server.
You have inspired me to backup more regularly Matt! OSX just incorporated "Time Machine" an automated backup program within the OS, but with a laptop it's no more convenient than other methods unless you are permanently connected to a secod hard drive.....

sejanus (Gavin) · #8 05-11-2007, 07:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by plasmodium

I backup my home folder sporadically to an external drive, should do it more often. I don't backup applications/programs. Very important things, like software serial numbers etc are in my email, since it is IMAP is always backed up on an external server.
You have inspired me to backup more regularly Matt! OSX just incorporated "Time Machine" an automated backup program within the OS, but with a laptop it's no more convenient than other methods unless you are permanently connected to a secod hard drive.....

Time machine does not necessarily need an external disk - if you have another mac which you can sort of designate as a server, you can use file sharing and time machine will back itself up by either ethernet or wireless which is very handy, as you have a perfectly backed up laptop without ever needing to plug it in.

netwolf · #9 07-11-2007, 09:18 PM

Matt, You recent events are a timely reminder. Though I remind users everyday of the importance of backup. I must admit a failry poor track record for myself. That being said I usually keep my most importand data on DVD's in multiple copies. In total i probably only have about 100GB or less of really important data which is kept on DVD's and external drives.

I have been eyeing the Fluidtek website they have some very good prices when you get there buy 2 deals. 500gb is 125 each if you buy 2. That 250 for 1 TB of date.

Regards
Fahim

g__day (Matthew) · #10 07-11-2007, 10:50 PM

Eddie is great on price - after sales services is pretty much non existent, and he's taken the number and warranty details off his slaes invoices now - and the number on his store - see the Fluidtek website - goes to some poor confused guy in Chatswood who is unhappy getting 10 complaint calls a day he tells me.

AusPcMarkets have the best layed out website - Eddie has the sharpest prices if you know what to buy and how to build it. My RAID array that failed and motherboard and power supply, cables, CPU. videocards and monitors all came from fluidTech.

bird (Anthony Wesley) · #11 07-11-2007, 11:04 PM

I have about 2Tb of storage, done as raid 10. Uses 2x as many disks but then I don't have to panic quite as much. I have seen single drive failures a lot this year, both at home and at work where we about about 20Tb of data that I look after. It's also raid 10 so we've not had any interruptions or data loss.

My answer is raid 10 plus redundant copies of the most important stuff stashed around the network on different machines.

cheers, Bird

Kal (Andrew) · #12 08-11-2007, 08:28 AM

For those interested in reading up a bit more on HDD failure rates, google has released some statistical information regarding this in this pdf.

Glenhuon (Bill) · #13 08-11-2007, 05:25 PM

Maybe I'm very lucky, but in all the years I've had a computer (must be about 20) I've never had a hard drive fail on me. Have had corruption on the OS (well, its windoze, whaddaya expect

) but have always been able to retrieve the data and reinstall. But loosing aTb

, thats big biccies. All my important stuff is backed up on DVD, but have always been able to get it of the HD anyway.

Bill

netwolf · #14 08-11-2007, 07:09 PM

G_day, i know what you mean but i buy from there for me, because i know what i am buying. And usually warranty can be done via direct contact with the manufacturer as long as you have a receipt. I usually run the serial numbers on the manufacturers website to check the status, just after purchase. I had the infamous IBM Deathstar drive started with a 30gb died a year later, replaced by a 40gb by retailer which died a 1 year later replaced by a 60gb by IBM directly. Then the warranty ran out that was about 2 years back and the drive is still running. But this will be replaced by the 500's.

I just got 2x500GB's from Eddie today, and I bought a 200gb last year from him. The 200gb is in a external USB caddy and is my main photo storage drive. Unfortunately i discovered that my powersupply does not have the correct SATA power plugs. Oh well time to get some converters. Still running my olf AMD 1800+ Abit NF7-sv2 in a Antec 1080 case. This machine was in a Aopen full tower case before with a GB motherboard. I like full towers especially since i usually have many hdd's in there.

I stopped upgrading it about 2 years back and i dont see much point, as this is longer my main system for games etc. I use consoles for games and my laptop for most of my work. This box is just storage now, it runs 24/7.
I am going to replace the 20gb, 60gb and 80gb drives in this with the 2x500 gb. The 200 will stay in the caddy or might go internal not sure yet. When I can afford some more I will get 2 more and then create a mirror if i can mange it. Probably need a SATA Raid card. That should keep it safe and running for another few years. Possibly i will buy some 2nd hand upgrade do a dual core, but I rather save my money for Telescope's and accessories. Computer purchases are best left to a salary sacrifice laptops, every few years.

Regards
Fahim